Opinion - Lawrie Lyons

The church’s vocation is to proclaim the gospel, fundamentalists claim, whilst evangelicals affirm the priority of evangelism but do not sunder it from social responsibility.

As in the ministry of Jesus, so today, words and deeds, proclamation and demonstration, good news and good works supplement and reinforce one another. Their separation, wrote Carl Henry, is Protestantism’s embarrassing divorce.

In Manila 1989, a conference of 3000 evangelicals from 170 countries emphasised ‘the need for every congregation to turn itself outward to its local community in evangelistic witness and compassionate service.’

They affirmed their ‘duty to study the society in which we live, in order to understand its structures, values and needs, and so develop an appropriate strategy of mission.’

In Australia today, individual Christians contribute to society through their daily job and some may even join community groups. Many good works are done with efficiency through centralised church agencies, such as Anglicare, but in a way that does little for individual congregations.

Few congregations, acting as congregations, report anything other than evangelism and Bible study, things of primary importance in obeying Jesus’ first great command.  However, Jesus said the second command was like the first - we must love our neighbours as we love God.

Churches often omit from their mission statements specific mention of the second command. Yet we have ample evidence in the New Testament as to how this second commandment guided the activities of the early Christians.

The twelve gathered the disciples and said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word to wait on tables. Brothers choose seven men ... and we will turn this responsibility over to them (Acts 6).”

Jesus calls us to love our neighbours - and not merely by preaching the gospel - so let every parish study how this command should be integrated into their ministry strategies.

Lawrie Lyons is Emeritus Professor at the University of Queensland. He was formerly from Sydney where he was a member of the Moore College Council and a founder of New College at UNSW. He is currently a member of Kenmore Baptist Church.

A paper ‘Strategies for Churches: expressing the gospel received in faith’ is available electronically upon request to l.lyons@uq.net.au.