I agree with his opinion that we need to focus more on local justice. There are injustices going on at our neighborhoods that are unnoticed. It is sad that the church just ignores them, but I don't think the answer is turning our cheeks away from the international scene. The Darfur conflict, Aids in Africa, global poverty are all causes that need to be backed. They are also something that each individual can support and improve. Probably the most important reason to stay involved in the larger scenes is inspiration. Everyday things don't inspire us. Big things inspire. If we feel like we had a role in helping something like global poverty, it gives us the courage to do more (globaly and locally).
The answer should not lie in an either/or but figuring out the best way to do both. I don't think its a hard thing to do. Collect donations for the large scale projects and use it to inspire to do actual action in the local scene. Let one feed the other

Really, there is no social crisis that doesn't affect us all.

Miracle said: [Probably the most important reason to stay involved in the larger scenes is inspiration. Everyday things don't inspire us. Big things inspire. If we feel like we had a role in helping something like global poverty, it gives us the courage to do more (globally and locally).]

That is worth repeating. In every aspect, the work we have gotten people involved with in overseas missions, has had a reciprocal effect on their awareness and social action on the home front. Once we learn that God can indeed use us and that we really can make a difference, we have the inspiration, insight and awareness to act wherever there is need.

However, if we but talk about it and listen to others talk about it, and do nothing, then nothing will be the sum of our accomplishments.

Great concept, but in all honesty, how many churches have a significant number of people who are gifted enough at mediation to do this? How many members are familiar enough with rental laws? How many tenant situations are not already so overblown with emotion as to be beyond mediation?

I mean, I'm glad you're doing this, and I imagine many of the readers here have the necessary skills, but this will always be a small niche ministry in the church. Is there some other way to promote justice that doesn't require extraordinary mediation skills?

"I mean, I'm glad you're doing this, and I imagine many of the readers here have the necessary skills, but this will always be a small niche ministry in the church. Is there some other way to promote justice that doesn't require extraordinary mediation skills?"

I think you underestimate the ability of a local church. If your church is small, network. When you do you will find that the church is more then equipped for handling most anything that comes it's way. We are God's choosen for a reason.

Geoff,

Though justice may be difficult to define I think we must so that our ministry will be Christ honoring and kingdom effective.

Many have done "ministry" without understanding justice and in the process caused harm to those being ministered to. Just think of how many people do "ministry" around Christmas time and end up damaging the dignity of people because of the way we carry out our charity. Or I think of the Civil Right Movement...without an understanding of justice we might have thought that all we needed to do was minister to people in their pain rather than seek justice in a land that purports, "Liberty and justice for all."

I'm guessing I'm missing some of your nuance in opting for the use of the word "ministry" over "justice." I look forward to learning from you.

robert

It is REALLY strange to me to hear the insistence for justice "out there" when in the majority of cases, the call for justice by Biblical prophets was for justice "in here." Perhaps, just perhaps, those "out there" will begin to practice justice when they have appropriate models of its expression from those who are "in here!"
Isn't it rather bizarre to expect those who don't have access to the heritage of faith/justice to actually act in accordance to faith/justice, especially when they see a significant lack of congruence between "life and lip" among the faithful?
Maybe, just maybe, when the world observes justice PRACTICED by the "in house" crowd, justice will have an authentic hearing in the market place of life?!

“The main culprit here is that we pastors teach justice as a concept instead of a practice.”
This is so true. Mr. Fitch is opening a big can of worms with this. Most of what Pastors teach is done in one-way communication. How do you teach “practice” not just “concept” on anything in one-way communication? It’s only teaching with words. There is no example teaching there. There is no mutual relationship teaching there. Teaching in “practice” requires modeling, teaching by example, teaching by doing. This is a long way from lecture oriented preaching/teaching. Justice ministry requires God’s people transformed into walking in the Spirit. Lecture oriented teaching only moves a small percentage of God’s people to live this. Traditionally leaders are content with this, but the head of the church is not. We need to think outside the box for solutions to problems caused by the box. Then give up the box.

I think back to the old book In His Steps. The pastor in this story preaches his heart out to get God’s people to do justice and love mercy. Only a few respond to “do what Jesus would do.” He ends up giving up the box of institutional church completely. Millions have read this book and think wow, what a good thing, but then stay in the box. God never asked for the box of institutionalized church with pews, pulpits, and crowd oriented gatherings with pastors who have little or no mutuality with those they shepherd.

Geoff,

There are two greatest commandments, and I fear you're discounting the second. God wants us not only to love Him with all our hearts, souls, minds and strength, but also to love our neighbors as ourselves. The parable of the Good Samaritan shows what this love looks like, and it isn't simply a means to getting conversions.

You don't see a socially crusading Jesus? Yet he, claiming to be the fulfilment of Isaiah's prophecy, says "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." (Luke 4:18-19, NIV)

Now, if all we do is care for our neighbors' physical, emotional, and social needs, but neglect their spiritual needs, we have failed our mission. But let us regain (or retain) a robust gospel--one that seeks to set the world right again, with God and with one another--not settle for the anemic one you seem to propose.

