patient revolutionaries

I have been slowly working my way through Lesslie Newbgin's book "The Gospel in a Pluralist Society" since August of last year.  Part of the reason it took me so long to complete was the presence of other things I needed to read and attend to.  However, the main reason it took so long is that it's just so dang good.  I would read through it slowly for a few weeks and then I would simply need time to process what I had read.  I finally finished the book last night and am completely humbled, convicted, challenged, encouraged and excited by what it has to say.  

While I don't agree with all of Newbigin's conclusions, particularly his inclusivism, this book has been one of the most beneficial I've read in quite some time.  The title for this post comes from his description of the Christian's calling in this world.  We are patient because we know that it is God who is bringing about a new world order, but we are revolutionary in our calling from Jesus to challenge the reigning powers, authorities and social structures that promote not just what might be called moral "wickedness" but also everything that propagates injustice and oppression. 

Newbigin raises the following question, "How is it possible that the gospel should be credible, that people should come to believe that the power which has the last word in human affairs is represented by a man hanging on a cross?"  I think this is one of the most realistic and applicable questions of our time facing those people, like me, who believe that the gospel is indeed credible and the last word in human affairs.  Newbigin gives the following answer, "I am suggesting that the only answer, the only hermeneutic of the gospel, is a congregation of men and women who believe it and live by it."  What he is suggesting is that the gospel will only be seen for what it truly is when the people who say they trust in it actually embody it.  Christians actually living in a manner which is biblically consistent with that name will be the greatest witness for the power of Jesus as seen in the gospel.

Newbigin goes on to outline six characteristics that will need to be present in Christian communities seeking to do this.  As we think about planting a church in central Auckland all six of his characteristics are ones that I hope we embody and display but his third is the one I have been thinking about most lately.  I quote it here at length:

"... it will be a community that does not live for itself but is deeply involved in the concerns of its neighborhood.  It will be the church for the specific place where it lives, not the church for those who wish to be members of it - or, rather, it will be for them insofar as they are willing to be for the wider community.  It is, I think, very significant that in the consistent usage of the New Testament, the word ekklesia [church] is qualified in only two ways; it is 'the Church of God,' or 'of Christ,' and it is the church of a place.  A Christian congregation is defined by this twofold relation: it is God's embassy in a specific place.  Either of these vital relationships may be neglected.  The congregation may be so identified with the place that it ceases to be a vehicle of God's judgment and mercy for that place and becomes simply the focus of the self-image of the people of that place.  Or it may be so concerned about the relation of its members to God that it turns its back on the neighborhood and is perceived to be irrelevant to its concerns... The local congregation is the place where the proper relation is most easily and naturally kept." 

May our future congregation be filled with patient revolutionaries who strive to be just such a place.