to - Cinnamon Network

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Cinnamon
Theology Symposium
12 February 2015
London
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Contents
1.
Foreword ...................................................................................................... Matt Bird
2.
Introduction .................................................................................... David Westlake
3.
Presentation 1 ...................................................................... Rev David Shosanya
4.
Presentation 2 ................................................................................. Dr Dan Strange
5.
Presentation 3 ..................................................................... Dr Mark Bonnington
6.
Summation .................................................................................... Dr Lucy Peppiatt
7.
A Cinnamon Network Response .................................................... Mike Royal
8.
Call to Action
Please note: The contents of this EBook have been prepared as a transcript of the
presentations given at the Symposium. In terms of style and content, they reflect
an oral mode of communication rather than being formal academic papers and
should be read as such.
Foreword
Cinnamon Network makes it as easy as possible for local churches to
serve people in need in communities.
Cinnamon helps local churches get started on the journey of greater
community engagement. It provides training and support for
volunteers, a menu of brilliant 'off the shelf' community projects and
micro-grant funding to help towards the initial costs of starting such a project.
There are two drivers that motivate Cinnamon Network and local churches in this work. The
first is what I call 'the moral imperative'.
Since 2008 the UK economy has been through deep recession. However, it is now in a place of
growth.
However, for some it’s about to get tougher. The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) published
findings in January 2015 that showed the worst of the UK's spending cuts are still to come.
The IFS said that to meet plans announced in the 2014 Autumn Statement, departmental
spending cuts of £51.4bn, or 14.1%, are needed in the next parliament.
As a result of these cuts the most severe reductions and closures of central and local
government welfare provision are still to take place.
So whilst our economy slowly returns to growth, for those people who struggle in our
communities, the worst is yet to come.
This provides the UK Church with an unprecedented historical opportunity, not to do the
work of government, but to be all that God intends her to be for those people who are most at
need in our communities.
The second motivator for local churches to engage in greater community mission is 'the
theological imperative'. It is for that reason we are delighted to host the first Cinnamon
Theology Symposium.
This is not about Cinnamon Network developing its own theological position or about
building a theological consensus about community mission.
The Cinnamon Theological Symposium’s purpose is to support local church leaders, whatever
their theological tradition, to develop and strengthen their theology of 'The Gospel, Social
Action and Community Engagement'.
Whilst nearly 200 local church leaders took part in the 2015 symposium, I hope that this free
EBook will help thousands of leaders to more deeply consider their theology of Jesus-centred
church-based social action.
Matt Bird, Founder
Cinnamon Network
Introduction
I was motivated by two passions when I got involved in starting
Cinnamon Network: to help the church in the UK to better serve our
vulnerable communities and people, and to make sure that our faith
shaped our work and not the other way round. History has shown us
that all too often those who had a strong grip on Jesus lost touch with
the world and those with a strong grasp of the needs of the world lost their grip on Jesus. I
don't want that history to repeat itself.
I want to be faithful to the context of our communities while being faithful to the context of
eternity. I want us to be so heavenly minded that we can be of some earthly use! I want us to
think deeply and wrestle profoundly with how to do excellent work from the perspective of
both practical quality and theological richness.
That is why we gathered together as Cinnamon Network, to wrestle with the theological
drivers of social action. We need to think as hard as we work. Not something that has always
come naturally for Christian activists who want to get on with things! However, if we don't
think deeply we run the risk of missing the very thing that makes our contribution to the
public square unique and compelling - our faith – and will end up as badly paid social workers
rather than ambassadors of the good news.
A few years ago such a gathering would have been dominated by discussions of priority: what
is really more important - evangelism or social action? Thankfully, most have recognised that
question as being nonsensical. We would never wonder whether prayer was more important
than Bible Study or vice versa. They are both part of our relationship with God and fellowship
with each other. They are indivisible as a rhythm of love, service and mission. The same is
true of word and deed ministry. We see Jesus doing word and deed ministry depending on the
context. "As the Father sent me", He told us, "So I send you". And so we must go.
Starting with Jesus is another of my passions and convictions. I believe that our Christology
must shape our missiology. We follow a person, not a programme or ideal. Careful study of
how He worked, how He related to the public square of his day, and with whom He worked
will help us work out our mission in this post-Christian, multi-cultural, multi-faith world.
There are lots more things to wrestle with. How do we remain relational, coming alongside to
love while remaining faithful to our convictions? What is the relationship between temporal
need and eternal need? How does the Holy Spirit work in the context of social action? How do
we ethically give an account of our hope in the context of vulnerable people without
becoming abusive?
All of these and more I hope we will return to in future Cinnamon Network events. They are
hard things to think about, and thinking about them will challenge some of our inherited
beliefs and behaviours. But in so doing we will become better servants of our communities
and more faithful followers of our Lord. Which is, after all, the point.
David Westlake, Chair of Board of Trustees
Cinnamon Network
The Gospel, Social Action and Community Engagement
_____________________________________________________________
Rev David Shosanya
Introduction
Why would a Baptist minister be presenting a paper on Pentecostal
Perspectives on social action? Well, I came to faith in The Apostolic Church, a Pentecostal
denomination that emerged out of the 1905 Welsh revival. In that denomination I served in a
variety of leadership roles, experienced significant manifestations of The Holy Spirit and was
intensely involved in evangelistic and social action initiatives. I continue to be very much
involved with Pentecostals1, delivering training in leadership development, evangelism and
advising on their social action initiatives alongside speaking in their churches and at their
conferences. In short, I am a Bapti-costal: a Baptist with a Pentecostal spirituality!
Structure of the paper
My paper will briefly set the Pentecostal movement within its historical context. I will then
locate the history of social action within the socio-cultural and religious context of African
pre-Christian communities, within the linguistic construct of Ubuntu, and argue that it is this
worldview, subsequently incorporated into a distinctive Christian narrative, that informs and
motivates African and Caribbean Pentecostals’ social action. I will then briefly explore how
thinking on eschatology and pneumatology informs social action among Pentecostals. I will
conclude with the story of The Street Pastors Initiative as an expression of Pentecostal social
action that illustrates the proposition set forward, that the construct of Ubuntu incorporated
into the Christian gospel narrative informs and undergirds African and Caribbean
Pentecostal social action.
Pentecostalism
Pentecostalism2 locates its origins within the biblical account of Pentecost in Acts 2.3
Pentecostals self-identify as a renewal movement aiming to recapture aspects of the Christian
faith that have been neglected.4
Miller and Yamamori have identified four strands within Pentecostalism: classical,
indigenous, Neo-Pentecostal, and the charismatic renewal movement.5 A fifth strand,
protocharismatic, emerged out of their global research on Pentecostals. They define the last
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1
I regularly speak in/for churches/denominational leaders from the following Pentecostal networks: Redeemed Christian
Church of God (RCCG), New Testament Church of God (NTCG), Church of God of Prophesy (COGOP), Church of God in Christ
(COGIC), and New Testament Assembly (NTA) as well as other independent Pentecostal churches.
2
Pentecostalism is a strand of spirituality within the Protestant church tradition.
3
The establishment of Pentecostal or Charismatic Christian communities and Churches in Asia Minor recorded in the book
of Acts and noted in early church history testify to the fact.
4
Such beliefs include a conviction in the inerrancy of scripture, the possibility of a personal relationship with God in Christ
through the person of The Holy Spirit, the need for individuals to accept Christ as Saviour and Lord, baptism in The Holy
Spirit as a separate experience from conversion, the gifts of The Holy Spirit, the second coming of Christ and divine healing.