Geoff says, "Honestly, I do not see what some North American believers seem to see in the Scriptures ... a socially crusading Jesus."

I suggest you re-read Jesus' statement as to his purpose in Luke 4:16-21.

"The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."
..."Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."

Jesus is telling us that he is fulfilling Isaiah 61, when God will right injustice.

And let's remember what God tells his people to do:
"He has showed you, O man, what is good.
And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God." Micah 6:8

God's full redemption includes BOTH reconciliation with God and reconciliation with our fellow humans. You can't have one without the other. And when we try to separate the two, we end up hindering one or the other.

Robert,

You still didn't give that elusive definition. I still don't know what you consider to be "justice."

Nate (& Bob),

Read my comment again. I'm not discounting the "great commandment" at all. What I am saying is that, many times, when we hear individuals focus upon "social justice," that focus is at the expense of the Gospel itself. Indeed, you can have efforts at "justice" (whatever that may be) that are completely absent of the Gospel.

But you cannot have the true Gospel conveyed without Christian ministry.

I still do not see, despite the Luke 4 reference by both of you, a socially "crusading" Jesus. Yes, Jesus touched the lives of individuals in ministry, and He told them about being reconciled to His Father. He healed individuals who were blind. But in every case, the real issue was reconciliation with God. Reconciliation among men was simply the pathway for that God-action.

I love your quote from Luke 4. Yes, Jesus proclaimed that HE was the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy, not that WE are that fulfillment. He sets the prisoners free, gives sight to the blind, and releases the oppressed. We are agents of that message. Ministry is our method. But Jesus Christ, crucified and risen, remains our message.

This method is not "anemic," as you say. It is biblical, and quite effective. What is anemic is a gaggle of Christians on a social crusade, doing good works and demanding "justice" for all, but falling short of presenting a biblical, life-changing, eternity-changing Gospel.

We do ministry and work for "justice" in order to communicate the message of Christ, not just for the sake of "doing it." That IS the "robust" Gospel.

I'll bet your ex-convict could get a drink of clean water, even if he was evicted.

I volunteer for Blood:Water Mission, Jars of Clay's organization that's building clean water wells in sub-Saharan Africa.

I don't disagree with what you're saying, but it always gets to me that no matter how bad anyone's circumstances are in this country, we can at least get clean water to drink.

In all honesty, Geoff, Jesus said that to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and soul and to love your neighbor as yourself was the fulfillment of the law and the prophets.

Without such love for our God as expressed in our love for our fellow man, anything we conceive as being our love is but a clanging cymbal.

I spent quite a few years of my life as an independent long haul trucker. Every, and I do mean every time I would drive past some fancy new church edifice and have my CB radio on, some trucker would invariably make some sarcastic remark, pondering how anyone who calls themselves Christian could justify spending all their money on some fancy place to park their butts on a Sunday morning within eyesight of so much poverty. And it would go downhill from there as everyone else threw in their two cents.

My challenge was always to somehow show them the real Jesus, separating him from the collective towers of Babel that dot our countryside. It wasn't easy, but once I got through to them, it usually wasn't long before they were wanting a relationship with the real Jesus, who also did not condone all the lavish institutionalism and I was often blessed with the opportunity to pray with them.

My point is that we Christians can proclaim Jesus till the cows come home, but until our lives reflect his unconditional love, compassion and mercy toward all mankind, the Gospel message will remain null and void to the world. The world will not only know we are Christians by our love, when they see faith in action, they will want what we have.

Isaiah 58 really says it all about the social heart of Jesus, as well as the hypocritical antics of the religious.

Praying, fasting, going to church 5 times a week, building the biggest worship center, having the best worship band, the best kids programs, etc., won't gain us squat. Only when we spend ourselves on behalf of the poor and oppressed, when we visit the sick, imprisoned and elderly, care for the widows, and give shelter to the poor wanderers, etc., will God begin to pour out his blessing, and to hear and answer our prayers. Only then will the world see us as the reconcilers and healers, and as the hands and feet of our Lord Jesus.

God-ordained social justice is not merely throwing money at the poor. It is not a matter of voting the "right" politician into office to get the job done. It is not simply protesting for the rights of the afflicted.

No. God-ordained social justice is when God's people are finally willing to lay down their very lives for their fellow man. It is when they stop relying on governments, money, rock stars and missions comittees, and finally realize that God has called them, individually and corporately, together to break the cycles of oppression--not by legislation, but by selfless love and charity. That kind of Gospel message is so powerful that no words could compare to it.

