My Social Responsibility – Communication, Clarity, and Community

Greetings Dear Reader,

My pastor once told a tale of a woman who approached him after service claiming that the information concerning our church was deceptive.  She went on to explain that the denomination claims to be “Evangelical Free”.   In our culture most things followed by “free” mean that they do not contain that thing.  Our church is part of the Evangelical Free Church of America.  It is filled with free Evangelicals.  This dates back to our history in Europe and clearly does not communicate to everyone as it once did.

Sometimes I think that we place so much emphasis on what happens miraculously in the second chapter of Acts that we miss the very practical things that are happening there.  The first of those is communication.  As Christ followers it is vital that we communicate in a way that can be understood.  People need to hear us more that we need to use terms with which we are comfortable. 

If God is willing to make his followers able to speak languages they do not know then he can surely make us understood through language that is common to those around us.  I must be willing to use terms and language that communicates to those I am attempting to reach.

The second thing that is vital to my social responsibility is that I stay on message.  Many things that matter to me about theology, faith, and practice are not necessary to a seminal understanding of the Gospel.  When Peter speaks he is very clear that Jesus is the Messiah.  He is clear that Christ died and rose from the dead.  He is clear that this is the path to salvation. 

The apostles were very certain of what they had to say.  They communicated a single message.  I must not major on the minors.  It does not matter what I think about most theological issues if I cannot communicate a clear message of faith for salvation. 

At the end of this chapter the state of their living is almost like an obvious afterthought.  They were a community that was concerned about the social wellbeing of everyone and had a single passion.  They did not think wealth and possessions were paramount.  They focused on meeting the needs of the community.  Imagine the impact on the world if Christ followers did this.  We will visit this again in depth in chapter four. 

What I wish to make clear is that the early Christ followers who witnessed the miraculous were driven to live in a state of social equality so that no one lacked anything he needed.

I must do all three.  Any elements that are missing defeat my purpose.  Christ’s message without clear communication and real community seems contradictory and empty.  Social activism without Christ at its center is not sustainable.  All three are vital to the social success of the Gospel

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store."