What’s Missing From Justice Ministry

Rudy is onto something with his critique of Justice Ministry. In particular he is right to question the value of and emphasis placed in ‚Äúspeaking truth to power,” something that I have always found misguided.

All too often I’ve felt (with my involvement in urban and poverty ministries), that when folks call something a “justice” issue, it becomes a “talkfest” issue. Moreover, the talk hits me like one directional leftist ranting into, well into a void, because no-one is listening. Social action becomes socialist ranting.

Well, OK, I am starting to sound like a talkback radio parrot, I know. However, it does irk me when the plight of the poor, or the disadvantaged is used as a platform for ideological ranting. I’d much rather see more attention paid to the small (often entrepreneurial, often market-driven) ways that the plight of the poor can be tangibly changed.

For me what often goes unnoticed in the history of Christian Mission in Sydney, was the way that evangelical revival in the 30s went hand in hand with transformative urban mission. This work was incarnational, justice-oriented (though without the rhetoric), but also liberated people economically. I wish more was written about this, in particular the way that the solid “Bible-Belt” suburban churches of Sydney were grown and supported in the 50s and 60s by the work of people who had been liberated from urban poverty in the 30s and 40s.

Technorati Tags: Justice, Revival, Urban Theology, Theology and Culture, Emerging Church