There are some “new ideas” in teaching these days. I put parentheses because I’m a firm believer in “there is nothing new under the sun”. Anyway. One of these is that teachers should be teaching how to sift information, rather than just to absorb information. I find this to be very biblical as well as missing from the church in general. One of the strategies a person can used in sifting information is to discern where a person is coming from. If I just launched into my topic, without telling you where I was coming from, then you would have to assume my experiences and my reasons for being passionate about a certain topic, and you would not be able to balance it out. So here is my topic: social justice.
There has been a pendulum swing with social justice of late. People are seeing that the church has in many ways become irrelevant, and separated itself from the society it is trying to save. Well intentioned people are building a passion to see the church as a whole take Jesus’ words through James more seriously:
“If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and filled," without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
We are shifting away from the amount of reverence and respect we have for those who have high positions in the church, and now are more impressed by those who have started some amazing street ministries or record labels that show the love of Jesus Christ in practical ways.
The problem is that we were never meant to hold either of these people in too high of esteem. We are supposed to be looking to Jesus as our example, and not people. So in this very well intentioned revival, do we risk a new type of Roman Catholic church? Do we risk a legalism that says, “if your not out serving hot chocolate on a Friday Night, then there’s the door?” Am I saying this movement is bad? Most definitely not.
Here is what I am saying: We cannot inspire any action without preaching Jesus Christ as our motivation. Too many well intentioned and talented preachers rely too much on guilt tactics and, “look at what these amazing people are doing!” Again, sometimes this can be okay. But to base a whole movement on these is simply blasphemous. We need to remember that God is not pleased with our deeds, He is pleased with our faith (Isa 64:6, Heb 11:6). So to make a long story short, we need to be reminding ourselves of the greatness of God and His sacrifice, and out of that will come the faith and the works. If it comes out of anything else, then there is a problem.
Also, this issue of social justice is very difficult for people who, despite what they may want, are called to minister to those in the church. To those who are already saved. I believe I am one of those people. I have repeatedly been discouraged and frustrated at my attempts to have a ministry outside of the church, but I have seen time and time again my strongest spiritual gives flow in preaching, teaching, leading worship, and discipling. Any those that read that need to know that, because that is my bias. I have been criticized, albeit indirectly, relentlessly by those I admire because my calling is not to downtown. Or overseas. It is good for me though, because I can pursue what God has for me without having man’s esteem or my own pride to worry about so much. But I worry for those who are like me. Do they too feel the weight of being told, “get out there and do something!” I have questioned even my salvation numerous times because of a passionate person who has been called outside the body of believers to minister. How many people like me are relentlessly banging there head against a wall because this is what they are taught, but God wants them to minister to His children?
Let’s filter the information we get, and make Christ the center of all we do. That’s what I’m trying to say here.
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