What Does The Bible Say About Church and Culture pt. 7

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	Salvation in Heaven	Salvation on Earth	Restoration began with Jesus	Future Interruption	God replaces Fallen Order	Christians Fix the Fallen Order
Heaven-Centered	X			X	X
Human-Centered		X				X
World-Centered		X	X	X		X
Kingdom-Centered		X	X	X	X

 

Pit falls to avoid

So, having said all this, Here are a few pitfalls that we can easily fall into if and when we choose to adopt this new perspective. Isolationism and Utopianism. Let me explain isolationism first.

Isolationism is when we choose to circle the wagons, focus only on ourselves, and exclude everyone else who is not a part of our group. Examples include groups like the Amish and some Mennonite communities. Their intentions are good, they want to live separate from the world so they can be the best people they can be for God. However, isolating from the world is not what the church is called to do.

In fact, This perspective argues strongly against isolationism. Churches that cease to exist for the world, cease to exist as an integral part of God’s plan. It is because our mission is for the world and God is so concerned about bring everyone into his Kingdom that the church was created. (Nugent 195)

However, we should not mistake prioritization for isolation (Nugent 195). God’s mission requires that we love one another fervently, and this love should be obvious by how we spend our time, energy, and resources. From the way’s the Bible describes the churches’ function, it is not isolationist to prioritize the family of God or to claim that we are a new humanity or to downplay the idea that we are the better and ultimately the best place that God has created. To prioritize one another in this way is not isolationism if a new world order has truly begun in Jesus and God has called us to boldly display it in our loves. But we have to recognize that we only have a limited amount of time, energy, and resources. So, we have to spend it according to how the Bible and God’s will directs us.

 

The second pitfall we can easily fall into is Utopianism. Utopian communities try to create an ideal society. They believe that they have figured out the perfect formula to life and that by implementing it, they will generate a community of prosperity and tranquility. Last time I checked, the early church was anything but prosperous and tranquil. Utopianism happens when church members live as though sins negative effects no longer impact our lives. Communities that don’t strive to maintain healthy boundaries to guard against sin are utopian in that they act as though the people in their communities are immune from sin. (Nugent 196)

However, it is not utopian for Christ-like communities to cast a vision of a better future. The prophets did this. It is not utopian to live in a way that we can see hope and light for a better future.

 

Q and A + Practical Application

How do I get my church on the “abundant life together track” and how do I find a church that is doing this?

To help you with this, we can relieve ourselves of the burden of trying to fix our church. It’s not our church, it is God’s church. What we have to offer the world is a gift, not something we must force upon one another. That will miss the whole point. Instead, think of it this way: We are fellow beggars who have bread to share. So, we can start by sharing our bread, loving one another, opening our homes to lonely members, opening our purses to needy church members, involving others in our family celebrations, confessing our sins, and reconciling with estranged brothers and sisters in Christ. We can start by being an example and living the life to which all members are called

Additionally, we need not wait for the perfect church to come along. We can often start right where we are. We can start by being a member who treats church family like real actual family. We can start turning “church friends” into real, actual, biblical friends. Small groups are a great place to start. But we have to be intentional about living life together in the way that Jesus has called us to live. Not just a once or twice-a-week thing.

When new people come, they bring all of their imperfections with them. So, the church is constantly in the process of helping imperfect people who do not yet seek first God’s kingdom to begin seeking it first.

 

Should Christians help those in need who are outside of the church? If so, how?

Although it is not the church’s job to fix all social ills, our faithful presence in this world should help unbelievers in a variety of ways. The first way that we help them is by helping one another. Our love for one another shows the world that there are, indeed, people who help one another out. We help one another out as equal sharers in God’s abundance. If people outside the church don’t encounter us as a kingdom people whom they, too, may join– then we haven’t helped them out in the most fundamental way that God has called us to help them. (Nugent 207)

Gal 6:10 explains that – We will do good to all people, but especially the family of believers.

But we will not make helping them the center of our lives. The kingdom of God is our center. Ideally, we want them to see the help we render to them as the overflow of the help we have received in Christ, because we are committed first to the family of believers, we will pour constantly into one another’s lives. When all members do this, our cup overflows, as our cup overflows, there will be plenty to share with others. We want to help to overflow into the lives of unbelievers so they, too, can taste and see the Lord’s Goodness (Nugent, 207)

 

How should I be compassionate to my needy neighbors outside the church? Should there be limits to my compassion?

Scripture tells us to do good to and honor all people (Gal 6:10; 1 Pet 2:17). So, we should be good neighbors. We should lend a helping hand and invite people over for supper. We shouldn’t do this in order to fix them or the world. They must not become our pet projects. Rather our goodness to them should overflow from the love we show one another and point back to that love. It Must point to that love because they will know we are Christian by our love for one another (John 13:35). I am not suggesting that anyone stop being neighborly to unbelievers; I am suggesting that we anchor our neighborliness more firmly in the particular mission God has given us. (Nugent 208)

Our loving actions as shown to one another will serve as a witness to our physical neighbors. We must prioritize Christs’ community first, then as an overflow, we can reach others and show them what live can be like when you are a part of God’s kingdom.

