My latest column at Christian Week:
The church I pastor is trying to become more outwardly focused. Sometimes it helps to learn from examples, so a group of us traveled a short distance to one of the most outwardly focused churches we know: Sanctuary Ministries in downtown Toronto.
Sanctuary is more than a church. It's a ministry "that seeks to establish and develop holistic, inclusive and healthy community." They live in a neighborhood that's a little different from ours, one "plagued with homelessness, drugs, prostitution, unemployment and AIDS." Though it's not only a church, Sanctuary has the gospel at its core. "This Sanctuary is a gospel community at its heart, devoted to living out the good news that Jesus is God and Saviour," their website says. "There really isn't anything radical or new about it. It's just simple, orthodox Christianity at work."
We sat in a small room before Sunday night's service talking to the Executive Director, Greg Paul. As we talked, we noticed that our language didn't match up. We talked about Sanctuary as a mission; Greg talked about it as a community. We talked about targeting people; Greg talked about wanting to be with people where they are. We talked about servant leadership; Greg suggested that we'd be better off thinking more about servanthood and less about leadership.
When we come to a community with a set of services, Greg explained, there's a power dynamic at work. We serve; they receive. They remain disempowered. When we go into a neighborhood, spend time with them, listen to them, and allow them to serve us, we become servants, and the power imbalance disappears. The challenge is to find who the poorest people are in the neighborhood, and to discover how we can be with them. Stop looking for programmatic answers, Greg told us. Go to people and listen to who they are, where they are.
Greg talked about lessons he'd learned: about becoming a church of the poor, rather than a church that only served the poor; of learning early on that he had to shut up and do more listening than talking; of getting past the idea that church is only a service on Sunday; of connecting with those who are broken by being vulnerable about our own brokenness. Does he know of any traditional churches that have succeeded in becoming outwardly focused? Not many, Greg said, but he couldn't think of many churches that had tried.
It was time for the community to gather for worship, prayer, and learning. Music was homegrown. Those gathered called out the songs they wanted to sing; we sang home-grown blues songs to a band with bass, congas, and a B3 Hammond organ. Those who were gathered stood to read Scriptures they had picked. A man stood and talked about how Jesus had helped him become free, mostly, from his addiction to drugs and alcohol. A man stood up and broke the loaf, said that nobody could put it together again. Jesus came to restore what is broken, but then we broke him. God put him back together again on Easter, and he now lives to restore those of us who were broken. We came and ate the bread and drank the cup as we sang out Jesus. Then a break with sandwiches, cake, and coffee, and then we were taught about the armor of God.
The service was raw, less structured, more authentic than anything we were used to. Last year, a skeptic attended a service here and said, "Amidst all the pomp and circumstance of the Christian world out there, here lies a simple, honest place that really means it."
We were getting ready to leave, and Greg asked to see us. It would be a mistake, he said, to look at Sanctuary and focus on the style of music, their methods, or his leadership. Sanctuary isn't about that, he said. It's about becoming a church of people who are broken, welcoming the poor and needy, and giving them a voice. It's becoming a safe community for everyone, where they can meet Jesus.
I left thinking not about Greg or Sanctuary, but about the ultimate servant, the friend of sinners. I think we saw him that night.
Greg spent a few days with us here and at METRO downtown. We're tentatively planning to visit with him at Sanctuary in the fall or spring..
Hopefully it truly is more than a social gospel kinda church with all the wealth and majesty of the bible gospel both practiced AND taught.
Good point Kim. What do you think Darryl, social gospel or the real deal gospel with people turning to the Lord in repentance and faith and finding true life in Jesus Christ and all that brings?
I'm not there every week, but I heard the Gospel preached that night, and heard a testimony, and saw people's practical needs being met. In other words, the whole gospel to the whole person.
I'll have to give them another look, because I have yet to hear the whole gospel preached by Greg Paul. I didn't hear it when I was there, I didn't read it in his book and I didn't hear it from him when he was interviewed on Drew Marshall. I heard social gospel and I heard a mocking sneer when asked if they have Bible studies at the Sanctuary, they are much too busy helping people with their real needs as in real practical needs.
It reminds me of all this "missional" talk on the blogs these days Darryl. You no doubt have read the "missional synchroblog" posts on what it means to be missional. It just becomes more clear. A lot of people talking about transforming communities but when you ask them how it happens they can't really give an answer, or like your Danforth friend, they clam up. They are all about moving into communities and building relationships and giving a voice to the poor and broken but they cannot tell you how that poor or broken person or anyone for that matter can really be set free. It boggles my mind. They want to communicate how loving they are by doing all of that and they are real good at giving each other pats on the back but I don't read anything of actual transformation, nothing has really changed.
It just becomes more clear they are all about works, social gospel, and they hope it's in their works that they will find God's favor. It's not works flowing from faith. If it was I would be reading a lot more on how it is, that all these broken and poor people that they want us to believe they care so much for, can come to have the faith they claim to have. In other words, if they have real genuine faith and they themselves have been set free by Almighty God they will know exactly what it is that can set these people free, reconciliation with God. We all need to be reconciled to God, poor or rich.
It's amazing to me how many people are being deceived by the social gospel message. It's tragic. These "missional" or "emerging" or whatever you want to call them folks are influencing so many people in the church with their "other gospel"
So many youth who have grown up in the church are embracing this message thinking they are saved because of it. They act just like the world in every other way but as long as they do some good works and claim it to be in the name of Jesus everything is ok. That's basically what they have been told and they are eating it up. It really is sad and those adults who are preaching this message will be held responsible, God's Word is pretty clear about that.