The resurgence of Pentecostalism is generally accepted to be around 1901 at Bethel Bible School in Topeka, Kansas, under the
leadership of Charles E. Parham. William J. Seymour, a black Holiness preacher later embraced his teaching and began
hosting inter-racial meetings in Asuza Street, Los Angeles. Within a short space of time Pentecostals were commissioning
missionaries and the movement spread across the world. As with any tradition within Christian spirituality, care must be
taken to not succumb to the temptation of generalising Pentecostals as a single, homogeneous unity. By 2050 it has been
predicted that there will be over one billion Pentecostal Christians.
5
Donald E. Miller & Tetsunao Yamamori, Global Pentecostalism: The New Face of Christian Social Engagement, p. 28 (UCP, 2007).
group as 'individuals that do not typically have roots in Pentecostalism.' They subsequently
identify four 'orientations' within Pentecostalism: 'legalism', 'the prosperity gospel', 'holistic'
and 'routinised'6 that provide a much needed lens through which to understand
Pentecostalism, and have argued that the new face of Pentecostalism is the social ministries
that churches are launching in response to a holistic understanding of the gospel.7
Pentecostalism, Ubuntu and Social Action.
The danger in this discussion is to assume that social action within the African and Caribbean
Pentecostal Church context is a response to its resurgence of interest in the Western world.
My contention is that the concept of Ubuntu provides an historical and culturally relevant
construct for social action in African and Caribbean Pentecostal church contexts.
Ubuntu8 has been described by Tutu as 'the essence of being human.'9 He suggests that it
speaks to ‘the fact that you can't exist as a human being in isolation’ and therefore points to
‘our interconnectedness.'10 Mbiti offers a philosophical and religious insight into the concept
of Ubuntu that allows us to glean the historical trajectory of an authentic historical African
social action paradigm noting that 'to be human is to belong to the whole community.’11 Eze
offers us a further insight into the existential and ontological nature of Ubuntu when he
asserts that it 'strikes an affirmation of one’s humanity through recognition of an “other” in
his or her uniqueness and difference’, arguing that ‘It is a demand for a creative
intersubjective formation in which the “other” becomes a mirror (but only a mirror) for my
subjectivity.’12 He goes on to argue that this subjectivity ‘is not a rigid subject, but a dynamic
self-constitution dependent on this otherness creation of relation and distance’.13 My view is
that this ‘intersubjective’ existential dialogue is the location in and through which social
action - Ubuntu - emerges within the African & Caribbean Pentecostal church context.
Pentecostalism and Eschatology: The Problem of Preventative Logic
Historically, Pentecostals have placed an emphasis on eschatology over socio-political reality.
The outcome has been a tension between proclamation and engagement. I refer to this as
‘preventative logic’ which is most clearly seen in eschatological beliefs that legitimise
passivity and provide a rationale for disengagement from the world. Perry has argued that
‘Spirit baptism as an experience and as a doctrine has been, for many years, crucial to the
constitution and self-identity of the Pentecostal community’,14 and that ‘this powerful
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6
Ibid, p. 30.
Ibid, Page 24.
8
It has been noted that Ubuntu is to be contrasted with vengeance; dictates that a high value be placed on the life of a human
being; is inextricably linked to the values of and places a high premium on dignity, compassion, humaneness and respect for
the humanity of another; dictates a shift from confrontation to mediation and conciliation; dictates good attitudes and shared
concern; favours the re-establishment of harmony in the relationship between parties and that such harmony should restore
the dignity of the plaintiff without ruining the defendant; favours restorative rather than retributive justice; operates in a
direction favouring reconciliation rather than estrangement of disputants; works towards sensitising a disputant or a
defendant in litigation to the hurtful impact of his actions to the other party and towards changing such conduct rather than
merely punishing the disputant; promotes mutual understanding rather than punishment; favours face-to-face encounters of
disputants with a view to facilitating differences being resolved rather than conflict and victory for the most powerful;
favours civility and civilised dialogue premised on mutual tolerance.
9
Tutu, D, Ubuntu Women Institute USA (UWIU) with SSIWEL as its first South Sudan Project:
http://uwi-usa.blogspot.be/2012/01/ubuntu-brief-meaning-of-african-word.html
10
Ibid.
11
Mbiti, J, African Religions and Philosophy, p. 2 (Heinemann, 1989).
7
12
13
14
Eze, MO, Intellectual history In South Africa, pp. 190- 191 (Palgrave Macmillan)
Ibid
Perry D, Spirit Baptism and Social Order: The Pentecostal experience of Spirit Baptism for Social Action and Mission,
http://webjournals.ac.edu.au/journals/aps/issue-16/spirit-baptism-and-social-action-pentecostal-exper/
experience was usually interpreted eschatologically as a sign that Pentecostals were living in
the last days and Christ’s return was imminent.‘15 He argues that ‘Spirit baptism was thus
viewed as the necessary source of empowerment for the church’s urgent mission, and this
eschatological interpretation provided the impetus for the evangelistic and missionary work
of early Pentecostals.’16 The logic was simple: focus on getting as many individuals saved as
possible, because the world and its systems were already condemned.17
Moltmann has argued that Christians must negotiate the tension between 'socio-political
reality’ and 'eschatological hope'.18 Authentic engagement takes seriously and names
explicitly the dynamics of race, class and gender. Gerloff notes that African and Caribbean
Pentecostal Christians
…tackle racial, cultural and religious conflicts in Europe daily with valour and tenacity
of faith, not least derived from spiritual and cultural sources which, even with
displacement, allow for resistance, survival, and freedom of expression.19
Davey defined this experience as negotiating ‘contested space’.20 It is the experience of living
in contested space that informs the theology for social action. In other words, social action is
often an existential projection of ontological experiences.
Pentecostalism and Eschatology: Freedom from Preventative Logic
However, a shift in the sense of the immanence of Christ’s return has led Pentecostals to reorientate their vision to include the transformation of societal structures and redeeming of
communities, not just individuals. Miller and Yamamori observed this phenomenon and
noted that
This other-worldly characteristic of Pentecostalism is changing. An emergent group of
Pentecostals is pursuing the integral, or holistic, gospel in response to what it sees as the
example of Jesus, who both ministered to people's physical needs and preached about
the coming Kingdom of God.21
This is the Christian prophetic tradition.
Pneumatology and Social Action
For Pentecostals the Holy Spirit plays an important role in empowering and equipping
Christians for social action. Amongst Pentecostal Christians there is a belief that one must
first ‘Be’ before one can ‘Do’. The liberating power of The Holy Spirit, commonly referred to as
‘the anointing’ provides the charismatic power and gifting required to engage with, challenge
and reconfigure social realities that contradict Kingdom values. An integral component of the
Pentecostal worldview is the presence of evil within human hearts as well as human
structures. There is therefore a need to make way for Christ to remove that evil. Taking the
social context of the experience of the poor and oppressed seriously inevitably leads to a
strong perspective on the need to challenge and seek to redeem the structures of society.
While the views expressed by Wink are not fully compatible with the widely held
Pentecostal perspectives of evil in the structures of society, what he calls ‘the powers’, they do
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15
Ibid.
Ibid.
17
Ephesians 6 and 2 Corinthians 10.
18
Moltmann, J, Political Theology, Theology.
