The Church Should Mind Its Own Business!
Preaching
Shaking Wolves Out Of Cherry Trees
And 149 Other Sermon Ideas
Purpose Statement: What constitutes the appropriate concerns for the church?
No one would argue with the notion that the church needs to define clearly its bailiwick of concerns and be true to its task. Whatever the business of the church is, we must be diligent and enthusiastic in our work. The argument comes at the point of what constitutes the proper concerns of the church. If we can agree that everything is the church's business directly or indirectly, we will disagree on how we approach that business.
a. Two trends: saving souls or social action. It may not be fair, but I will generalize and over-simplify the issue and claim there are two ways of approaching the church's work. One trend favored by conservatives or evangelicals would be to "preach Jesus" and get people saved. If we do that, the saved will go out into the world and make decisions that will make our communities more peaceful and just. Another trend espoused by liberals is to discuss serious social issues (gambling, abortion, etc.) and then to organize campaigns, protests, letter writing, and other demonstrations to bring about change. To be fair to the conservatives and to complicate the matter, conservatives have in recent years seen the light and gotten into social action also.
b. Saving souls hasn't worked. That is not to say saving souls isn't important or that we don't do it. However, it is to say that this method of Christian witness doesn't lead to effective social change. Consider the existence of slavery in our country. There was a lot of preaching of hell fire and damnation and saving souls, but nothing done about slavery. It took social action before civil rights took giant steps and partially restored people's freedom and dignity.
c. That leaves social action. Amos was a great social activist who saw corruption and injustice in society and demonstrated and protested against it. Any of several passages will illustrate this, but chapter 8 is nice. Amos saw the needy and poor being trampled and could not remain silent. The church is mandated to speak out. We must discuss and debate until we reach a consensus on issues (and no issue is out of bounds!), organize, and demonstrate.
No one would argue with the notion that the church needs to define clearly its bailiwick of concerns and be true to its task. Whatever the business of the church is, we must be diligent and enthusiastic in our work. The argument comes at the point of what constitutes the proper concerns of the church. If we can agree that everything is the church's business directly or indirectly, we will disagree on how we approach that business.
a. Two trends: saving souls or social action. It may not be fair, but I will generalize and over-simplify the issue and claim there are two ways of approaching the church's work. One trend favored by conservatives or evangelicals would be to "preach Jesus" and get people saved. If we do that, the saved will go out into the world and make decisions that will make our communities more peaceful and just. Another trend espoused by liberals is to discuss serious social issues (gambling, abortion, etc.) and then to organize campaigns, protests, letter writing, and other demonstrations to bring about change. To be fair to the conservatives and to complicate the matter, conservatives have in recent years seen the light and gotten into social action also.
b. Saving souls hasn't worked. That is not to say saving souls isn't important or that we don't do it. However, it is to say that this method of Christian witness doesn't lead to effective social change. Consider the existence of slavery in our country. There was a lot of preaching of hell fire and damnation and saving souls, but nothing done about slavery. It took social action before civil rights took giant steps and partially restored people's freedom and dignity.
c. That leaves social action. Amos was a great social activist who saw corruption and injustice in society and demonstrated and protested against it. Any of several passages will illustrate this, but chapter 8 is nice. Amos saw the needy and poor being trampled and could not remain silent. The church is mandated to speak out. We must discuss and debate until we reach a consensus on issues (and no issue is out of bounds!), organize, and demonstrate.
