Update:Stefan Paas has produced a transcript of his lecture in PDF form, which is available for download here. The paper also clarifies some points and addresses some of the questions that were raised by his talk.
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Stefan Paas is a professor at the Free University of Amsterdam, holding the J.H. Bavinck Chair for Church Planting and Church Renewal. He was at the recent Redeemer City to City Europe conference in Berlin where he gave a talk entitled "A European Perspective on Church Planting." If you're involved in ministry in the UK or Europe, I think you'll find this to be very interesting. He raises a lot of important questions to consider about the nature of ministry here and the vision and aims of the church on this continent.
Below is the audio of his session as well as the slides he used during the presentation, which he has now made available.
If you are interested in the rest of the audio sessions of the conference, including some by Tim Keller, they can be found here. Do note that you need to register in order to be able to get access to all of them.
With my responsibilites for developing and coordinating our church's work in the community here in Hull, I'm always interested in finding out what other churches are doing. This video was encouraging, with some brief snapshots of a few churches across the north of England working on different projects to reach out to their communities. We run a debt counselling service here, although we work with Community Money Advice. We're also working on starting up English classes. I have also tossed around the idea of something like a drop-in centre to help those who are looking for employment, given the economic situation in Hull.
These initatives are exciting. What sorts of things are your churches doing in your communities?
To modern society's credit, it has become increasingly popular to talk about injustice and to try and find ways to fight against and eradicate oppression. Strategies and methods for tackling these various problems vary, as does their effectiveness. One important thing to understand is that most injustices are not isolated things, but are symptoms of deeper problems.
Poverty is a particular concern of many people today. As I mentioned in my last post, a lot of proposed solutions to the problem of poverty are limited to the distribution of material goods, such as money and food. But, we need to understand, as Harvie Conn and Manuel Ortiz argue in Urban Ministry: The Kingdom, the City, and the People of God, that 'injustice and oppression are at the root of most poverty in this world' (p. 328). That is, there are systems and structures in our societies and cultures that are unjust, and that are a direct cause of problems like poverty.
When we understand the poor to be people who do not have enough food or enough clothes or enough money, our solutions will aim at alieviating those immediate problems. However, we need to have a broader understanding of the poor, and the Old Testament can help develop this. In their book, Cities: Missions' New Frontier, Roger Greenway and Timothy Monsma write, 'A careful examination of the Hebrew words translated "poor" reveals a much wider meaning than we might have expected. The poor are those who are forced into submission, reduced to subservience – the oppressed and the violated' (p. 173).
You cannot read the Bible, even cursorily, without noticing the frequent repetition of the command to care for the poor. God has always entrusted his people with this responsibility. Society in the time of Old Testament Israel, when they lived according to God's law, was the epitome of justice, a society free from the structures that oppressed people. The same could not be said of the pagan nations surrounding Israel, whose autocratic rulers demanded total obedience from their subjects and subjected them to endless tyranny. Yahweh demanded total fidelity as well, but in submitting to his rule of love, humanity flourished. And Israel was charged with embodying this rule of love toward everyone who lived within her borders.
As the church, this will help us begin to think about how to deal with poverty in our communities and cities. As we work in our neighbourhoodsand seek to bring shalom to the city, we must remember that bearing witness to the rule of Christ over all of life involves a committment to 'act justly and love mercy' (Micah 6:8). We want people to acknowledge Jesus as their Lord, but that mission involves more than just addressing their hearts. That is certainly a major part of it, but it goes hand in hand with embodying an alternative reality that reflects the love of Jesus and that manifests itself when we fully submit to our King.
Doing this will bring us into direct confrontation with the economic, political, and religious systems that govern our communities and cities. However, as Robert Linthicum has said, 'If the church does not deal with the systems and structures of evil in the city, then it will not effectively transform the lives of that city's individuals' (Empowering the Poor, p. 11). Viv Grigg, who has spent many years living in the slums and among the poor of cities like Manila, Calcutta, São Paulo, and Los Angeles, says,
The cause of the poverty of the slums has to do not only with the spiritual condition of the slum dweller and the lack of resources among the poor. It has to do also with oppression and the political and economic structures of society that operate in favour of the rich. Holistic ministry cannot avoid confronting the principalities and powers that perverty and corrupt the structures of society in ways that bring abundance to the few and grinding poverty to the many... If the poverty of your squatter area is caused by oppression, the pastoral response will involve actions that may conflict with the interests of those who oppress (Cry of the Urban Poor, pp. 176-178).
According to Harvie Conn and Manuel Ortiz, in their book, Urban Ministry: The Kingdom, the City, and the People of God, Mother Theresa once visited the Bronx and said that the people there suffered from a far worse poverty than the people of Calcutta. At face value, it seems like an odd statement to make – how can you even compare such radically different contexts – but it makes more sense when you adopt a more nuanced definition of poverty, such as one Viv Grigg proposes:
Absolute poverty is a term used to describe poverty when people have an absolute insufficiency to meet their basic needs... Relative poverty is found in the developed world and is measured by looking at a person's standard of living relative to others in the community or nation... It is a measure of the extent to which people are on the margins of society.