19
Gerloff, R, The Significance of The African Diaspora in Europe in International Review of Mission, Vol LXXXIX No 354, 2000,
pp. 281–290.
20
Davey, A, Urban Christianity and Global Order, p. 20 (SPCK, 2001).
21
Miller, D and Yamamori, E, Global Pentecostalism: The New Face of Social Engagement, p. 22 (UCP, 2007).
16
offer Pentecostal Christians a conceptual construct with which to articulate their view of
systemic evil that allows others to get a handle on the truth that they are seeking to express.
Wink’s understanding of the powers is that ‘they are the inner and outer aspects of any given
manifestation of power.’22 He argues that ‘as the inner aspects they are the spirituality of
institutions, the ‘within’ of corporate structures and systems, the inner essence of outer
organisations of power.’23 He goes on to state that ‘as the outer aspects they are political
systems, appointed officials ... in short, the tangible manifestation which power takes.’24
Wink’s understanding of ‘powers and principalities’ is clearly sociological in outlook. The
traditional Pentecostal perspective would view Wink’s position as reductionist and
incomplete in that it fails to take seriously spiritual entities that work as agents of evil and
instead focuses on ‘spiritualities’ that are the result of human cultures.
The baptism of the Holy Spirit represents amongst other things the believer being
empowerment to engage with and overcome the powers in the name of Christ. The Jerusalem
Manifesto, Luke 4: 18 - 19, serves to reinforce this point by inextricably linking the anointing
of the Holy Spirit with works of deliverance, wholeness and restoration. AB Simpson referred
to this as the Four-Fold Gospel, with Jesus announcing Himself as Saviour, Baptiser, Healer
and Soon-Coming King. However one may wish to read Jesus’ declaration it would be
disingenuous to conclude that He was making reference solely to spiritual and not socioeconomic liberation, given that fact that illness, class, gender etc. had a material effect on the
life chances of individuals in the Hellenistic world.
It is precisely this mandate, alongside the promise of empowerment in Acts 1:8, that provides
the foundation and offers the impetus for Pentecostal social action. A mandate that is rooted
in a belief that Christ will return one day and that in the interim His Church must do all it can
to see His Kingdom come and His will be done on earth as He taught us to pray.25
The Street Pastors Initiative: A Case Study in Pentecostal Social Action
About 11 years ago The Revd Les Isaac, OBE, Detective Constable Ian Critchlow and I
organised a national tour to highlight the growing concern about gun/knife crime.26 We were
joined by colleagues from Jamaica that had long been involved in community transformation
in Trench Town.27 Following the tour we launched a report and met to consider next steps.
Our vision was to equip community-minded Christians to be on the streets between 10pm
and 4am.
Street Pastors was launched on the streets of Lambeth, South London. Today there are over
10,000 Street Pastors in the UK with several international stations. The Revd Dr Pat Took,
former Regional Minister, Team Leader of The London Baptist Association (LBA), once
remarked that Street Pastors was a new ecumenical movement that inspired intentional
mission and broke down longstanding walls between sections of the Christian community,
while at the same time connecting the church with the police, local council ('The Urban
Trinity'28) and other statutory agencies in a credible way.
Revd Les Isaac and I came to faith in, were discipled in, held senior leadership positions in and
continue to have strong links with Pentecostal churches. Ian Critchlow is from a Charismatic
tradition which, as we have established above, is a strand of Pentecostalism.
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22
Wink, W, Naming the Powers, p. 4, (Fortress Press, 1984).
Ibid.
24
Ibid.
25
Matthew 6:10.
26
Guns On Our Streets.
27
Bobby Willmott and Bruce Fletcher were representatives from Operation Save Jamaica.
28
This phrase was coined by Bakkie, R, who used it to represent partnership between the church, police and local authority.
23
What each of us learnt about God, Christ, The Spirit, our responsibility to our neighbour and
wider community, and the call as followers of Christ to be salt and light29 informed and
shaped our worldview to such an extent that not taking any action to raise awareness around
the challenges of gun/knife crime and attempting to create a practical intervention was not
an option.
What we read about ‘the word becoming flesh and dwelling amongst us’30 led us to
understand that while future hope was important, proximity and accessibility in the present
were equally important and needed to be taken seriously. We had each learnt that there was
no contradiction between standing in the prophetic Christian tradition and contending for
God’s shalom in the socio-political realm of contested space and looking forward to the
eschatological hope of Christ’s return. It was a biblical requirement to express genuine faith
through works31 and not just a future hope that would be manifest at Christ’s return.
The values that inform the Street Pastors initiative – honouring the sacredness and sanctity of
human life, honouring and valuing the community, being a person of integrity, taking
personal responsibility, growth and development of the individual to their fullest potential –
equally embrace the concept of Ubuntu alongside traditional Christian beliefs.
The role of a Street Pastor is to care, to listen and to help; to be available for anyone that
wishes to avail themselves of their services – following Ese’s understanding of Ubuntu, Street
Pastors seek to enter into ‘a creative inter-subjective formation in which the “other” becomes
a mirror (but only a mirror) for my subjectivity,’ The model is unashamedly incarnational and
the positive effects of the initiative have been applauded.
Street Pastors is not an evangelistic initiative but an expression of a Pentecostal spirituality
and social action initiative inspired by Ubuntu and the Christian prophetic tradition. The
initiative is bringing together sections of the church that have never worked together before
and may never have had it not been for its emergence. Missiology is giving way to polarising
theology. To God be the glory!
Rev David Shosanya currently serves as a Regional Minister and Director for The London Baptist
Association. He is a co-founder of the nationally acclaimed Street Pastors Initiative.
David writes a column for Keep the Faith magazine and contributes to Word for The Day on
Premier Radio.
He is a theology and business graduate.
He is the Cinnamon Network Ambassador for London.
David is married to Yvonne and they have two children.
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29
Matthew 5:13-16.
John 1:14.
31
James 2:14-26.
30
The Gospel, Social Action and Community Engagement
_____________________________________________________________
Dr Daniel Strange, BA, PhD
Introduction
Our theme for today presents us with something of a puzzle. For
many, discussing a rationale for social action and community engagement is a complete ‘no
brainer’. Do we really need this symposium? Isn’t the Lord’s command to love our neighbour
and to welcome the alien and stranger obvious? We all know the history, be it the ‘nursing
services’ in the early church as testified to by Dionysius; or the tireless work of a Wilberforce
and a Shaftesbury. The list of sung and unsung servant-hearted Christians is endless. In terms
of current impact I’m reminded of what one MP said to a friend of mine, that when it comes to
the church, in terms of both motivation and mechanism, no better durable intergenerational
delivery mechanism has been found to deliver social care and welfare.
However, for others, our theme is a complete ‘brain buster’. We really need this symposium!
Again, we know the history: evangelical social involvement in the 19th century; the ‘great
reversal’ in reaction to the social gospel in the early 20th century; the ‘reversal of the great
reversal’ of the 1970s and 80s associated with John Stott and Lausanne; and then an ongoing
discussion as to the relationship between ‘evangelism and social action’ which has led some
evangelicals to a ‘reversal of the reversal of the great reversal.’ It’s all become quite tribal and
confusing. Then there is a theological complexity. We probably all agree with some form of
inaugurated eschatology, the ‘now’ and ‘not yet,’ and yet some of us seem more ‘now’, others
more ‘not-yet.’ Finally there are sociological and political complexities. People’s lives are
incredibly messy. Can the local church really help? Given that the public square has also
become so entwined with the political square, how can Christians look for public funding and
maintain their distinctiveness in the face of things like the Equality Act?
