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Justice Revival: It is Coming to Vineyard Columbus April 16-18, 2008!On April 16-18, 2008, Vineyard Columbus will be co-hosting an event called the Justice Revival with many other Central Ohio churches and Jim Wallis, the publisher of Sojourner's Magazine.Rich, what is a Justice Revival? My friend, Jim Wallis, in his book The Great Awakening said, "Imagine something called Justice Revivals in the powerful tradition of revivals past, but focusing on the great moral issues of our time. Imagine linking the tradition of Billy Graham with the tradition of Martin Luther King, Jr. Imagine a new generation of young people catching fire and offering their gifts, talents, and lives in a new spiritual movement for social justice. Imagine such revivals taking place in cities' great convention centers, but resulting in thousands of small groups for ongoing discipleship, training, and action in every neighborhood of those cities. Imagine disillusioned believers coming back to faith after many years of alienation, while other seekers discover the power of faith for the first time. Imagine social movements rising out of spiritual revival and actually changing the wind of both our culture and our politics. Imagine a fulfillment in our time of the words of the prophet Amos: 'Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.' Just imagine." We plan on three nights of preaching and worship. On Wednesday evening, April 16, we will call people to make a personal commitment to Christ. Matt Redman, the writer of many of our worship songs, and his band will join us for worship. On Thursday night, we will call people to work for justice in the Central Ohio community and we will host the Raymond Wise Gospel Choir as our worship leader. And on Friday night, we will focus on issues of global justice. Worship will be led by Vineyard Columbus' new worship pastor, Clarence Church, together with worship leaders from other churches in Central Ohio. Then on Saturday, April 19, thousands of members of Central Ohio churches will fan out into our community and do dozens of servant evangelism projects such as fixing up local schools, visiting nursing homes, and working on homes for Habitat for Humanity. Rich, how would you define social justice? Social justice is simply a commitment on the part of Christians to improve the lot of human beings in this world, particularly the lot of the most marginalized to whom God shows particular concern: the widow, the orphan, the immigrant, the unborn and their mothers. The God of the Bible is both a God of justification (he declares us right with himself) and justice (he is concerned about putting the world to rights). Doing justice is one of the major themes of scripture. God hates religion without an accompanying commitment to social justice. Amos 5:21-24 "I hate, I despise your religious festivals; I cannot stand your assemblies. 22 Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them. 23 Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. 24 But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream! So social justice was the historic practice of the evangelical church before the 20th century. It would have been unthinkable for men like John Wesley, or William Wilberforce to consider someone to be a good follower of Jesus Christ, who was not actively involved in improving the social conditions of people in this world. Aren't social justice and the social justice movement distractions from our commitment to preach the gospel? Social justice is not a distraction from our commitment; it is part and parcel of the gospel of the kingdom. We read in Mark 1:15, "The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!" What is the message of the kingdom? Certainly the center of the message is the proclamation that through one's faith in the sinless life, substitutionary death and bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ (the King), a person can be eternally saved. Thus Vineyard Columbus regularly calls people to put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ in order to be born again and enter God's kingdom. But that is not the circumference or totality of the message of the kingdom. The ultimate goal of the kingdom goes beyond the salvation of us as individuals (wonderful as that is) and involves the restoration and renovation of the entire universe. The apostle Paul speaks about the cosmic sweep of this message of the kingdom. He tells us that not only we, but the entire creation, will be freed from the curse of the fall (Romans 8:19-21). This enormous plan, involving the renovation and restoration of the entire universe is what we pray for when we pray the Lord's Prayer, "They kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." So when we Christians feed the hungry in the name of Jesus, or heal a sick person in the power of Christ, or work for peace in this war-torn world, or help reconcile a marriage, or extend help to immigrants, or work for the responsible care of the environment, these actions are not a distraction from our commission to preach the gospel of the kingdom. Rather, we Vineyard people are living out our calling as kingdom people to partner with God in bringing about the healing of the entire universe. What are your hopes for members of Vineyard Columbus regarding social justice? I have several hopes for the Vineyard regarding social justice. I hope that we become a church that breaks out of the boxes that church tradition tries to impose upon the evangelical church namely, that evangelical churches are not supposed to be involved with improving the social conditions of people in this world. I have a hope that Vineyard would not exist for itself, but for Christ and for the world. And I also have a hope that the Holy Spirit would change the inclinations and tilt of our hearts. