Why We Haven't Changed the World
Diane Singer at The Point, quotes Peter Gillquist, from his book "Why We Haven't Changed the World." (HT - Joe Carter)
"All the evangelism in the world from a church that is not herself holy and righteous will not be worth a hill of beans in world-changing power."
I want to add two things to this. I haven't read the book so Mr. Gillquist may have touched on these in the book elsewhere. I would also say that we don't understand grace and we don't practice love.
On the grace thing, it is my experience that most of us still live our Christian lives on a performance basis. You can find one little vignette on that in the little bit of dialogue I have had with a gentleman named Robert in my post Good Friday Christianity vs. a Christianity that Condemns. I also think that a quick perusal of the Letters from Leavers blog would reveal a dearth of grace.
Also, Christians just don't love one another. I have a good friend who pastored a church in my hometown that started great and went down the tubes. I have caught up with him in recent years and talked with him about what happened. He says simply "we just stopped loving each other."
John 13:35 says this:
By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.
John 17:23 says:
I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
In other words, the primary identifying mark of the Christian is not his theology, his convictions, or even his morals - it is his love. And this primary identifying mark is not love for all men in general, it is love for believers in particular. In other words, if professing Christians don't love one another then the world outside the church has no compelling reason to believe they are truly Christian.
Similarly, John 17:23 makes successful evangelism contingent on the unity of believers. The proof that Jesus is the one sent from God as the Son of God and savior of sinners is not an apologetic argument- it is the unity of believers.
When I was in high school it was common for people to say "I see Jesus in you," or to exhort others to let people see Jesus in them. There is some merit to that, we ought to be more Christlike, but I think the passages in John tell us that Jesus is seen primarily in community, not in individuals.
Thus our witness is primarily contingent on corporate behavior, not individual behavior - and that must be loving behavior. This also dovetails nicely with Acts 2:42-47 where the Lord was adding daily to the number of believers. In that situation, the reason that unbelievers were being added to the church daily was that they observed the behavior of believers to one another. There is nothing in Acts 2:42-47 that is particulary outreach oriented, they were attracted by a certain quality of life they observed within the church (although that statement has to be qualified too - even though Acts 2:42-47 doesn't talk about outreach per se, the believers were practicing their faith out in the public arena where they could talk and converse with those outside the church - we tend to practice our faith in buildings which are separated from the world and set aside for religious purposes, but that's a whole 'nuther discussion).
In other words, changing the world is contingent upon love and unity among believers.
So, I do agree with Mr. Gillquist about why we haven't changed the world, but I think the issues of a lack of grace and a lack of love are even more important.
Related Tags: Religion, Theology, Christian, Christianity, Church, Evangelism
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