Conn and Ortiz add that poor people living the Bronx have a much harder time dealing with their poverty because they live side by side with some of the most prosperous people in the world. Their poverty, then, is not so much an absence of material goods, but a poverty of identity. They have a sense of hopelessness, of failure and inferiority. Donald McGavran has written, 'Being poor and hopeless in a society where most are not produces a deep sense of alienation.' Conn and Ortiz continue,
The word most connected with poverty is powerlessness... [David Claerbaut writes,] "Poverty means much more than the absence of money. It is powerlessness and alienation from key institutions of society... The urban poor are almost completely cut off from the wider society and yet are oppressively controlled by it." [Robert] Linthicum explains, "To truly undertand the condition of poverty today, one must understand how power is exercised in the city. Poverty...is the absence of power – the capability of being able to change one's situation."
I read this section with interest because Hull is something of a deprived area, and our church is trying to figure out how best to meet the needs here. There is high unemployment, and the percentage of child poverty in this city is reportedly over 30%. Defining poverty as something more than just the absence of material goods is helpful because it helps us get a fix on the fact that the needs go beyond money, food, and clothes. And so, to deal with the problem of poverty will necessarily involve a great deal more than just throwing money at those in need.
'Our response to this situation,' write Conn and Ortiz, 'ought to be the same as God's. [According to Linthicum,] the cities that house the poor have forced the poor "to live lives that break God's heart and should break ours, as well."'
Building on my post earlier today, I noticed that Anthony Bradley wrote an excellent article for World Magazine online on the opportunities available for missional churches to get involved in education in their local communities. Anthony writes, 'Outside of a church, there is no better way, institutionally speaking, to demonstrate love for our neighbors than to provide education that surpasses failing public schools in quality and virtue, especially in inner cities.'
There are huge opportunities here for churches to play an active role in the renewal of the city and to help bring children up understanding reality through the lens of the Gospel. Check out this video below to learn about the incredible work that is being done in Philadelphia by Christians who are committed to Christian education and the people in their communities.
One of the most interesting chapters so far in the book I've been reading, Urban Ministry: The Kingdom, the City, and the People of God, has been the chapter on the role of the city in the Old Testament. In the previous post, I quoted a portion of Harvie Conn and Manuel Ortiz's discussion on the role religion played in the city, where they made the point that like anything else, the life of the city is either lived in service to or in rebellion to God.
In the Ancient Near East and in the Old Testament this was no different. Conn and Ortiz write, "The lifestyle of the city is religion made visible, faith reflected either toward God or against him" (93). Today, if you live in a city that does not honour the God of Scripture, you do not necessarily need to expect that life will be exceedingly difficult, but this was not the case in the cities of the Ancient Near East. Conn and Ortiz note that "in these ancient city-states with their autocratic territorial gods, the ruler or king interpreted the will of the gods. And the people served as slaves of the gods and of their earthly, royal regents" (94). When the ruler was convinced that he was an agent of the gods, then it was total obedience to his rule that became the highest virtue, naturally resulting in tyranny against the people he ruled over.
In this context that Israel was called to be radically different. Already before they took possession of the Promised Land, God instructed them regarding what type of king they should have to reign over them, giving them a portrait of a king that was the polar opposite of the kings of the Ancient Near East (Deut. 17:14-20). And further, it was not just Israel's kings that were to be different, but her entire society and culture. Her cities were to be places where justice and mercy reigned and life was to be found in abundance for all who lived in fidelity to the covenant Lord.
In dramatic contrast to all this, Yahweh called his people to a new model for urban life. Israel was to be the exhibition place for God's redemptive grace in the city and the empires that formed around God's people in history. At the heart of the model was a new theological vision, a covenant relationship between the suzerain God and his servant community. At the core of that vision was a concept of divine kingship new to the ancient world, and to demonstrate it, a new sociopolitical organization (95).
It is not insignificant that the Promised Land God gave to the Israelites was at the very heart of the Ancient Near Eastern world. He called Israel to be examples to the nations surrounding her of justice and righteouness. "Israel's social and political identity as a people of righteousness was to mirror the righteousness of God" (97). And what's more, their covenantal commitment to God meant that they would reject loyalty to the gods of the surrounding city-states, and would also reject how those societies were ordered. "Out of the covenant notion that Yahweh is king and Israel is Yahweh's kingdom (Is. 43:15) was to come a new social and political order of rule" (97).