If we truly know God, we will know what it is this world so desperately needs to hear, we all need to be reconciled to God. Everything flows from that. Once we have been reconciled to God, we move on from there in His strength. It's an awesome thing. When you see a strung out 25 year heroin addict come to know that truth in his life it is an amazing thing to behold. Out of darkness into light, a new creation, its fantastic. And God has given us this messge of reconciliation
2cor5 16 So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! 17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
18 And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. 19 For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. 20 So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” 21 For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin,[e] so that we could be made right with God through Christ.
I don't believe you will read that anywhere on the "missional synchroblog"
So as someone familiar with both the Brian McLarens and the John Piper's of this world what do you think about all that Darryl? Am I making any sense?
George:
You do make some sense. I am not at Sanctuary all the time, but I thought the message that night was biblical and Christ-centered. The time around communion focused on Christ's work for us.
You know where I come from on this. The gospel and the atonement is central, but we can't neglect concern for justice and mercy either. It's both/and. I find that most of us tend to drift to one or the other. A focus on atonement only is not the true gospel; a focus on social action only is not the gospel at all.
"The gospel and the atonement is central, but we can't neglect concern for justice and mercy either."
Agreed
So how do you respond to those who neglect the antonement? How can you embrace as brothers in Christ those who have nothing to say about how it is that a man can be reconciled to God. I don't mean you personally, although also you personally, just any true follower of Christ. When we hear these people preaching another gospel how should we respond?
I think I have said it here on your blog before, the whole emerging/missional conversation/church is just one big reaction to mainstream church with no fruit.
Don't you think false gospels need to be exposed for what they are? Doesn't God tell us to expose false teaching and false teachers?
Show me anywhere in missional/emerging blog world where there is talk of the necessity of a person to be reconciled to God. That's of first importance, that Christ came to die for our sins. Who in the missional/emerging world preaches that?
And if they are not preaching that, not ever even talking about that, what should be the response from those who know better? Do we just go on accepting their false social gospel message?
It's just so tragic. I've been doing some stuff downtown lately, looking forward to seeing God do a new work in downtown Toronto. What's the message that the broken person needs to hear Darryl?
Here's how I understand it, based on my own conversion and what I know to be true from God's Word. God loves them, the broken. He has a special place in his heart for them. Jesus was always reaching out to them, He loved them. Look at the woman at the well, He knew all about her past, but He loved her and reached out to her. She becomes an evangelist as she tells the rest of her townsfolk the Good News of Jesus and they get saved also.
All of the brokenness in this world is the result of sin. We see a broken poor addicted person in downtown Toronto, it's the same thing, messed up because of sin, the sin of others and the sin of their own. But God provided a way for them to be made right with Him, they can be forgiven, they can be set free, they can be washed as white as snow and THEY CAN KNOW IT AND THEY CAN KNOW THAT GOD IS REAL AND THAT HE HAS GIVEN THEM ETERNAL LIFE.
God will take all their shame and their guilt and their hurt and put it all behind them, He will heal them and set them free. They can still be in incredible need but they will now have Hope, they will become a new creation. I could go on and on. But how does God bring that about Darryl? We have to love people, we have to build relationships, we have to help them practically, of course we have to do all that, but ultimately God is seeking those who will worship Him in Spirit and in Truth, we have to get to the place where we tell people the truth of how they can be made right with God. Always in love and full of grace, just like Jesus, but it's the truth that the Spirit of God uses to convict the hearts and cause people to see their need for Him.
If people aren't doing that, but tell us they have this new way of doing things in the name of Jesus that neglects the real truth of how one is reconciled to God what do we do? Just ignore it while people stay exactly where they are and on their way to hell? Do we really believe that God will bring judgment and send people to hell? Do we really believe that part of His Word? Jesus also had a lot to say about hell and the need for people to repent. I don't think a whole lot of professing Christians today really believe that. After all, how could a loving God send people to hell? But I digress. We have to tell people the truth and those who are preaching this nonsense about just reaching out practically with no concern for the real truth, I believe with all my heart, more and more they need to be exposed. So many people are being deceived. And those poor souls they seek to reach out to practically? They have absolutely no lasting hope for them, it's all bandaid stuff just like the world does and nothing changes, just another agency to help people out with their practical needs. It's tragic.
We have to love people with the truth.
George:
I'm pretty sure we've had this conversation before. :)
There's lots being written that is really good that challenges a social-gospel only approach. I appreciate this. It's important to challenge those who minimize the atonement. I have quite a few posts on this, as do many others.
My own read is that some of people that you take issue with do in fact grasp the gospel, but may be in a pendulum swing in the way they express it.
I expected you to comment like this on this post. I really am hoping to see more churches that embrace the gospel and social action in Toronto, especially downtown. Let's pray to that end.
"I expected you to comment like this on this post"
Yea, I know, you know me a bit.
I haven't posted for a while, just reading, listening, studying, asking God for discernment, praying, dreaming.
It does anger me though, when I read the nonsense of so many professing Christians. Those who claim they have a message for the church when they themselves show no signs of actual real faith. They have all their apples in the good works basket, (and most of that is just talk) which will not save. The worst part is they are bringing people down with them, down into the pit. They need to be exposed.
If God is working through their social gospel message how come we never hear about that? We hear a lot about their human efforts (which again in reality is minimal, too busy on their laptops) but nothing about what God is actually doing through them. Gee, I wonder why.
Ok, now I'm done, have a great week-end bringing the only message of hope that is really true, about God and His great plan of redemption. He does not turn away anyone who seeks after Him. What an amazing privilege you have.
George,
As I can safely assume I'm Darryl's friend on the Danforth. I didn't clam up, I ignored you. There is a difference.