1. A ‘Reformed Evangelical’ Approach
I have been asked to give my ‘take’ on these issues as a ‘Reformed Evangelical’. What does that
mean? Well in terms of our gathering today it means a stress on the proclaimed and preeminent Lord Jesus. Let’s break this down a little:
a) ‘Evangelical’ – the ‘Proclaimed Jesus’
I want to define evangelical theologically in terms of evangel, the gospel. The gospel is the
proclaimed good news (not good advice) that we have been rescued from the ‘coming wrath’ (1
Thess. 1:10). As fallen people we are out of fellowship with God with resulting spiritual,
psychological, social, and physical consequences. This relationship is restored through the
accomplished substitutionary death of Christ and applied by the Spirit. We call people to faith
and repentance in the Lord Jesus Christ who unites us to Him by the Spirit. It is important we
don’t confuse what the gospel ‘is’ with what the gospel ‘does’. As Tim Keller says, ‘We must not
depict the gospel as primarily joining something’ (Christ’s Kingdom program) but rather as
receiving something (Christ’s finished work).’32
b) ‘Reformed’ – the ‘Pre-eminent Jesus’
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32
Timothy Keller, Center Church (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2012), p. 30.
By ‘Reformed’ I want to stress the ‘pre-eminent’ Jesus of Colossians 1:15: everything is held
together in Christ and is being reconciled to God through Christ. Therefore we need to have a
‘big picture’ cosmic view of life, the universe and everything. We can chart this is terms of a
grand narrative with four movements:
In terms of creation we note that our God is a wonderful creative Creator who creates a good
creation. Human beings are created as whole people, both physical and spiritual
(‘psychosomatic holism’), ‘located’ and built for relationships with God, with each other and
with the rest of creation. The Fall can be described as a de-creation, an unpicking of the
creation seen in a series of revolutions in our relationship with God (which is now one of
enmity), with each other, and with the rest of creation. Salvation is a re-creation both of
individuals who turn to Christ in faith and repentance, but also there is a cosmic dimension to
this salvation: Jesus does ‘save the world’.
Finally, we wait for a totally transformed new creation, but recognise that this new creation
has started now with Jesus as its first fruits. As Ridderbos notes:
As the Firstborn among the many… Christ not only occupies a special place and dignity,
but He also goes before them, He opens up the way for them, He joins their future to his
own. … In him the resurrection of the dead dawns, his resurrection represents the
commencement of the new world of God.33
While other religions and worldviews diminish the physical and stress escape from this
world, the resurrection of Jesus Christ shows that creation matters. And so it is the gathered
church of redeemed believers that, in the words of Cornelius Plantinga: ‘serves as witness to
the new order, as agent for it, and as first model or exemplar of it.’34
2. Two Distortions to be avoided
Having given this definition, and in the spirit of ‘contrast being the mother of clarity,’ I want
to outline two distorted visions of Jesus that we are sometimes guilty of. I hope they are not
too caricatured but are helpful in drawing some distinctions.
The first I call A Diluted Jesus. In our desire for social transformation, we assume or deny the
call for repentance and faith through the proclamation of the apostolic gospel and so lose our
distinctiveness and effectiveness in our communities and in public life.
The features of this view include: the cry for social justice; the goal of societal transformation;
the focus on external ‘bridging activities’ between the church and its community; the Good
Samaritan; the cultural appeal of the Gospel; and the stress on the temporal (maybe to the
detriment of the eternal?).
There are problems with this stance.
i) Anthropological
The first is anthropological, in that such a position can forget the stark difference between
death and life, blind and sighted, in Adam and in Christ. The Bible describes no middle or
neutral ground. Colossians 2:6-8 makes this clear in talking about lives rooted and built up in
Christ or those based on ‘empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the
elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.’ It is this fundamental ‘antithesis’
that is what counts and what discredits any secular division made between ‘people of faith’
and those of ‘no faith’. The Reformed theologian Turretin put it very well when he spoke of
Adam’s primal sin as being that of ‘false faith’. We not only disbelieve God but also believe lies
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33
34
Herman Ridderbos, Paul: an Outline of His Theology (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1975), p. 56.
Cornelius Plantinga, ‘The Concern of the Church in the Socio-Political World’ Calvin Theological Journal 18 (1983), p. 203.
about Him, either displacing Him, distorting Him or even denying Him. The Bible calls this
idolatry and it’s deadly serious.
The seriousness of idolatry and its consequences means that we must never forget people’s
greatest need is the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is why evangelistic proclamation remains
‘ultimate’ (Chris Wright), ’radical’ (Tim Keller), or ‘central’ (Tim Chester). This is not creating a
distinction between the ‘physical versus spiritual,’ but rather it remembers the difference
between the ‘temporal and the eternal.’
Tim Chester puts it well:
Many evangelicals want to argue that evangelism and social action are equal activities.
They describe evangelism and social action as two wings of a bird or the blades of a pair
of scissors. While evangelism and social action are partners in many situations, it is
inadequate to think of them as corresponding activities of equal impact…the greatest
need of the poor, as it is for all people, is to be reconciled with God and escape His
wrath. Only the message of the gospel can do this. The adage, often attributed to St
Francis of Assisi, ‘Preach the gospel, use words if necessary’ will not do. Social action
can demonstrate the gospel, but without the communication of the gospel message,
social action is like a signpost pointing nowhere. Indeed without the message of the
gospel it points in the wrong direction. If we only do good works among people, then
we point to ourselves and our charitable acts. People will think well of us but not of
Jesus Christ. We may even convey the message that salvation is achieved by good
works. Or we may convey the message that what matters most is economic and social
betterment. We must not do social action without evangelism.35
ii) Sociological
In his 1797 best-seller A Practical View of the Prevailing Religious System of Professed Christians
in the Higher and Middle Classes of This Country Contrasted with Real Christianity, William
Wilberforce wrote:
The fatal habit of considering Christian morals as distinct from Christian doctrines
insensibly gained strength. Thus the peculiar doctrines of Christianity went more and
more out of sight, and as might naturally have been expected, the moral system also
began to wither and decay, being robbed of that which should have supplied it with life
and nutriment.36
Over 200 years later it’s no different. Many people do want Christian morals today, but not
the peculiar doctrines. Wilberforce says you can’t have both. Henry Van Til noted that
‘culture is religion externalized.’ The only way to the transformation of individuals, families,
communities and even cultures, is for people to have their roots dug up by the Spirit through
the power of the gospel. People need to be converted. A heart change is needed which replaces
idols with the Lord Jesus.
iii) Christological
In the diluted Jesus view, there is room for a Jesus, but not a pre-eminent one. There is a Jesus
that we think has to fit in with a new way of understanding tolerance and equality. The
infamous ‘Big Society’ is a great example. David Cameron has said that his absolute passion is
the Big Society, whereas he is more ‘wishy-washy’ about Jesus. How do we speak of the preeminent Christ to someone who is not passionate about Jesus? We need to be careful here
because we are Christians not Human Rights campaigners. A pre-eminent Jesus is not very
politically correct.
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35
36
Tim Chester, Good News for the Poor (Nottingham: IVP, 2004), 65.
William Wilberforce, A Practical View, p. 198.
