Transforming Society (13)

Preaching the gospel and planting churches is not enough. We must start transforming our communities from the bottom up. If a number of churches do the same thing, an entire society can be transformed in the same way. Christian communities should deliberately take up the tasks that are currently seen as the responsibility of the government. Then when the state begins to collapse, we will have something to put in its place. The Kingdom of God will advance locality by locality.

The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough (Matt 13:33).

Christians are experts on loving one another, so building local communities should be “bread and butter” for us. If we provide social support for everyone living in our neighbourhood, a radically different lifestyle could emerge. Motivated by love, strong communities will emerge on a voluntarily basis:

• The stronger encourage the weak
• Children are educated
• The sick are healed
• The poor are be lifted up
• The weak are protected.
• Justice will be administered
• Old people makea contribution.
• The glory of God will be revealed.

Transforming Society (12) - Kingdom of God

Something amazing had happened in this community. The leadership of Alf, Ernie, Richard, Bill and Phil is recognised by everyone in A Street, because they have made good things happen, without coercion. Even the people who are not Christians, generally go along with their decisions, because they recognise their wisdom and can see that they are dedicated to serving the community. On most decisions that affect the community, the people gladly submitted to these five guys, who are submitted to Jesus. Most of the time in A Street, his will is done.

That means God’s kingdom had come.

A dozen government departments have been made redundant by the Kingdom of God.

• Department of Sanitation
• Department of Employment
• Ministry of Justice
• Department of Social Welfare
• Police department
• Defence Department
• Department of Courts
• Department of education
• Department of Health

Transforming Society (11) - Money

A great deal of giving and sharing will take place in A Street, but there will also be some market transactions. Jack has always paid for someone to mow his lawns. When he realised that a man from D Street had a lawn mowing business, he gave him the business. Jack could afford to pay for getting his lawn mown, so he preferred to keep on paying.

When the money broke down, Bert started recording transactions between people in the two streets to allow trade to continue. When the time is right, Bert and some friends will start new bank to serve the people of A Street. It will become essential for the functioning of society, during a time of economic collapse, but that it is too big a story to tell here.

The full story is told in this parable.

Transforming Society (10) - Defence

Things got pretty bad in the economy. When the government failed to pay their wages for several months, the police went on strike. Gangs of youths began to roam the streets looking for people and places to loot. The local guys parked a couple of cars at the entrance of the street to block the entry by undesirables.

William, who was retired, agreed to act as a look out. Whenever, unsavoury people came up to the entrance of the street, William would call some of the men from the neighbourhood together. When intruders saw them standing at the entrance to the street, they would go off to look for easier pickings.

Transforming Society (9) - Crime

One day a boy living in D Street was accusing of stealing a bike. He claimed to have bought the bike, but the previous owner claimed he had not been paid. Phil and Alf pointed out that Jeremy was a very wise person. They suggested that both parties to the dispute present their case to Jeremy and let him suggest a solution. Jeremy looked at all the evidence and decided on a fair solution. Both the boy and his accuser accepted his verdict, so the dispute was resolved and peace was restored to the community.

Jeremy’s wisdom gradually became well known and even non-Christians began to bring their disputes to him. A system of justice had begun to emerge in the community. This is important, because biblical justice functions better in a community than in a bureaucracy.

On one occasion, Jeremy decided that a girl living in A Street had stolen something things from the local supermarket. Alf and Phil made fourfold restitution on her behalf. They allowed her to make weekly payments back to them until the debt was cleared. She could not avoid the payments, because she wanted to remain living in the community. If she had scarpered, Alf and Phil would have carried the loss, because they wanted their community to have a reputation for justice.

Transforming Society (8) - Schooling

Deborah had been home schooling her owned children, so she offered to teach all some of the children living in A Street. When the government schools ran out of money, all the children A Street started attending the school in her house.

Transforming Society (7) - Cleaning and Coffee

The city council defaulted on some of its debts and had to cut back on sanitation services. A couple of retired people living in A Street agreed to keep the street clean. Once a week, they collect the rubbish from every house in the street and take it to the dump.

When a couple of women in the street lost their jobs, Phil opened a coffee bar on the balcony of house round the corner that was by a park where children brought their children to play. He arranged for the women who had lost their jobs to work at the café.

Transforming Society (6) - Deacons

In a very short time, the church had grown to about thirty households, but this is just part of the story. Something more important was going on at the same time. These households bound together by love and had become a community. Alf, Richard and Ernie had always done things together, and when other people came to the Lord, they joined them. Their strong relationships with each other drew others in.