Geoff,
I understand that the word justice has baggage for you and you prefer "ministry" but Christian ministry has baggage for many people as well. There has been so many destructive and senseless things done under the guise of Christian ministry that I find that phrase meaningless. The politically left has taken the concept of social justice away from the gospel. The politically right seem to want nothing to do with social justice because it belongs to the left. But if we read God's call in Isa. 59 for justice we see that God calls worship (Isa 58) that is not backed by justice as empty and far from God. If fact God put on his own armour, the helmet of salvation and the breastplate of righteousness to make war against his own people because there was no justice in the land. When we are told to put on the armour of God it is so that we are in solidarity with God's desire to see justice on earth. Does not pure religion deal with how we treat the marginalized of the world, our world? Does not Matthew 25 suggest that if we are not concerned with the poor we will miss "ministering" to Jesus. Is it possible that this passage is telling us that if we concern ourselves with those that are not capable of defending/doing for themselves that we are then doing the will of Jesus?
I think David is correct, until justice, justice as defined by scripture (righteousness and justice are the same word in Greek - dikaios - and Hebrew - tsedeq. ), is practiced and taught locally it is just a program. Justice (righteousness) must be normative in the community of faith.

Friends,
It strikes me that some posters and readers perhaps don’t have relationships with those in our neighborhoods who experience injustice virtually every day of their lives.

The uneducated, those from minority races, those without ‘connections;’ those new to this country, those who can’t speak English, those “widows and orphans”…all of these and more endure unknown injustice and oppression (both macro and micro) whether located in urban centers, suburbs, small towns, or rural areas.

Spend time with a refugee, immigrant, single-mom, handicapped person, non-white person (etc.), and you will find periodic if not regular and systematic injustice suffered in their lives. For those who can’t call any of these people a friend, justice is merely conceptual, because middle-to-upper class majority population members typically relate to those like them. For those in relationship with these and who love Jesus, one cannot help but respond to the social, emotional, physical, and spiritual needs that emerge in the course of relationship.

For followers of Jesus in the U.S., I believe the absence of justice-doing locally is fundamentally a problem of (homogenous) relationships and less a problem of what we do when we encounter injustice.

Tony Campolo said, "I think that Christianity has two emphases. One is a social emphasis to impart the values of the kingdom of God in society - to relieve the sufferings of the poor, to stand up for the oppressed, to be a voice for those who have no voice. The other emphasis is to bring people into a personal, transforming relationship with Christ, where they feel the joy and the love of God in their lives. That they manifest what the fifth chapter of Galatians calls 'the fruit of the Spirit'. Fundamentalism has emphasized the latter, mainline churches have emphasized the former. We cannot neglect one for the other." It's not either/or. It's both.

Geoff, I understand your concern that we spread the gospel, and I agree. But it cannot be done without practically improving the conditions of others as well. You seem to think it can. Do you? James 2 and Matthew 25 say telling someone "God loves you!" without giving them a drink of water, clothing them, and visting them in the hopsital or prison is pure dung in God's eyes, end of story.

I have been a christian for 30 years and am glad to hear about these issues. I have never heard it talked about or expressed except within the last 5 years in my area.
Thank goodness its finally acceptable to talk about and act on something other than childrens ministry or praise and worship.

True. Social justice like any change begins locally. And probably closer to home than you think. Pedrhaps the most oppressed people on the planet are people with disabilities. Arguably they exist on the margins of every society including ours. Yet here in America they likely live in your neighborhood. Thus offering the opportunity to "live" social justice literally to the neighbor next door. Blessings!

While I agree we need to do what we can to help others in foreign nations, where do you draw the line? Where do you start? There is so much need in Africa, India and other countries that there are a multitude of agencies in need of donations. But, I think this is more about justice in the sense that we need to do more to help the widows and orphans and the poor as Jesus instructed. And we need to start in our own communities.

Believe it or not, even in the shadows of some of the wealthiest churches and neighborhoods, there are single mothers or fathers who can't make ends meet. Many of them are lost or unchurched because their focus is on physical needs - like feeding children or paying rent.

We have sent missionary after missionary overseas while neglecting the people in need of the full gospel right in our own neighborhoods. In fact, other nations are sending missionaries to the United States because they see a need for our nation to be evangelized. So, we as a nation perhaps have dropped the ball when it comes to evangelism in the U.S. Shame on us when our nation has become so decadent and immoral that Third World countries are sending their missionaries to preach the gospel to us.

We seem to be having a debate about whether we do good good to our neighbors for its inherent value, or whether we do good for the purpose of telling them the gospel message. Or alternatively, we are debating whether it is even possible to do someone good without telling them the gospel message.

Maybe I can put my position in more concrete terms.

I give to an organization called International Justice Mission. They work in foreign countries to get innocent people out of slavery and the sex trade. I give to them because I think Jesus doesn't want people to become enslaved in sex trafficking.

Telling these victims that Jesus saves is not going to get them out of brothels. I think that getting them out of brothels is a worthy endeavor by itself, something that Jesus wants his church to do. This is justice: helping to set the world right again, freeing the captive. We are Jesus' hands and feet in the world, sent to do His work.