The second distortion is what I call A Delimited Jesus. In our desire to call for repentance and
faith through the proclamation of the apostolic gospel we forget the power and relevance of
the gospel for social transformation, and so lose our place in public life.
Here the cry is not so much for social justice, but for justification by faith alone; the goal is on
personal transformation; the focus isn’t just on bridging activities, but it’s on internal bonding
activities which strengthen the community of faith. Here we want to preach the Good
Samaritan but want to get quickly to the Perfect Samaritan, Jesus Christ. The stress is on the
counter-cultural offence of the gospel, and the eternal (maybe to the detriment of the
temporal?).
What are the dangers here?
i) Anthropological
In ‘Why the Reformed Suspicion of Social Action?’ Dewi Hughes lists seven reasons for such
unjustified suspicion some of which, I would argue, bite more deeply than others.37 Six of
these reasons are as follows: a fear of the Social Gospel; a lack of appreciation of the Reformed
doctrine of God; an unbalanced view of Old Testament law; an inadequate doctrine of the gifts
of the Spirit or an inadequate ecclesiology; an excuse for worldliness; and a result of a lack of
direct experience of poverty. The most interesting reason he gives, though, is what he calls
the ‘acquiescence in the modernist divorce between sacred and secular’ a dualist view of
human beings that fits in well with modernistic thinking:
I find it very odd that Reformed people who believe in a sovereign God who is the ruler
of heaven and earth are happy to accept the position given to them by modernism. To
denigrate Christian involvement in society is to accept the place that the world has
given us.38
At this point we’ve not kept ourselves from cultural idols.
In this delimited Jesus view, there is an anthropological problem because we lack a proper
doctrine of humanity. In the words of Olivia Newton-John, it should be ‘Let’s get physical!’ not
an Ant and Dec ‘I’m a Platonist, get me out of here!’ We need to recover a robust doctrine of
creation remembering that we’re made in God’s image and are whole people. We also need to
remember the Reformed doctrine of God’s common grace, the non-saving work of the Spirit in
the world, restraining sin.
ii) Sociological
In the delimited Jesus camp, people can be suspicious of anything to do with sociology, maybe
because it’s not seen to be ‘spiritual’. But because culture is never neutral, the whole issue of
plausibility is absolutely crucial and we are naïve when we ignore its impact on our lives. We
need to recognize what plausibility structures are, how plausibility structures work, and
recognize that both God and Satan may work through them.
iii) Christological
In the delimited vision, well there’s a lack of precisely that, vision. There’s a place for the preeminence of Jesus in the Big Society, but it’s a very tightly defined area, usually the church
and a quite a narrow view of ministry. Jesus’ Lordship maybe proclaimed but functionally be
not pre-eminent everywhere. So here, in the opportunity of something like The Big Society,
there’s a not accepting the invitation and opportunity that we’re being given to engage in our
communities.
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37
38
Dewi Hughes, ‘Why the Reformed Suspicion of Social Action’ Evangel 19:1 (2001), 24-28.
Hughes, ‘Why the Reformed Suspicion of Social Action,’ 26.
3. Putting it all together
What does all the above mean for us as Christians? As I close here I would like to offer some
constructive suggestions for ourselves and our churches:
a) We must be Gospel driven
If the gospel of grace is being preached and modelled in the teaching and life of our churches
then that will provide the motivation for social action, but it will also keep the social gospel
out. If we really believe we’ve been saved by grace, really believe that ‘we’re just one beggar
telling another beggar where to find bread’, then that will keep the social gospel out because
the social gospel confuses gospel proclamation and social action by merging them all together.
Jonathan Edwards' reflections on charity are particularly helpful here. We are to give
generously to those both inside and outside the church as a reflection and imitation of the
great grace God has given to us and that we have received:
We cannot express our love to God by doing anything that is profitable to him; God
therefore would have us do it in those things that are profitable to our neighbours,
whom he has constituted as our receivers.39
The Great Commission and Great Commandment stand together, in that we are to seek to
make disciple-making disciples: followers of Jesus that love him, love each other and love the
world, all the while seeking to give reasons for the hope that we have. Gal 6:10 is but one place
that supports this sort of ethic. I also think the Old Testament generally carries and expects
God's people to embody and exemplify a hospitality ethic – a care and provision of one sort or
another for the alien and stranger. Churches that are gospel driven, I don’t believe will have
this kind of evangelism/social action split that we often see.
b) We need to be relationally deliberate
I don't think a church should seek to evangelise without doing social action and vice versa.
Not because one is the servant of the other but rather one without the other undermines our
discipleship. As the great missiologist JH Bavinck wrote:
Abstract, disembodied and history-less people do not exist. Only very concrete sinners
exist, whose sinful life is determined and characterised by all sorts of cultural and
historical factors; by poverty, hunger, superstition, traditions, chronic illness, tribal
morality, and thousands of other things. I must bring the gospel of God’s grace in Jesus
Christ to the whole person, in their concrete existence, in their everyday
environment.40
We are located beings, we are whole beings and we need to speak to the whole person.
To my cautious evangelical brethren, I guess I might suggest that it's possible that we’ve
swallowed a reductionist, rationalistic, modernist worldview. That’s very dangerous. Tim
Chester talks about the importance of proclamation which is a ‘text’ but which must always
be heard in ‘context’ of living action and loving community.
There are no such things as brute facts. The thinking of Polanyi and Newbigin are helpful
here, with their work on epistemology and why people come to trust anything at all. Even if
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39
Jonathan Edwards, Henry Rogers, Sereno Edwards Dwight, The Works of Jonathan Edwards, (Ball, Arnold and Company,
1840), p. 428.
40
J. H. Bavinck, Introduction to the Science of Missions (Philipsburg: P&R, 1992).
you did subscribe to the evangelism-only model, there would be people it would be next to
impossible to reach for the gospel, because without loving them in every way they need love,
the gospel of love, hope and restoration lacks plausibility to them.
As one pastor described to me on hearing I was giving this presentation:
Where there is deliberate intentionality (through recalling Rom 12, 'as far as it is within
you, be...') then building a relationship with the people we serve and care for becomes a
bridge for many gospel conversations. The 'social action' is still good in itself and worth
doing even if the person doesn't convert (Gal 6:6); but kindness does build bridges and
the church doesn't need to see evangelism as either a 'bolt on' or an embarrassing
'extra', but a natural, seamless outflowing of our concern. The initiatives we have taken
which seek not only to care but build personal relational 'glue', are the ones in which
we have had numerous evangelistic opportunities.
It is worth recalling that for many people today their conversion is a 'journey to faith', and in
that 'process' many people are used by God to 'move them along' to a greater degree of interest
and awareness of the gospel. Too many churches don't think these 'pathways' through or
provide links between the various steps. So for example social action 'happens' but doesn't link
in to any other events or relationships which can help take someone forward. We have tried
to create clear links between different things we do, so that someone who wants to can
always move on to a greater level of 'seeking'. It is not a production line at all! But many
pathways have been used by God to bring people to faith – there are some lovely stories to tell
now, but I think that is a key element which many providers of 'social action' neglect and
hence they don't see that much evangelistic impact.
I’m talking about real needs, real people, real relationships, and the need is for a contextualised
‘evangelization of the heart’, where both, ‘felt needs’ and ‘real needs’ are seamlessly integrated.
