Social Justice and Churches Like Willow

I believe this groups attention to social justice comes at an amazing time in the history of the church local and the Church global. Rather than continuing to admonish Christians for a lack of attention to social justice issues I have come to see that the driven return to community within Evangelical circles over the last decade or so has created precisely what justice needs — a true community of believers out of which Justice can truly flow. If a small church lives for social justice it will be seen as a model commune, but if a community the size of Willow begins to live for justice it will be seen as a viable socioeconomic model. The time for a striking focus on Christian social justice in the history of the American Evangelical church is right now.

I believe that discussing social justice is not just an interesting offering to church attendees, but that the responsibility and accountability for social justice falls squarely on the shoulders of churches like Willow Creek. We are the part of the body of Christ, the Church global, that is blessed with the resources and opportunity to do something about it (our economic and social wealth as well as our democratic government) — Christian social justice is our burden to bear and I believe it is what God will hold us accountable to.

Willow Creek already does amazing work and is casting a powerful vision for the future. Bill Hybels spoke passionately this past spring about social justice and said:

“…Whose job is it to confront and resolve the injustice we see all around us? …Who more than Christ followers should be concerned — We’re the ones who ought to have the love for compassion and justice as much if not more than anyone — I’ve have never, in a single church, seen a higher concentration of talent, intellectual capital, resources, creativity — I’ve never seen a single local church anywhere in my travels that has as high a concentration of high capacity people in it as our church has, and I believe one of the reasons that God coalesced a congregation like this is that in increasing ways as we walk humbly with God into our future He’s going to increase our sense of compassion and our sense of justice and more and more of us are going to leverage purchasing power and we’re going to let our voice and vote be heard and we’re going to figure out what talent we have, what expertise we have that we could put into play to try to serve the poor — We are the folks who must rise up and find ways, not just to love across racial lines (of course we should love across racial lines), but we have to figure out ways to level the opportunity field across racial lines and as we do this heaven will smile and poor it’s favor — Pray for the day when racial injustice dies the death it should have died centuries ago — pray for the day when Willow Creek will more accurately represent the diversity that exists in our community, pray for that day, that we will increasingly be that kind of church…”

The previous generation used the protest march for social change; in this generation it has become the volunteer march that will change the world. May I be so bold as to believe that radical social volunteerism and corporate commitment to social justice is the future of the church?

What is the Christian Ideal?

“The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried.”
~ G.K. Chesterton.

Sunday was another great meeting full of dynamic conversation and fascinating topics — I love how the group is able to continually energize and teach one another.

Some of the big questions we wrestled with are: What is the Christian ideal? What is it to love your neighbor as yourself (Mat 22:39, Rom 13:9, Gal 5:14, James 2:8)? Can you love without understanding; can you understand without investing, how do you invest in someone? What is the significance of the new command to Christians to love as Christ loved (John 13:34-35)?

We also explored the relationship of incarnate ministry to social justice and noted how Jesus did not attempt to meet every need or delegate every responsibility but met specific people, in specific places, and met specific needs as He came in contact with them.

More to come on these questions!

AIDS in Africa

1 Corinthians 12:24-26: 24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

All of Willow will be talking about AIDS in Africa this weekend — from the main stage, to this group, to private conversations on the way home.

More will be posted on the topic here soon. To start, I highly recommend reading Time magazine’s 2001 cover story: http://www.time.com/time/2001/aidsinafrica/cover.html

Isaiah, Amos, Dan and James on Religion

Isaiah 1:11, 17 11″I am sick of your sacrifices,” says the LORD. “Don’t bring me any more burnt offerings! I don’t want the fat from your rams or other animals. I don’t want to see the blood from your offerings of bulls and rams and goats. 17Learn to do good. Seek justice. Help the oppressed. Defend the orphan. Fight for the rights of widows.

Amos 5:21-24 21″I hate all your show and pretense–the hypocrisy of your religious festivals and solemn assemblies. 22I will not accept your burnt offerings and grain offerings. I won’t even notice all your choice peace offerings. 23Away with your hymns of praise! They are only noise to my ears. I will not listen to your music, no matter how lovely it is. 24Instead, I want to see a mighty flood of justice, a river of righteous living that will never run dry.

“God commanded his people to offer burnt offerings, and then said, “They make me sick.” He wants us to live with a heart of passion for justice — period. Religious deeds, be it prayer, fasting, giving, sacrifice, song, or dance, turn God’s stomach when we do them without a heart for righteousness. And living out righteousness is no less than creating a holy, beautiful, sacred space for glory to grow. God doesn’t give us a to-do list; instead he calls our hearts to holiness and justice. “
~ Dan Allender

James 1:27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

What is Christian social justice?