 

How does this approach impact how churches support specific missions?

See the response to the previous question for more insight. God equips every congregation for the specific work to which he calls it. So, matters of budget and stewardship must be decided on the local church level. But we should operate with priorities that are rooted in our understanding of God’s mission. First and foremost, we must make sure that all the needs within our local body are met first. Is it God’s intention that a church is pouring money into a mission field across the globe while they ignore the needs of starting people in their own congregation?

We should eagerly support whatever persons or organizations supply our church with valuable resources and leaders that empower our mission to embrace, display, and proclaim the Gospel.

So, church budgets should serve as a natural extension of our budget. This doesn’t mean that we will never give to causes outside of direct kingdom witness. But since such causes are secondary to doing life together, it should be secondary in our budget. Not ignored, but not prioritized.

 

What about human rights? Should Christians seek to make sure people’s rights are properly protected and respected?

God has not appointed his people to police the world and “make sure” of anything. To “make sure” of something requires force and the sword. God’s church is not called to take up arms to enforce anything.

However, God’s people should care about the dignity of all people. That is why from the very beginning, God called his people, Israel, to treat all people with dignity, especially those whom other nations tended to rob of their dignity. We must do so, first of all, by giving full dignity to all people where we do have authority; within the body of Christ.

God’s justice is a gift that we invite all people to embrace and not a law that we have been called to enforce. So, if you want to seek out human rights, then we have to make sure that we are caring about the rights of the people we can directly influence first. (Nugent 213)

 

How should the church remain kingdom centered during challenging or pivotal times, like during the Nazi regime, the civil rights movement, or the displacement of refugees?

First, these scenarios are all very different and require specific responses. Additionally, different churches find themselves positioned differently in relation to these diverse scenarios. Avoiding needless persecution is always a good thing. So even if we need to maintain a low profile while we embrace, display, and proclaim God’s Kingdom, then we should do so. Even Jesus did that, by keeping his identity a secret for most of the Gospels.

Churches have to trust that God will use other powers, like the surrounding nations, to bring down a wicket regime. Churches outside of that regime would want to maintain their witness to the Kingdom as well. They would support struggling churches, host exiled believers who were forced to flee, and seek the spirits leading as to how they might carry that out. In their time and place, what God’s people were uniquely authorized and equipped to do.

Regarding civil rights, the church's response was similar. We must grant equal status within the community before, during, and after wider society embraces the idea.

For people like Mother Teresa, who was a devout Roman Catholic, and MLK Jr. there would still have been faithful Kingdom work had the wider society chose to never embrace it. However, not everyone within the social reform movements joined for Kingdom Purposes. Christian social reformers who join these movements and make no effort at providing a holistic witness to the Kingdom of God, essentially detach their work from the Gospel that Jesus taught (Nugent, 216).

MLK and Mother Teresa bore witness to the Kingdom because in His kingdom there is no Black Nor white in God’s Kingdom. If someone wants to embrace What they did, they must fully base their framework in Jesus’ framework.

But if someone wants to be a public advocate for just one Kingdom virtue and divorce their mission from the mission of what the Church is trying to do, then they should not identify that work as the work of the Kingdom, but instead call it a benevolent public service.

As to refugees, the church's response is two-fold

First, we would not assume that it is our responsibility to solve society’s refugee problem. It is not. We are not the powers whom God has appointed to maintain national borders. This land is not “our land,” to manage. We will not play God or coven governmental responsibility because we have a soft spot for refugees. We will have to trust God to oversee the powers and to make space for people. Sometimes the nation in which we live will be the best place for them. Other times it will not. We should not assume that our nation is always the best.

Second, to the extent that refugees find their way through the borders into our towns, we need to extend the same dignity to them as to everyone else.

Literally Israel spent the majority of their time as refugees, in Egypt, in Exile in Babylon are two prime examples. So, to downplay the value God places on refugees is to ignore God’s chosen people.

Christians today are refugees. Yes, we live here in the United States, but our true home is the Kingdom. Christians today should recognize with the apostles Peter and Paul that our country is not our home (1 Pet 2:11; Phil 3:20). God’s kingdom is our home and it transcends national borders. To us, displaced people are not political problems to be solved but fellow refugees.

 

Copyright © 2016 John Nugent. All rights reserved. All credit for this material belongs to Dr. John Nugent at Great Lakes Christian College in Lansing, Michigan.

Nugent, John C. Endangered Gospel: How Fixing the World is Killing the Church. Eugene, Oregon: Cascade Books, 2016.