Now to[Christ] who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
Romans 14:17 & Ephesians 3:20-21 (ESV)
Does being a Christian make a difference to the ways we seek to help people in need and address the problems of society? The first time I remember this issue being floated was when I heard John Kirkby, the founder of Christians Against Poverty, speak at a conference of Christians money advisers about 12 years ago.
Although the subject of my own talk at the conference was legal debt recovery procedures, I took a moment to wonder out loud whether Christian money advisers should do more than just help people in debt to live more comfortably within the consumer society.
Back then, what later came to be known as personal financial education was called consumer education because it was designed to do no more than help people be responsible consumers in the consumer society. When I started teaching financial capability skills a few years later, I wanted to do more and to help young people see through the advertising and sales talk, and to resist the peer pressure, so they could make spending decisions that would contribute towards their own development as unique people. But that was still a very limited goal.
A couple of years ago at the All Souls Clubhouse, where I’m based, we were thinking a lot about what it meant for us to be a distinctively evangelistic Christian community centre. Were we to provide the same sorts of services as other community centres, but perhaps with a different motivation or with a different spirit or in a different atmosphere? Or was there something so profoundly powerful and radical in the Christian Gospel that it set us on a different trajectory to other community workers?
In his book, The First Principles of Christian Citizenship, Albert Swift wrote that the Kingdom of God was the goal of Jesus' social endeavour and yet this vision was lamentably lacking in much Christian social concern. ‘With many true and honest workers’, he explained, ‘there seems to be little thought beyond the discovery of a present palliative for a pressing need, and consequently the result of their effort is often futile.’
He added, ‘Here there in its simplest form is the goal of the Christian citizen’s endeavour: a Kingdom in which God’s will is operative in every phase and department of life; His will, the law; His people, the ready and glad administrators thereof.’ He then identified the first verse at the start of today’s Reflection as describing the essence of the social order that Christians should work towards: ‘righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit’.
Where we have sought to do no more that offering a ‘present palliative for a pressing need’, there needs to be deep reflection of how we ought to cooperate with Jesus in reconciling together all things in heaven and earth into the Kingdom of God. I suspect that only then will God be in a position to bless social action by Christians as effectually as he has been known to bless their preaching in revival! But this means using the same resources to fulfil Christian social responsibility as to evangelise.
I invite you to reflect on the following, which is based on something that Mark Prentice said last year, when he was the minister in charge at the Clubhouse.
What difference would it make to the help we give people and to our involvement in social issues if we really believed in our weakness and powerlessness; if we really thought that without Jesus Christ we could do nothing - nothing at all! That we could do nothing in mission, nothing to really help people? And what would it be like if we Christians actually believed God could work though us, doing 'immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power at work within us'? What if we really believed that prayer was one of the most important things that we could ever do; that it was an absolute priority; that it was something that we had to dedicate our time and energy to if we wanted to achieve anything practical?
I am certain of two things. First, that just as in Jesus' ministry, social responsibility would be as powerful a means of communicating the Gospel as preaching. Second, that just as in St Paul's ministry, we would not be dependent on money and would need to think about it far less than we do!
Mark is now the Vicar of St John the Baptist Church in Ipswich. You can find Albert Swift’s book, The First Principles of Christian Citizenship, at:
I expect to produce more Reflections next month.
© All Souls Clubhouse Community Centre & Church and Philip Evans 2014. You are welcome to copy these Reflections on a non-profit basis.