We shouldn’t think of people’s felt needs as being totally other from their real needs – their
real need being to come to faith in Jesus Christ. It’s a symptom of their real need, and we need
to go through their felt needs to the real needs. Some of us bypass the felt need because we
think they need to hear about Jesus, others only deal with the felt needs and don’t deal with
the real need: we need to do both! As Chester notes:
People come with presenting issues: anger, bitterness, parenting, shopping, addiction,
economic need, depression, violence and so on. We need to do more than deal with
these issues as a context for speaking the gospel. This treats things as separate issues: I
help sort out someone’s housing benefit in the hope that I might then have an
opportunity to give them a gospel presentation or invite them to church. Instead we
need to treat these presenting issues directly so they become ways into heart issues.
We need to connect the gospel with the specifics of people’s lives rather than, or as well
as, starting with big metaphysical questions.41
c) We need to love others
At the end of the day we need to ask ourselves a hard question: do we really love people?
Sometimes we do evangelism because we make ourselves feel guilty for not doing it. But we
need to love people and this means caring for both their physical and spiritual needs. In the
Bible love is a quite well defined. It is a practical love (Matt 5:43ff); it’s love for our enemies
(Matt 5:43ff); a particular concern for orphans and widows (James 1). It is guided by biblical
principles such as need/proximity/the extent to which it honours the image of God in
promoting independence (we need to think gleaning in the Old Testament). Importantly, love
seems to prioritise believers first (e.g.1 Thess 5; 1 John 4:20; Gal. 6:10). We are to do good to all,
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41
Chester, Unreached: Growing Churches in Working-Class and Deprived Areas (IVP, 2012), p. 109.
especially the family of faith. There are so many injunctions in the New Testament about
people who want to do other things but aren’t looking after their own people and the New
Testament slams believers for doing that. There are plenty of poor believers. Charity really
does start at home.
d) Church distinguished
Not everything is ‘the Church’ and it might be helpful to distinguish between church ‘as
church’ and the Church as ‘Christians in the world’. There needs to be thought out
relationships between what the local church can and should be doing, and what para-church
organisations can and should be doing. As Mike Horton says, “If the church is not first of all
the place where Christians are made, then it cannot become a community of witnesses and
servants.42 The local church can’t do everything and shouldn’t be doing everything. We need
to distinguish between welfare, development, and socio-political reform, some of which are
more appropriate for local church to be involved in, others more suitable in ‘para church’
context but it all needs to be joined up.
Conclusion
John Piper has said that when he thinks in his church about the issue under discussion today,
it can quickly become confusing. The strapline he has ended up with is one that I think is very
helpful and sums up what I have been saying:
‘We exist to alleviate all suffering, especially eternal suffering.’
Dr Daniel Strange is Academic Vice-Principal and Tutor in Culture, Religion and Public Theology at
Oak Hill Theological College, London.
His most recent book For Their Rock is Not as Our Rock: An Evangelical Theology of
Religions was published by Apollos in 2014 and in a US Zondervan edition in 2015.
A book on the Bible, Confident: Why we can Trust the Bible will be published by Christian Focus
shortly.
Dan is on the leadership team at East Finchley Baptist Church.
He is also a member of the Evangelical Alliance's Theology Advisory Group.
Dan is married to Elly and has seven children.
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42
Michael Horton, The Christian Faith (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2011), p. 898.
The Gospel, Social Action and Community Engagement
Dr Mark Bonnington BSc BA PhD
Introduction
I take it that my task for today is principally a theological one. I’m not really qualified to
comment on the relationship of the church to current social and political trends. This is an
important and interesting area of study, but my main concern is to articulate a theological
vision of holistic mission to help the churches gain confidence in their work for God in the
world.
I approach the subject of today’s discussion from the perspective of a charismatic evangelical.
For that is what I am. This is a way of doing theology with its roots in charismatic evangelical
church life. It is a child of Pentecostalism and evangelicalism, grandchild of Puritanism and of
the holiness movements and direct theological and ecclesial descendant of the Reformation
and its more radical offspring.
It is the perspective of a Bible-believing Christian who is convinced that Word and Spirit
belong together. Word and Spirit are not separate or co-ordinated realities kept in tension or
balance but integrated realities – rather – to use long words – they co-inhere in one another.
The Jesus who said that ‘my words are spirit and they are life’ also said that ‘the spirit will lead
you in all truth’. Word and Spirit together shape the mission of the church in all its forms. The
Word, the Spirit and Mission form a strong, three-stranded rope – woven together in both
theology and practice, they shape our understanding of mission in the world. This mission can
never abandon its commitment to proclamation, nor afford to lose its active engagement with
the life and gifts of the Spirit, nor fail to overflow in acts of service if it is to truly be the whole
of God’s mission in the whole of God’s world.
In general charismatic evangelical churches are open to social involvement but sometimes
find themselves open to criticism both from within and without for compromising on the
presumed priority of evangelism. For many charismatics, social action is a healthy
counterbalance to some forms of spirituality that can be introspective, self-obsessed and
socially and politically quietist. I think there are three major trajectories that will help to
strengthen and shape a healthy theology for social engagement. Each involves a conversation
between extremes and in each case holding the tension is essential to maintaining a healthy
vision for social involvement. I’ve called these three trajectories: Expressing the Goodness of
the Creator God; Doing the Faith-filled work of the Gracious God; Living in the Hope of the
Kingdom of God
Expressing the Goodness of the Creator God
One commentator said that the Bible falls into two parts: the first verse and the rest. Perhaps
the most basic theological idea of the Bible is that God is the creator. In fact we might argue
that the foundation of all Christian theology is just two words: Good God. In the light of
modern science (or not) the precise mechanism of the process of creation is disputed amongst
believers. But a solid doctrine of creation expresses the idea that the cosmos is in an on-going
relationship to its creator who loves His creatures, whose good character suffuses the world
and whose originator’s claim is one of ongoing ownership or sovereignty. We inhabit God’s
good cosmos. It is of course a world horribly scarred by the sin and decay that fills our
newspapers and our own lives. But it is a world, and we are creatures, worth redeeming
because we are creations of the good God. It is a world that God can enter in Christ’s
incarnation because it is God’s good creation and because, despite the depravity and depletion
of sin, materiality and fleshliness are not inextricably linked to that sin. The same good God
offers hope to His whole cosmos (according to Romans 8) precisely because the catching up of
creation in God’s redeeming purpose is part of His determined refusal to allow the
consequences of human sin in creation to have the last word. Love, life and goodness will win
out in the end. Exactly how to balance the goodness of creation with the corruption of sin is a
long-standing theological problem. Personally I like Brunner’s analogy: The image of God in
humanity is smashed by sin – but like a crystal the image breaks along its fault lines and
broken shards fall into the same shapes as the original.
This delicate balance liberates us to celebrate the glory of the material creation around us: the
raging sea storm, the midsummer Atlantic sunset, or the feel of clay under the potter’s hands.
The cosmos retains its power to reflect the glory of the Creator, the power of the Creator and
the utter moral goodness of the Creator. As His image-bearing creatures it is precisely our
high calling to articulate and reflect this character in God’s world. Restored in Christ it is the
special calling of the people of God to take the lead in this restoring work.
One consequence of this call to reflect the love of the Creator for His world is the freedom to
celebrate human creativity and goodness wherever it is present. Another is the command to
love God completely and above all, and to love our neighbour as we love ourselves (only too
easily). We resist injustice and work for change with compassion and courage in the name of
the holy God. We go to the lost and the least because we have a God who does the same. On
the other hand, precisely because it is a broken world and we too are part of that brokenness
we are constantly involved in acts of discernment: none of our actions fully reflects the heart
of God and each has the potential to be touched by our sin and failure. But it remains the high
calling of the people of the good Creator to reflect and celebrate that goodness in His world.
