8/16/12 BLOG. WHAT MAKES THE CHRISTIAN MESSAGE COMPELLING?
What with all of the proliferation of confusing church expressions, and (sometimes weird) folk claiming to speak for the Christian faith, … what might catch the attention of those unfamiliar with it all? Such was something of the question raised by one Lesslie Newbigin, who has been one of the giant figures in the church’s engagement with the post-Christian culture in the west. So let me run by my readers a digest of some of his answer.
“The only effective [interpreting factor] of the gospel is the life of the congregation which believes it. Insofar as it is true to its calling, it becomes the place where men ands women and children find that the gospel gives them the framework of understanding, the ‘lenses’ through which they are able to understand and cope with the world. Insofar as it is true to its calling, this community will have, I think, the following six characteristics:” [what follows is my paraphrase]
- It will be a community of praise. a) Celebration rather than sullenness and hyperactivity. b) Thanksgiving, –a people recipient of grace.
- It will be a community of truth. The reigning plausibility structure can only be effectively challenged b people who are fully integrated inhabitants of another, i.e., in “missionary confrontation” with the dominant social order and culture.
- It will be a community that does not live for itself, but is deeply involved in the concerns of its neighborhood.
- It will be a community where men and women are prepared for, and sustained in, the exercise of their priesthood in the world. a) The congregation has to be a place where its members are trained, supported, and nourished in the exercise of their parts of the priestly ministry in the world. b) The congregation must recognize that God gives different gifts to different members of the body.
- It will be a community of mutual responsibility. “If the church is to be effective in advocating and achieving a new social order in the nation, it must itself be that new social order.”
- And finally it will be a community of hope. “The gospel offers an understanding of the human situation which makes it possible to be filled with a hope which is both eager and patient even in the most hopeless situation.”
“Is the primary business of the ordained minister to look after the spiritual needs of the church members? Is it to represent God’s kingdom to the whole community? Or—and this is surely the true answer—is it to lead the whole congregation as God’s embassage to the whole community?”
(From Newbigin’s Gospel In a Pluralist Society, chapter 18, pp. 227 ff.)