Over against an urban world where justice and righteousness could mean oppression and disregard for the weak and the poor, hesed (compassionate, merciful) love forbade taking advantage of others in the name of law (Matt. 23:23). In God's new social order it was not simply justic that must be maintained; it was love and justice (Hos. 12:6). Yahweh's delight was 'kindness, justice and righteousness on earth' (Jer. 9:24; Is. 16:5)...Israel's identity was established by the doing of justice, righteousness and love to the cosmic God and to the Israelites' neighbors.
The Torah pointed to the social reflection of that calling. Israel was to be a benevolent and just society embodying the exclusive kingship of Yahweh, its benevolent and just Lord. As a people, Israel was to be the image of God, exhibiting the glory of God in love toward God and human beings. (98-99)
Living according to God's law would mean that Israel lived in a way that was diametrically opposed to the surrounding nations. In her cities she would show concern for the weak and the poor and would make no economic or class distinctions. Justice and compassion would transcend not just these barriers, but even the divisions of ethnicity. The alien and stranger would be invited into the community that worshiped Yahweh as the sovereign Lord. Under the covenant law, all were equal. Kings too were subject to keeping the law. The people did not serve the kings, but all of Israel served the high King of heaven. The majestic temple of her capital city, Jerusalem, would demonstrate this in a very real and tangible way.
The parallel with us as the new Israel is clear, I hope. Just as God placed his people in the middle of the world, as it were, so he places his church in the midst of the world as well. As his covenant people, called to live according to his rule, we are to demonstrate through our words and our actions that the Kingdom of God has arrived. We are to invite those around us, in our cities, towns and villages, into the beauty of this life lived in service to the sovereign Lord, for it is here that a new societal order is found. It is here that life is found in abundance, life that is richer and fuller than anything that the world can offer. It is a life of true freedom and blessing, where true justice and righteousness are found. And it is our task to work to bring this peace and this prosperity to our cities.
Since I have a few posts in the pipeline about the city, building on yesterday's post, I found this to be quite interesting. Andy Crouch talks about a shift in how we identify ourselves—previous generations would define themselves by their work, but today's generation finds the identity of place much more important. I've observed myself that people will often ask where you are from before they ask what you do, although this may have to do with the fact that I live in a very transient place, one which very few people call 'home' in the sense of being born and raised here.
While I was away this week, I had some time to start reading Urban Ministry: The Kingdom, the City & the People of God, co-authored by Harvie Conn and Manuel Ortiz. It really is an excellent book, although I've discovered that just reading through it is not sufficient—I am going to have to go back to the beginning armed with my trusty pencil and ruler and take the time to pore over the material and mine the gold from this thick volume.
One of the themes Conn and Ortiz develop in the book is that the city is a fundamentally religious place, a theme I will be looking at in the next few posts as I continue to work through the book. In ancient history, the religious character of the city was much more overt, but the more subliminal religiosity of today's cities does not obscure the fact that it still remains a fundamentally religious place. Conn and Ortiz write that in the city we find
urban mazes searching through the city for meaning and order to existence—quests that never escape their religious origins. With organized systems that structure religion around the supernatural, building temple and mosque. With unorganized common or folk religions that focus hopes for safe air travel in the 'spirit of the air' embodied in a straw idol and then discard it at the Kimpo airport in Seoul as the plane is boarded. With the surrogate religion of the great England bowler Harold Larwood, who claimed, 'Cricket was my reason for living.' With the unorganized invisible religion that finds its answer to the yearning of the heart in sex or ideology, work or family (191).
Of course, this is just a testament to the reality that human beings are themselves, at the core, religious beings. Conn and Ortiz cite John Calvin in the first book of his Institutes of the Christian Religion:
God himself has implanted in all men a certain understanding of his divine majesty. Ever renewing its memory, he repeatedly sheds fresh drops...[All men] continue to retain some seed of religion. So deeply does the common conception occupy the minds of all, so tenaciously does it inhere in the hearts of all! Therefore, since from the beginning of the world there has been no region, no city, in short, no household, that could do without religion, there lies in this a tacit confession of a sense of deity inscribed in the hearts of all (I.iii.1).
With that in view, Conn and Ortiz ask a pressing question: "Who waits in the urban shadows of these dead-end mazeways distorted by sin, these blurred human paths along which we stumble through the city, blindly searching for links to the cosmos and its norm, to the riddle of our existence?" (191). Whoever these people are, let it be the church that shines light into those shadows, being the presence of Jesus and his Kingdom in the city. We are called as the people of God to "seek the peace and prosperity of the city" and to "pray to the Lord for it" (Jeremiah 29:7). The best thing for any city are churches that actively seek to love and serve their cities.
In a place where a plethora of idols compete for its citizens hearts, in a place where meaning and purpose is distored or even lost, in a place where people's identities can be reduced to nothing, let us proclaim the message of the gospel that crushes all idols, provides total meaning and purpose, and gives people their ultimate identity as citizens of the Kindgom and children of the King.