Doing the Faith-filled Work of the Gracious God
The first obedience of any believer and the primary work of any Christian is what the apostle
Paul calls the obedience of faith. So John 6:28-29:
Then they said to him, ‘What must we do, to be doing the works of God?’ Jesus
answered them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.’
We should acknowledge openly the debt of the whole Church to the Reformed and
evangelical concern to attribute the beginning and end of salvation to the grace of God alone.
Along with this comes a sharpened awareness of the danger of self-justification by good
works. It is also clear from Scripture that the grace-filled life is a life of good works that itself
reflects the heart of the gracious God for His world. Matt 5:14-16:
You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Nor do men light a
lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. Let
your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to
your Father who is in heaven.
So too the apostle Paul in Ephesians 2:8-10:
For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is
the gift of God – not because of works, lest any man should boast. For we are His
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand,
that we should walk in them.
Despite telling Jewish Christians to beware dead works the writer to the Hebrews goes on:
Don’t give up meeting together…the alternative: Stir one another up to love and good works
(Hebrews 10.24-25).
One need not (though in my view, one should) articulate a doctrine of rewards to grasp the
basic scriptural emphasis: to put it uncomfortably bluntly, we may be justified by faith, we
are judged by works (2 Corinthians 5.10). This is clear if somewhat mysterious in Paul’s
writings. Asked about this apparent paradox one New Testament scholar observed that this
theology operates with and only makes sense in the light of a simple biblical pre-supposition:
the converted life is a changed life. To be a believer is also to be a disciple.
So, for example, it was on this basis that John Wesley insisted that true Scriptural holiness is
personal and social – George Whitfield may have preached to 90,000 people at a field near
London in a place called Mayfair, but in the end it was a rope of sand. Wesley built societies
and classes, he established schools for the young, taught Methodists to look after the elderly,
increased literacy by getting people to read their Bibles and by establishing libraries, he set up
pharmacies and gave instruction on healthy living. With his brother and his fellow preachers,
Wesley created singing, preaching, serving communities where the boundaries of church and
society, worship and mission, grace and work were blurred for the glory of God. And in his
very last letter of a long life and ministry he wrote to Wilberforce to encourage him to
continue in the early 19th century what neither Wesley nor the 18th century would see: the
abolition of the slave trade.
None of this was intended or articulated as an expression of human goodness but as a
reflection and expression of God’s gracious character and His gracious action in and through
the objects of His grace. God’s generous grace in lives of believers comes to expression in our
generosity to others. It breaks the cycle of reciprocity – the tit-for-tat, you scratch my back if I
scratch yours, way of the world around us – and is bound up with the nature of grace itself as
a centripetal force. When we know God’s generous grace in Christ we act generously towards
others (2 Corinthians 8 and 9). It is embodied in Catherine Ryan Hyde’s book Pay It Forward
and the old Tearfund strapline: God’s love in action.
Jesus’ own words: ‘Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and
give glory to your Father who is in heaven,’ point us to the attractiveness of action motivated
by God’s grace – it adorns the gospel and points to the gracious giver Himself. The
persuasiveness of the gospel we preach is undoubtedly enhanced by the lives of sacrifice and
service that we lead. We live in a society where the Church is losing its historic privileged
right to exercise authority or even influence and where its social usefulness has moved from
being a given to being openly questioned. In these circumstances the Church needs to earn its
societal permission to speak all over again, but I think the basis of an earned moral authority,
not of a traditional structural one.
An Evangelical, Pentecostal and an Anabaptist were interviewed. They were each asked,
‘How can you be sure you are truly converted?’ The Evangelical said, ‘I prayed the sinner’s
prayer and I trusted in the cross of Jesus Christ and now I live a holy life.’ The Pentecostal said,
‘I accepted Christ as my saviour, I was filled with the Holy Spirit and I received His gifts.’ The
Anabaptist said, ‘Ask my neighbour’.
One question which the charismatic movement of the 70s, 80s and 90s has opened up for the
whole Church is what a properly initiated disciple of Jesus looks like in the early twenty-first
century. The question of spirit-baptism has opened up into much greater consciousness of the
wider question of initiation into and an on-going life of discipleship. What I take to be
catechumenate courses like Alpha, Christianity Explored, Emmaus and so forth are really
premised on the wider question: How do people move from being nominally Christian to
being active believers? How can we move people from adopting mere 'churchiness' to be fully
initiated and fully functioning Christians? This surely involves more than (though not less
than) doing churchy stuff and evangelising, but embracing the whole of the inversion of
values and service of neighbour that is the substance of ‘obedience to all that I commanded
you’ of the Great Commission.
Living in the Hope of the Kingdom of God
My final strand is the theology of the Kingdom. It is obvious to any reader of the Gospels that
this was the main thrust and message of Jesus’ own ministry. Precisely because of the breadth
and depth of material about the Kingdom in teaching, stories and actions it has become a
somewhat malleable idea – open to being invested with the interpreter’s own preferences and
predilections. Two words of warning: First the shape of those very Gospels should remind us
that Kingdom and Cross belong together. The separation of believers into Kingdom people and
Cross people is theologically unhealthy and untrue to Jesus and to the New Testament. The
co-ordination of the Kingdom and the Cross reminds us that sacrifice not success is the way of
Jesus and that authenticity not influence is the true measure of Kingdom work. Here we must
be wise as serpents and gentle as doves both in relation to the expectations of worldly
institutions and our own hearts.
Secondly, against those who use the language of Kingdom very glibly as a counterpoint to
Church language (they are about Church, we are about the Kingdom), I think any theology of
the Kingdom that counter-poses Kingdom and Church is likely to fail the test of Biblical
authenticity (just as I might add would any theology that offers too ecclesio-centric a vision of
the Kingdom). It is perhaps the special contribution of Luke-Acts to show clearly that the
Kingdom mission of Jesus is paralleled and continued in the mission of the Church. The
Church (and not just Christians) is the primary agent of the mission of the Kingdom in the
world. If I may put it bluntly, Christian social action separated from the life and leadership of
the churches is in danger of tearing itself away from its source and the very roots that ensure
its health and wholesomeness. To slightly paraphrase Bill Hybels: Jesus is the hope of the
world and the local church is His principal agent in that task.
Over a couple of decades I have come to the conclusion that most believers are not clear, and
consequently we are certainly not agreed, about what we are praying when we ask our
heavenly Father for His Kingdom to come and His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Most have settled on the view that in one way or another this major idea of Jesus’ teaching
takes up the Jewish hope of the coming reign of God. This coming Kingdom is still, well…to
come – with the final coming of the Lord in glory. And yet it is also decisively and visibly
present in the person and work of the Holy Spirit. George Eldon Ladd called this the Presence
of the Future and his theological thinking fed directly and explicitly into Vineyard theology
and that of those influenced by it. The Kingdom is already here in the work of the Spirit in the
Church, and it is yet to come in all its fullness on the Day of Jesus Christ.
