For some time now, I have been interested in church mission statements, ranging from the traditional to franchise transformational. The DNA of all these mission statements is central to evangelism (In a sense of reaching “The lost” and converting them and moving them into church’s worship community).
If the people in that church are not actively surfing on the wave of waging peace in community, then the mission statement of the church is not just a joke but a lie. These words are quite heavy however they are not meant to make you angry but to provoke you to thinking.
The word “evangelism” means to proclaim, posture and practice the gospel in a world that believes that violence stops evil and saves lives. The word “Gospel” in New Testament Greek it translates euangelion, which is a compounded word. Eu means good, and angelion means announcement. These words mean Good news.
Evangelism (good news announcement) can only be real if it’s happening in the context of proclamation in community and or practicing in community what the Kingdom of God and Reign of God looks like. We are lying if we are telling the members of our congregation and community that evangelism is our primary mission yet we are not putting down the sword and seeking peace through radical forgiveness and generosity even towards those who are not like us.
The beatitude in Matthew 5:9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God” gives us what our ideal identity should be in the community of the Kingdom of God; Peacemakers.
It is fair to ask why large numbers of Christians condone so much violence against others when the New Testament’s directive is clear to love enemies, repay evil with good, and reconcile rather than retaliate. Why do so many churchgoers support capital punishment, approve of using violence in self-defense, sanction torture, and justify warfare? Why do they mistreat Jews and Muslims, hate atheists, and express hostility toward members of the LGBTQ community? What accounts for this? The answer is in the fact that your church is lying to you about the nature and purpose of Evangelism. This is the reason why Christians believe violence is sometimes necessary and even virtuous.
One of the reasons why so many Christians are open to the use of violence is because the goals of traditional or colonial evangelism can easily be accomplished by use of violence. As they see it, violence stops evil and saves lives thus the violence is regarded as both necessary and noble.
The idea that violence is sometimes indispensable, and that it is precisely what is needed to eliminate evil, rescue the innocent, and reestablish order, is what Walter Wink refers to as “The Myth of Redemptive Violence”. Unfortunately, many Christians support this Myth.
The proselytizing associated with traditional evangelism reinforces the message of redemptive violence in which God facilitates the Death of Jesus on the Cross to redeem the lost. What we forget is that it is the bishops and senators of Israel that pushed for the death of Christ and not the marginalized people designated for the Kingdom of God. Therefore evangelism cannot be good news if it is told and practiced with the themes of redemptive violence.
To gauge whether or not your church is lying about its purpose of evangelism in light of our new insights on what is the very good in the Gospel, here are some questions to ask …
Are you equipping your people to effectively become the good news, and is someone in your church holding them accountable to do it? Are they aware of the struggles and pains in their neighborhood, workplace, school, and circle of friends?
How often are you and other church leaders personally reaching out to cloth the sick, feed the hungry and liberate those in prisons or advocate for the marginalized (not counting the times you preach peace from the pulpit) and sharing the stories with the church congregation to inspire them to become peacemakers, as well?
How many resources are being deployed by your church to mobilize God’s people for peace making?
Have sporadic outreach meetings replaced the push for relational ministry in your church?
How much of your church’s numeric growth is due to celebrating and welcoming diversity and not just new converts or pew-swapping Christians trying to find a new church?
How much effort is being put into training teenagers and children to know that they will never look into the eyes of a human being whom God does not love?
On a scale of 1 to 10, how easy do you feel it is for your church leadership to mobilize their human resources and congregation in strife or competition against the agenda of those of the other fold?
So what do you do if you discover that your church is lying about its stated purpose on evangelism? You have two options: Seek to integrate and adapt the mission statement, or seek to prioritize peacemaking in evangelism.
The Church missions’ statement is an important sentence, I don’t think that many churches are purposefully crafting lies in there! Instead, I think that what started out as an aspiration towards goodness got lost in passive activities struggling to get things right.
My friend Bill Salyers told me a story from decades ago about this Presbyterian pastor in Urbana who made a startling statement that he “did not believe in prayer! But believed in God when he prayed! So I shared with Bill my recent discovery of the revival of prayer, with thanks to Dr. Andrew Decort for this wonderful nurturing.
THE QUESTION the church needs to answer is, CAN VIOLENCE SAVE US? (Violence here to mean every human struggle to hope including Mimetic Desire) Can violence fulfill our calling? In his book Flourishing on the Edge of Faith, Andrew Decort gives us the example of Jesus’s closest follower Peter being in totally a different state of mind. Peter interrupts Jesus like many of us do. He is ready to fight for Jesus and his kingdom. For Peter and as well many of us today, violence is the addictive short cut out of our distress and ultimate expression of loyalty. THIS VIOLENCE IS THE SIN OF EVANGELICALISM. You know, Jesus had affirmed Peter’s confession and declared this confession to be the cornerstone of the Kingdom upon which the gates of hell will never overcome! Then almost immediately afterward Peter, like many of us, exclaimed, “This will never happen” (Matthew 16:22). We also, like Peter, are outraged by Jesus’s sacrificial vision of ministering love in a hurting world, and we exclaim and continue to tell Jesus “This will never happen.” We will never carry our cross.
But on the night of Jesus’s arrest, this Peter, rather than staying awake and praying against his temptation, checks out and sleeps. He deals with his distress by avoiding it and blacking out.
This Peter was there when Jesus taught the crowd to pray; “Do not lead us into temptation but deliver us from evil,” but like many of us Peter was physically there yet he was somewhere else in his soul. Peter’s mind was still running on Jacob’s ancient operating system of grasping power and crediting God with the spoils. Peter was still convinced violence was the way of salvation. Peter was acting like a Zealot. he did not deny Christ because he was afraid of the Roman wrath—Nope! As a result of his lack of prayerful vision with Jesus, in the end we see chaos unleashed as Peter spins with temptation. Peter is so enraged by Jesus’s non-violent response that he denies knowing him and breaks down with bitter weeping. Meanwhile Judas sells out Jesus for 30 pieces of silver, then commits suicide.
So many decades ago when that Presbyterian pastor in Urbana said he does not believe in prayer, we can typically understand why! He did not learn the actual Gospel of Christ! His church lied to Him!
We have entered the age when the Gospel of the Christ must be brought to bear, and it is all the wholeness of Peace, my friends. We call it Shalom
Read more about the Author: Philip Kakungulu
TO READ MORE on why Christians must forsake violence to follow Jesus and Change the world, click here
Ref: Wink, Engaging the Powers, 13-31 & Powers that Be, 42
Wink, Walter. Engaging the Powers. Discernment and Resistance in a World of Domination. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1992
-. Jesus and Nonviolence: A Third Way. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2003.
-. The Powers that Be: Theology for a New Millenium. New York: Doubleday, 1998
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