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A Theology of Social Justice
- In the Nazareth manifesto of Luke 4, Jesus summarises his mission. Part of this mission is ‘declaring the year of the Lord’s favour’.
- This links back to the passage that Jesus was quoting from Isaiah 61, and ultimately to the idea of the year of jubilee, described in Leviticus 25.
- The implication here is that there is some kind of socio-economic blessing that comes with the gospel.
- In the Old Testament, it is jubilee. In the New Testament, it will be even more (hence Jubilee+).
- To see what this looks like in the New Testament, consider the way the early church acted. They shared resources to meet needs within the Christian community itself.
- It starts in the church, but it moves out and blesses everybody (see Galatians 6:10).
- In Galatians 2:10, Peter and Paul came to an agreement that remembering the poor is intrinsic to church planting.
- In those cultures, around 50% of the people in every community would be in poverty.
Cultural Questions Regarding Social Justice
- The myth of the undeserving poor. Cultural attitudes towards many on benefits divide them away from the rest of society.
- Social Care. The care of aging and disabled people is going to become a very big issue in the next few years. There is an epidemic of loneliness and there will be a black hole in the provision.
- The declining capacity of local authority to provide care. This decline is permanent and will not be changing any time soon. It presents both a need and an opportunity for the church.
- This is a very timely issue. Where does the church stand? What can the church do? What issues are rising?
- Refugees and asylum seekers. As a nation, our capacity in this area is becoming increasingly stretched, and the church will be more and more on the forefront of this.
- Key issues for the church to focus on are building community for people and imparting life skills of many types.
- Life skills relate to many different areas of poverty. These issues are not resolved by government grants, but by working with people very closely.
What Can the Church Do?
- Since the financial crash of 2008, there has been a big increase in church-based social action projects.
- People are beginning to notice the church in a fresh way.
“Just as it looked like the church was losing the moral arguments, we have an opportunity to win the social arguments.” (Martin Charlesworth)
- Church-based projects are the bridge that can connect us into our society.
- A key for connecting the two things is doing good networking around the projects that we are involved in.
- We need to relate well to civil leaders, and try to meet with our MPs and our councillors as much as we can.
- There is a role for advocacy and campaigning.
- Research is also important.
- Social action is part of mission – it is at its strongest when it is connected into the church.
- What you do depends on your scale. It is better to do small things well than to do big things badly.
Q&A
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Should the provision of food be linked to willingness to work? (2 Thessalonians 3:10)
- The context of Thessalonians is someone inside the faith community who is making a conscious decision to adopt a lazy attitude.
- Paul is saying that in this situation, there can’t just be ongoing support. There needs to also be accountability and challenge.
- When dealing with people outside the church, the verse doesn’t apply directly, but it does give us the principle of not causing dependency.
- This is a debate in foodbank communities. Should it be seen as long-term provision or emergency provision?
- It is best to see it as emergency provision, but to link to other organisations to which you can signpost people who have longer-term needs.
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Does this apply to church plants or just to existing churches?
- Peter and Paul’s agreement to remember the poor in Galatians 2:10 doesn’t seem to make this distinction.
- If helping one needy person is all that a church plant has the resources to do, then it should help that one person.
- In time, your capacity will increase.
- Put care for the poor into the DNA of your church plant.
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Should churches make a point of having the visibility of the church brand on the project?
- The highest priority is to do the work.
- God will lead us to the needs that we are to get involved with through the prophetic and through what giftings people have.
- But once we are doing the work, there is a strategic benefit in making it public and letting people see the good things that the church is doing.
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What are one or two issues for which now is a key moment in campaigning and advocating on a national level?
- It depends on your area of interest.
- Human trafficking.
- Maybe soon campaigning for the support of immigrant communities will be become a prominent thing.
- Environmental issues – environmental degradation has a disproportionate impact on the poor.
- There are campaigns run by organisations such as Tearfund and Care.
- There are also lots of local issues to get involved in.
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Can you recommend ways to research local needs and explore what God would have us do?
- The simplest way is to talk to your local councillors. They will have much more knowledge than a local MP and will be able to tell you what is going on in the community.
- You could also do surveys.
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Do you think that the gospel is not preached when we work with the poor?
- Often it is not.
- There is an integrated mission and model implied by Jesus’ words in Luke 4 and by his own ministry.
- There is a risk that social action can become non-evangelistic.
- Church leaders need to keep an eye on this and make sure that (in ways that are appropriate to the ministry) evangelismis happening.
- Social activists are not always evangelistically gifted.
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How can we work effectively with other churches of different denominations?
- This is a good aspiration to have.
- It depends on what the project is. Some projects (such as Street Pastors) are designed to be multi-church.
- Don’t enter into contractual agreements with other churches that prevent you from expressing your faith.
- We need to make sure that people, finances and other resources are managed responsibly.
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How do you get involved in working with refugees?
- Talk to your local council and discuss what refugee situations exist in your community.
- The issues are very varied in different communities across the country.
- You may want to get involved with national organisations like ForRefugees, or local organisations like The Boaz Trust in Manchester or the Refugee Support Network in London.
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What things might we be doing in well-intentioned ways that are actually counter-productive?
- Causing people to become dependent on you.
- You need to make a judgment call with people about how much help will be truly helpful to the person.
- This issue has been particularly highlighted with food banks, but it actually applies to many different kinds of help.
- We looking to help people to take responsibility for their lives, little by little, in ways that are possible given their circumstances.
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Does refugee status prevent a person having a career in their original profession in the UK?
- It depends on the profession and whether their qualifications are transferable.
- It also depends on whether they have been granted asylum. A lot of people are in no-mans-land while they are waiting for the decision.
- For more specifics, talk to people who are involved in refugees work on the ground.