There is plenty of space for different weights and emphases within this ‘already’ and ‘not yet’
Kingdom theology to which a broad swathe of theologians are signed up. Some are optimists:
gradualists, progressivists and see themselves as building the Kingdom. Some are more or less
explicitly pre-millennialists: looking for an earthly Kingdom towards which we are already
working (NT Wright ‘building for the kingdom’). Others are happy to see the signs of the
Kingdom wherever they are evident. Some lean more heavily towards ‘already’, others
towards ‘not yet’. A theology for constructive action is not dependent on precise articulation
of the relationship or balance between the two. Instead it is implicit in the basic ‘already/not
yet’ theological structure. By retaining a future eschatological emphasis the possibilities for
human progress in this world, whether social, political or spiritual are relativised.
We are reminded of the provisional nature of the results of all human effort and activity and
are robbed of the illusion of the possibility of ultimate solutions in this world. The ‘not yet’
steels the Church to resist its social mission being owned or co-opted to a specific agenda or
political programme. On the other hand the 'already' serves as a basis for hope, provides a
starting point for constructive engagement in purposeful activity and guards against any
other-worldly escapism that sees this-worldly activity as a pointless gesture. If God is already
at work that Kingdom work now is His work, work which He will catch up into His ultimate
purpose.
Conclusions
It will be obvious to most of you that in suggesting these three major trajectories as the
foundational rationale for the social mission of the Church, I’m also riffing on the great
cardinal virtues: Love, Faith and Hope. The apostle’s own commentary should be enough:
These three endure.
Dr Mark Bonnington has taught New Testament in theological colleges and Universities in
Nottingham, Durham and Leeds. He has published articles on the New Testament, Judaism and
charismatic theology.
In 2001 he became Senior Minister of King's Church Durham where he leads the staff team and
preaches.
Mark is a trustee of UCCF: The Christian Unions.
He is a member of the Church Leaders' Group for North East England and is currently Chair of
North East Churches Acting Together.
He is also a Member of the Cinnamon Network Advisory Council.
Mark is married to Ruth, a GP in Gateshead, and they have three University age children.
Summation
_______________________________________________________________
Dr Lucy Peppiatt
I’d like to start by thanking all of our contributors for such interesting
and thought-provoking papers. Not only did they bring their ideas, and
theological reflection on the topic of the Gospel and Social Action, but they also brought
something of themselves for which I think we’re all grateful.
What struck me most as I listened to the papers and as I looked out on the gathering of men
and women here today is the heartening consensus among us that there is no question that
we, as Christians, should be involved in caring for those who are on the margins, those who
have less than others, who are disadvantaged in life, and who are in need.
Each of the papers gave us a different reason as to ‘why’ we should be doing this, but there
was no question that we should be doing this.
We heard from David about the African concept of Ubuntu as a theory of personhood which
focuses on the ‘other’, which he was advocating that we marry with a Christian perspective
on incarnation to give us a richer understanding of our obligation to care for others. In
addition to this, he reminded us of the need to recognize and respond to the destructive,
demonic forces in the world, which can so often be present in systemic structures.
Dan brought a welcome Christocentric focus, prioritizing the proclaimed Jesus and the
preeminent Jesus, and emphasizing the fact that the message of salvation should be the
motivation for our concern for those who are materially poor. There is no question that
Christians should be attentive to the felt needs of others (especially those in the Christian
body) but we mustn’t lose sight of the real need for eternal salvation.
Mark framed a theology of outreach with a threefold focus on expressing the goodness of the
Creator God, doing the faith-filled work of the Gracious God, and living in the hope of the
Kingdom of God. As recipients of the abundant grace and hope of God in our lives, we are
called to extend that grace and hope to others. These cardinal virtues, Love, Faith and Hope
should endure above all.
Matt said at the beginning that this is the first symposium, indicating that there will be
subsequent opportunities for gathering and reflecting theologically together. Some of the
possible themes that I think we could explore further are:
1.
The reality of the Kingdom of God, what that means, and how we understand this
concept. It strikes me that this would help us to think more carefully about the
relationship of the temporal to the eternal and vice versa. If anything the meeting of
the temporal and the eternal is central to the incarnation.
2.
We could explore further the question that Dan posed, which I’m not convinced has
yet been answered, regarding the nature of evil, the nature of the demonic, and what
language we use in the public square to explain a Christian perspective.
Notwithstanding that these concepts are problematic, I’m not convinced that
language of the Spirit and spiritual forces whether dark or light is less offensive and
alienating than language about Jesus.
3.
We could speak further about the hiatus of an encounter with the Spirit that seems
often to bypass a longer, more drawn out process of a person coming to faith over
many months or years of being involved with the church. This was alluded to in
some of the question time.
4.
We could have an interesting discussion on wealth and our attitude to possessions,
especially as Jesus taught His disciples that it is hard for a rich person to enter the
Kingdom of heaven.
5.
And we could carry on the discussion about what is the nature of good works. Do
they need to be carried out ‘in the name of Jesus’? What is the benefit of good works
done not in His name?
I look forward to further discussion, and once again thank all of the contributors for what
they brought today.
Dr Lucy Peppiatt is the Principal of Westminster Theological Centre.
She is the author of The Disciple: On Becoming Truly Human and Women and Worship at
Corinth (forthcoming).
Her interests are Christ and the Spirit, discipleship, and charismatic theology.
She is a Lay Minister in the Church of England and co-leads Crossnet Anglican Church with her
husband, Nick Crawley. They have four sons.
A Cinnamon Network Response
_____________________________________________
Mike Royal
Mark has just reminded us that "Jesus is the hope of the world and
the Church is His primary agent" and there is no group of people I
would rather have this conversation with than church leaders.
I love the fact that this conversation has thrown up more questions than answers. This
enables us to go away – pause, reflect, and act more intelligently.
I came here with an 'integral mission' mantra in my head, that there is no dichotomy between
word and deed, because the message of the gospel has social consequences and our actions
give credibility to our words. But David, Dan and Mark have shown us there is so much more
going on between ‘word’ and ‘deed’. And lots going on beyond that too.
This is not a problem to solve, or even merely a tension to hold, but a space to inhabit and
where we can engage in discourse, both in and beyond the ‘room’.
As we finish our symposium, my encouragement is:
•
•
•
•
•
Be comfortable in inhabiting this space: if you are in a corner, don't just stay in your
corner, but visit other people's corners too! If, like me, you're comfortable in the middle
of the room, go and visit someone in the corner! But also commit to engage ‘beyond the
room’, in the public square;
Keep working it out in the way in which you, as church, do ecclesiology and missiology;
Keep reflecting together at three levels – the professional (academic); the pastoral
(church leaders) and, very importantly, the popular level (congregation);
Keep listening: to the Holy Spirit, to one another and to the ‘parish’, remembering that
the world as well as the church is our parish;
Keep looking for the ancient paths of the past... and the narrow way ahead.
Right now, as we finish the day, we are at what I would describe as a ‘Braveheart’ moment,
where William Wallace finished his battle cry! ‘Great speech – now what do we do?’ We
might decide to ask, ‘What would Jesus do?’ as part of our personal spirituality; but we also
need to explore ‘What is Jesus doing?’ as part of our social responsibility, and to join in with
Him. Christ at the centre of all we do!
Our thanks go to our guest speakers, Rev David Shosanya, Dr Dan Strange and Dr Mark
Bonnington, and to Dr Lucy Peppiatt for chairing the Symposium. Also to Matt Bird and the
whole Cinnamon Team for organising this event. Finally, our thanks to you all as church
leaders, for giving up a precious morning to be part of this day and enriching this
conversation.
Mike Royal, Leadership Team
Cinnamon Network
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