For starters: I believe that Christian attention to social justice is not about “fixing” a faulty political system or about raising cultural morals but is about bridging the gap sin has created in human relationships. Christian Social Justice, in order to be uniquely Christian, must function independent of any specific political system or cultural schema. Social justice issues address the inequalities within our society but these broken relationships are not particular to our culture or government. These fractures in our relationship to one another saturate the fallen human condition and it is within that breach, with the full knowledge of its supernatural nature (Eph 6:12), that we as Christians are to stand — and doing so is Christian Social Justice.

So how then shall we equip and support one another with practical ways to stand in the breach and live for justice?

Is involvement in social justice simply about signing up with existing programs? I would say no, and echo these words: “God wants us to relieve suffering, pursue justice, facilitate reconciliation, and free the heart to love, but He desires for us to do so in a way that reveals His Character. It is not enough just to do well for others or to do things well. We must do well in our unique way in order to reveal the vast creativity of a God who loves to bring change through the most unlikely channels.”

A Biblical Justice Scripture List

There are hundreds of verses that speak of God’s heart for justice, and of course there are over 2000 verses on poverty alone. Here is a list of scripture used in this site and particularly inspirational to The Just Life. There is so much more scripture to unpack — we’re just getting started. Feel free to suggest any passages that have touched your life?
[Read more]

Compassion vs Social Justice

We can agree that Justice goes beyond compassion, but we also know that compassion is a fundamental part of the equation. We have also introduced the “justice continuum” illustrated in the external Charity/Individual Development/Community Development/ Structural Change — unpacked as give a man a fish, teach a man to fish, give a man fishing equipment and educate him how to use it, and give a man a pond…as well as the internal C/ID/CD/SC continuum — unpacked as addressing and acting on guilt/compassion, addressing and acting on personal conception of race, dignity and equality, addressing and acting on community conceptions and responsibility of race, dignity, and equality, and conviction and action for social and economic transformation.

We will spend a lot more time on these core concepts in the coming months.

We also compared and contrasted Compassion and Justice with the following examples:
Compassion
Relieving human need
Seeking to minister to individuals and families
Involves responding to a felt need of another
Doesn’t change systems
Usually non-controversial
Biblical example: the Good Samaritan
Ministry examples: tutoring school-age children, giving money to a domestic violence shelter, serving meals to the homeless once a week, performing music for the sick or elderly

Justice
Removing the causes of human need
Seeking to transform the structures of society
Acts out of a feeling that something is not right
Changes systems
Often controversial and causes discomfort
Biblical example: Moses and the Israelites in Egypt
Ministry example: lobbying state government for a welfare reform bill, buying only fair-trade coffee to serve at home or church, building low income housing units for the poor, launching a racism education campaign for the community

What is Social Justice?

We began with the general definition of social justice as “the distribution of advantages and disadvantages within society” and identified the three major areas of race, poverty, and gender.

For some formal definition and background to the concept as a whole: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Justice

Some of the questions we are beginning with are: What is Christian social justice? What is our biblical responsibility to social justice? What unique knowledge or abilities do Christians bring to the issue?

One thing I hope we can agree on is that social justice is absolutely central to what it means to be a Christian and is not a just matter of special interest or calling. Also, that social justice is much more and goes far beyond mere charity or compassion (but definitely begins with a compassionate heart).

Meeting 1: This is an “upstream” ministry

“You can’t start a movement,
but you can prepare for one”
~ Vincent Harding

Sunday we had our first meeting of this exciting new group that has committed itself to exploring issues of social justice, educating one another about the truths of social justice, and embracing the principles of social justice.

There is a common story about a man who sees another man drowning in the river and immediately rushes into save him, soon after getting ashore he sees another man caught in the current and drowning in the river so he boldly rushes in to save that man as well, once ashore he is now very tired but sees yet another victim of the river and heroically charges back into the water to save him. This continues for some time until the man is collapsed on the shore barely able to move. Finally, the man decides he has no choice but to go upstream to see if he can find who or what is throwing these people into the river in the first place.

While ministries at every point on the spectrum are important this is one that will look upstream to the sources of social injustice and seek effective solutions there.

Check back soon for notes, topic questions, reading lists, and much more to come!

Core Concepts…coming soon!

We are currently redeveloping a “core concepts” series of articles and resources for easy reference. Please check back in the near future for this content. In the meantime, please visit our archives and follow the discussion from the beginning and feeling free to keep sharing you thoughts through the comments — Posts and ideas have no age or time-limit here.

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