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said that perspective is a matter of what a person sees when he or she gets up in the morning. If when you wake up in the morning the first thing you see is a tiny inner city apartment that is poorly heated and roach-infested, then that is your perspective. If the first thing you see in the morning is a 4000 sq. ft. house that you live in and you open your eyes to massive skylights that communicate to you that all is right with the world, then that is your perspective. My hope is that members of Vineyard Columbus would seek to walk in the shoes of those whose perspectives are shaped by poverty, racial oppression, and personal suffering. My hope is that the tilt of the hearts of Vineyard Columbus members would be towards the poor (and not just the rich), towards the sick (and not just the well), and towards peacemaking. What do you hope to accomplish through Vineyard's hosting of this Justice Revival? We have several goals that we hope to accomplish through the Justice Revival. First of all, we want to transform the public face of Christianity here in Central Ohio. I want our city to know that we followers of Jesus are not at war with our city. I want Christians to be Jeremiah 29:7 people, who "seek the peace and prosperity of the city [where we live] and pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, [we] too will prosper." I want hundreds of people to be saved through this Justice Revival and to come into fellowship with local churches throughout our community. I want to see churches across Central Ohio united in the practical service of our city and in reaching our city for Christ. Many of Columbus' largest churches are already involved in helping to host this Justice Revival including First Church of God, Grove City Nazarene, Faith Ministries, Reynoldsburg United Methodist Church, First Community Church, Rhema, and New Salem Baptist. We also have several other Vineyards involved. Through the Justice Revival we want to help redefine what it means to be a Christian disciple so that thousands of Christians will understand that they can't be good followers of Jesus without also committing to Jesus' agenda which includes feeding the hungry, welcoming the stranger, clothing the naked, giving care to the sick, and visiting the prisoner (Matthew 25:35-36). We particularly want to call attention to the condition of children in our city by having local churches adopt local public schools for the purpose of mentoring kids. And finally, we want to call attention to global issues of justice especially the Darfur, the tragedy of global sex trafficking, the 30,000 children a day who die of malnutrition and preventable diseases, and the billion people on our planet who live on less than $1 a day. Why are we inviting Jim Wallis in to help us put on this Justice Revival? The idea of doing Justice Revivals was Jim Wallis' idea in the first place. Jim proposed it to me and to Bishop Timothy Clarke, and other Central Ohio Large Church Pastors. Jim said that over the last decade the Lord kept prompting him to do Justice Revivals around the country and asked us if we would host one. The collected group of large church pastors were thrilled by Jim's offer to help us put on one of these events. Jim Wallis has been somewhat identified with the Christian Left in politics. Is this where Vineyard Columbus is going? As pastor of Vineyard Columbus, I have absolutely no desire (nor agenda) to move our church towards a left, right, or centrist political perspective. In fact, I hate the way the world has compromised and co-opted the Christian church and forced us into its labels and molds. There is one goal for us as a church and it is not to be Democrat or Republican - it is to be biblical! To the best of our ability, we are called to follow Jesus in our generation. So, if the Bible calls us to be completely committed to protecting the lives of the unborn, it bothers me not at all, if that position is generally regarded as a right wing, or Republican position. And if the Bible calls us to creation care, it bothers me not at all, if that position is generally regarded as a left wing, or Democratic, position. As Pastor Rick Warren put it: "Left Wing? Right Wing? I want the whole bird," to which I say, "Amen!" I want Vineyard Columbus to be fully biblical even if our position can't fit into the tight boxes of contemporary secular politics. Do you agree with all of Jim Wallis' views or the views of Sojourners, the magazine that Jim publishes? Of course not! Jim and I do have a high degree of agreement about many fundamental issues including who Jesus is; what the cross of Christ accomplished; the need for faith and repentance in Christ to be saved, etc. But my standards for partnering with people to do an event do not require 100% agreement on all issues. I strongly believe in what the Christian philosopher, Francis Schaeffer, and Christian leader, Charles Colson, call "co-belligerency." We can partner together with various groups to accomplish certain moral goals without becoming that group, or agreeing with them on all issues. Thus, Vineyard Columbus could easily partner with Roman Catholics in fighting abortion without agreeing with the Roman Catholic view of the Mass, or with the Pope's authority. Vineyard Columbus could likewise easily partner with mainline churches to work against gambling casinos in our state without agreeing with the mainline church perspective on biblical authority. And we could work with Muslims, or Jews, to protest the abuse of the poor through pay-day lenders without Vineyard Columbus becoming Muslim or Jewish. What if I'm a member of Vineyard Columbus, but I don't agree with our hosting a Justice Revival? It is not necessary to agree with everything that a large church family does. But it is absolutely necessary that when we disagree, our disagreements are civil and that we give one another the benefit of the doubt. The Bible commands us to believe the best about each other (1 Corinthians 13:7); to be kind and never rude (1 Cor 13:4-5) and to never be divisive or judgmental towards one another (Rom. 14:1-8). Rich, any closing thoughts or dreams? I look forward to a day when an evangelical church that does a Justice Revival not only doesn't create any controversy, but hardly raises an eyebrow. I look forward to a day when Christians who hear about a Justice Revival say: "So, what else is new? Of course, evangelical churches are involved in social justice. That is what Christian churches are supposed to do. We are supposed to follow Jesus, who is both the God of Justification and the God of Justice!" |
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