By Greg Taylor
There”s a new Restoration Movement on fire and spreading in the United States and the world.
For those of us who have passionately believed in Restoration principles of wearing Christ”s name alone, who see Scripture as our only rule of faith and practice, and who are imperfectly living out a dream of being the church Jesus wanted, we have a decision to make.
We can continue with the little pickup stickball game outside the World Series stadium, or we can realize the larger Christian world is singing our song and playing our game in the arena.
A whole new generation and breed of disciples is willing and ready to die for its faith and to do that on the streets serving the poor and powerless or speaking truth to the rich and powerful. They march into Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, North Korea, and Pakistan not as crusaders, but as peacemakers. They cross borders and traverse denominational lines.
Petty Differences Pale
Increasingly, since 9/11, our world is changing. We experience a less monolithic Christian nation now. The increase of religious tolerance and greater expression of religions other than Christianity in America has a powerful impact on us.
My point is this: the increase in tolerance for Islam, New Age-ism, Judaism, and all other beliefs besides Christianity in the world, has brought Christians together across denominational lines like never before.
The increase in expressions by other faiths has forced Christians to conclude our petty differences pale in comparison to the contrast between our lives and those who don”t yet know the beauty and redemption of life in Christ.
And so we have a choice to make.
We can accept walls between Christian denominations or nondenominations, and maybe build even larger walls between us and the world (and other religious worlds).
Or, perhaps, we could tunnel through the walls between Christians and crawl through these catacombs and start strategizing about how to dig new tunnels into the Islamic world to preach and heal like Jesus did.
Perhaps building churches exactly like American Christian churches won”t work in Pakistan or Uganda or Honduras or North Korea or Sudan. Instead, perhaps we need to begin drilling water wells, feeding the hungry, starting businesses, making friends with Muslims, standing against unjust war, and learning the plight of the homeless, sex slaves, and displaced persons.
Perhaps we should more actively strive to join the kingdom work of Jesus to release the captives and proclaim the year of the Lord”s favor. We must live out the kingdom of God that Christ taught, died, and reigns to see us embrace. We will be changed if we learn the names and stories of a homeless person and lend a helping hand. We must also be willing to humble ourselves and be ministered to by a homeless person, displaced person, refugee, or person with less money than we have.
Crying Injustices Abound
During a question-and-answer session at a Christian college where I was speaking, a prelaw student asked a question like the one people asked John the Baptist: “And what can a prelaw student do?”
I said, “Have you ever heard of International Justice Mission?” I suggested the student follow Christ”s mission to release the captives by joining IJM in locating and releasing slaves around the world and prosecuting the perpetrators.
Are you a lawyer? Has the idealism you had in law school been so crushed by the weight of your love of money that you no longer have strength to open your eyes and see the injustices in the world?
Are you rich and don”t really deserve it? (That”s probably everyone reading this””we”re all richer than half the world that earns less than $2 a day). And I don”t care what you think you”ve done to deserve being rich, you and I don”t deserve what we have.
And are you a short-term mission tripper? That”s great. There are an estimated 4 million Americans who go abroad yearly. Some go somewhere different every year. Together we”re spending enough money annually on short-term mission trips to drill 1 million water wells, enough to put thousands of wells in every country of the world that needs them.
I strongly believe as long as we do nothing, or not enough, about injustices””as long as 1 billion people have no clean water to drink, and children go to bed hungry, and millions are displaced and homeless from war, famine, and disease””then Christians have little if any business arguing about issues like these: whether a guitar or drum is too loud; how and how often Communion is served; whether a song is bluegrass, rock, classical, or a cappella; whether or not to use candles; whether a man or woman is speaking publicly; and on and on. . . . Fill in the blank on the issues that keep you and your church from really doing justice and loving mercy and walking humbly with God.
Pray for Freedom
Do you need to be released from the slavery of sectarianism, cynicism, and hatred toward your brother that seizes your engines of creativity and closes your heart and eyes to what”s happening in the world? May God, the Father of all who rules the world and everything in it, drive out your fear and any drop of sectarian pride or cynicism toward other Christians or hatred toward homosexuals or drug addicts or Muslims. May the only God who is love personified fill you with the Holy Spirit”s gifts that cause you to be compassionate and gentle and active in serving.
I want to be part of this new movement of Christians who believe less in the walls that divide us and more in the bridges to justice and mercy and love that will reunite us.
Greg Taylor is associate minister with Garnett Church of Christ in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and managing editor of New Wineskins magazine (www.wineskins.org).
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