The couples in the dwellings marked D have developed into the ministry of the deacon. The deacon is one of the most important ministries in the body of Christ, because, they channel social assistance to people in the neighbourhood who face poverty. One couple in an orange house chose to follow Jesus after they received financial help during a period of unemployment. Another deacon eventually found a new jobs for both of them. If the neighbourhood was wealthy, the deacons might channel resources to other neighbourhoods where people are poor.

Times were tough, and the government was facing a problem with sovereign debt, so was unable to pay pensions for several months. The Christians in A Street committed themselves to providing financial support to all the people in their street who depended on the pension for income. One was a Christian, but two were not one. One became a Christian. The other steadfastly rejected the gospel, but his neighbour chose to follow Jesus, after seeing how the Christians continued to provide support for someone who was hostile to their message.

Transforming Society (4) - Alf Richard and Ernie

A group of Christians living in the same location can form the body of Christ there, and transform their local community. They can be a community where the Kingdom God is manifested. Here is how it could happen.

Alf, Richard and Ernie were friends. They had served together in a church for some time. They had been praying about starting a new Church and were seeking guidance about where they should go. The Holy Spirit led them to A Street, as shown in the diagram. Each square represents a dwelling. A Street could be the main street in a rural village, or a street in any city. People who live in city of apartments will need to imagine these squares stacked on top of each other in groups of four.

Alf found a house to rent in A Street (A) and Ernie and Richard bought houses nearby (R, E). The person living next door to Alf was called Phil (P). He was a networker, one of those people who knew everyone living in his street. In the New Testament, he is called a Man of Influence or Person of Peace.

The major blight on Phil’s life was that his daughter was crippled from birth. Everyone knew her and felt sad as she struggled down the street to catch the bus. One day when Ernie and Richard were over at Phil’s place, they got talking to Phil. One thing led to another and before the end of the day, they had prayed for Phil’s daughter and she was healed. This had a huge impact in the street. Phil gave his heart to the Lord and became a hard-out Christian. He told his friends what had happened, and with a few weeks, the people in the blue houses and all decided to follow Jesus. Alf discipled these new Christians, so they grew quickly.

Transforming Society (3) - Challenge

The collapse of society presents huge opportunities for the gospel and the Kingdom of God. Those who understand their times and know what is happening can make a huge difference, if they know what to do. It is too late to start planning when the crisis comes. Those who make plans in advance and get prepared will be the ones with influence ( See Ambush).

Christians should start rebuilding their local communities from the bottom up. Jesus taught that we should love one another and the rest of the New Testament is full of One Another Stuff, so we should be experts at building communities.

As the Kingdom of God advances, society will be transformed from the bottom up, as local communities are restored to peace and unity. The Holy Spirit is also an expert at building communities, but he works household by household. When Jesus commissioned his disciples, he sent them to a particular place, and urged them to focus on one household (Luke 10:6,7). The good news can spread from house to house through an entire community.

The basic building block of Israelite society was a group of ten families living close to each other (Deut 1:15). These families would sometimes be related, and they would care for each other. They provided protection and social support for their community.

Several of these groups of ten would join together for defence, dealing with crime, or economic purpose. If a serious attack, was threatened, a large number might form together to form an army. Authority passed from the ten, to the hundred, to the thousand by voluntary submission. If the leaders of the tens withdrew their submission, the leaders of the hundred and thousand lost their authority. Authority flowed from the bottom to the top, with no loss of freedom.

This contrasts with the pattern in the world, where authority flows the other way. The group at the top of the hierarchy has control and power and authority flows from the top by force.

Christians should take up the challenge of restoring their local communities. Belonging to a church is not enough, church tend to stand apart from the local culture. House Churches are a step in the right direction, but their impact on society is limited, because Christians are still scattered thinly throughout their cities. We have to become villages that change the world.

In the next few posts I will tell a story that explains how this could happen.

Transforming Society (1)

The coming of the kingdom requires a radical change in the way that society is structured. This new society will be radically different from the world we know.

We must begin building this new society at street level by establishing beachheads from which we can expand out. Just as Israel was meant to be a light to the nations (Deut 4:6-7), this renewed society will appear so amazing to people outside, that they will want to be part of it.

Our challenge is to build the institutions needed for a functioning society without imposing them from the top.

Jesus is the King.

His humanity means the he is constrained to being in one place. This makes him a powerless king.

The Holy Spirit is the Kingdom Builder

He is active everywhere on earth. He listens to Jesus and tells us what Jesus is saying. He empowers us to obey commands.

Jesus is enthroned as king when we obey the Holy Spirit.

This is a radical idea, which will change our understanding of the Kingdom, if we get hold of it.