Rethinking the Mission of the Church
Wednesday, November 10, 2010 at 4:00AM Our elders are wrestling through a biblical understanding of the church's role when it comes to issues of justice and mercy. Books like Tim Keller's Generous Justice
On my way home from Tyndale I listened to Kevin DeYoung's recent message Rethinking the Mission of the Church. It's a nuanced presentation: DeYoung's position would be easy to caricature. It's definitely worth a listen, no matter what side of the debate you're on. I really appreciated it.
Keller's book, posts like this one by Jared Wilson, and the talk by DeYoung point to the importance of the issue, and to how important it is to think clearly and carefully as we wrestle with this it.
Reader Comments (8)
I need to read Keller's book, as I am intrigued. However, I must say that I found DeYoung's message very, very disappointing. I would love to hear form you which aspects of his message you are particularly affirming.
Jamie:I think I found it useful in a couple of ways. First: it makes a distinction between what Christians are supposed to do and what the church is called to do. It's subtle, but there is a distinction. Second: I think he approached the issues of our responsibility to the poor using some language that I found helpful: adorning the gospel, etc. I also liked that he said that some of what we call social justice is actually a lot more basic: it's simply loving people.I'm still wrestling with all of this, but I found his presentation to be a good and articulate counterpoint to the view that proclamation and social justice are intertwined and inseparable. If you're going to wrestle through an issue like this, it helps to have each side carefully presented.What did you find disappointing with it?
I rarely use the term "social justice", except when I mean it literally in respect to how it is understood in the wider culture. While it overlaps with Jesus' justice, they should not be seen as the same thing. I think this is a fair concern and criticism that DeYoung might be pointing towards. I have seen it a lot.That being said, when talking about Biblical justice, for him to suggest "love" instead of "social justice" is a mistake also. First, how can a person argue with love? Of course it must be central, of course it trumps all else. However, Jesus did teach justice a great deal and so I would have rather him spend some time dealing with Jesus' explicit mention of justice (most often translated as "righteousness").Sadly, both the word "justice" and the word "righteousness" are so loaded with baggage in our language & culture that neither translation seems to be helpful. However, that Jesus was speaking to justice in the Beatitudes ("Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice") seems fairly clear from my research. So what does Jesus mean by "justice"? THAT is what I hoped DeYoung would have answers. Instead, he spent most of his time debunking legitimately unbiblical concepts of justice that are popular and focusing on other important aspects of Jesus' teaching & life. Yet, he failed to address the core topic Christologically.There are a number of other points I could get into- such as missing the implications between the two very different Greek words for proclamation in the Luke 4 text- but this is a good place to start. Again, while I disagree with some of his content (I am an Anabaptist, after all - wink), my disappointment was more with what he failed to explore.
Jamie:Can't wait to read Keller's book to see some of this fleshed out there as well.
Me too, Darryl. On an aside, as I respect your perspective, any push back on my comment?
Not really. One message can't do everything. I agreed with most of what DeYoung said but realized that I need to think through other passages that he didn't cover, and put it together with the whole.Much more thinking needed!
Fair enough.
[...] Kevin DeYoung has me thinking about this issue. I’m still wrestling through it, but it caused me to think of this quote by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: It is not the task of the church to deal directly with these problems. The tragedy today is that while the church is talking about these particular problems and dealing directly with politics and economics and social conditions, no Christians are being produced, and the conditions are worsening and the problems mounting. It is as the church produces Christians that she changes the conditions; but always indirectly… [...]