Just one step at a time

Jim Wallis was over here in the UK, and I’m very grateful a friend let me know he would be talking a church.co.uk about his new book Seven Ways to Change the World.

A few nuggets. He didn’t tell us the 7 ways, and although I bought the book, I’ve not got that far, having found a bunch of friends there too, so went to the pub after.

• When asked what had been the things that had got him most into trouble: Going the places you’re not supposed to go, particularly as a white, middle class Christian. Walking past those invisible ‘No Trespassing!’ signs.
• The 2 big hungers in this world are for spirituality and social action. And the movement that combines both of this will set the world on fire.
• People will get excited about this different kind of faith.
• We’re not to just ignore bad news. Revival is the good news for bad news.
• Politics is broken.
• The most effective social movements - Great Awakenings - have happened when politics has failed to address a major social injustice, and have always had a spiritual foundation.
• Faith is what moves the mountains that are the seemingly impossible social injustices: poverty, trafficking, climate change, racial injustice, and so on.
• Social change requires commitment from each one of us. We need to start in our own lives, lead in our communities and that will make a difference on a bigger scale.
• It takes time. Wilberforce put his first Bill forward 9 times, and it took another 30 years before the slave trade itself was made illegal.
• Charles Finney ‘invented’ the altar call; and got each new Christian to sign up to the anti-slavery movement there and then.
• God needs to be real and personal to sustain the commitment and faith that moves mountains.
• Hope is a choice. Cynicism comes from unsuccessful attempts to bring about a change, but instead of persisting, cynicism gives up and declares nothing can ever change.
• Hope means believing in spite of the evidence. Then watching the evidence change.
• Bad religion calls out of us our bad stuff. We’ve seen a lot of bad religion. We want to see more good religion, which calls out of us our good stuff: compassion, action and so on..

Oh, and I didn’t realise he was married to the REAL Vicar of Dibley, one of the first women to be ordained in the UK, who went on to advise Richard Curtis and Dawn French on the show.

Too often we divorce the why we do something from the what we do. Why do we do what we do to help others? Why are we Christians any different from the socially-conscious person who gives money, and time, and campaigns for a better life for others? What do we have that they don’t? What can we give that they can’t?

We do because we love. Because we love God. The two greatest commandments are to love God and love others as ourselves. In helping, we are loving others as we would wish to be loved. And we do it because of grace and love: God gives us so much that we want to redress the balance, right injustices, give to others that which was given to us as a gift.

And we do it because of Jesus.

But that doesn’t mean that we use doing as a means of evangelising. There should be no bargaining, no ‘if I help you, you must come to church’. We cannot bribe people into the Kingdom of God. But we should be ready with our answers to the question: “Why are you doing this for me?” Too often, social action is used to piggy-back evangelism onto it. As St. Francis of Assisi said, we should “Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words.”

When we do out of love, God will honour that and open ears and eyes to hear about Him.

Hat tip to Honest Faith for posting this video, showing how can can mess people up when we tell them about Jesus.