[Editor's note: It's summertime!—the season of short-term mission trips. Most everyone would agree that the church of Jesus Christ is called to serve on mission, both locally and globally. But how do we serve? And why? To what end? Over the next few weeks, Andrew Guastaferro, International Development Director of Safe Harbor International, will weigh in with a few thoughts on "worldview and social change" from a biblical perspective.]
[This is the first part in a new series on Worldview and Social Change]
Where is the Church?
In the 1990’s, Safe Harbor arrived in an extremely undeserved region of Sub-Saharan Africa that had recently suffered from rebel warfare and a cholera outbreak. Making matters worse, all this was occurring under conditions of low income levels, virtually no basic health services, poor infrastructure, and below-standard education. Furthermore, an evangelical church was nowhere to be found. As told by one of the community elders, this region’s fellow countrymen refused to help their own, calling the local people “baboons”. Given this little information, what are your immediate reactions to the following questions?
- What are the chief issues of poverty that should be addressed?
- What would your goals for this community be after 2 years? After 10 years? After 50 years?
- What are the steps required to take to begin to accomplish these goals?
- How would you know what is being accomplished?
- What about negative consequences? What would you want to prevent from happening in your service to this community?
Social change, poverty, and the Christian mission field
In previous Safe Harbor blog posts, I addressed issues of global poverty and missions while touching upon a concept called “social change”, which deals with the change in communities over time, vis-à-vis socio-economic, cultural, religious, structural change, etc. Any time an organization or person enters a community in order to accomplish a particular objective, that organization or person essentially becomes an agent of change.
Social change can be broken down into the nature of poverty, causes, interventions, and, finally, the desired change—all of which are analyzed according to one’s worldview. The following figure illustrates how one’s worldview permeates how one might approach each step of the social change ladder.
These concepts are absolutely critical to missions and poverty alleviation in that whether we realize it or not, the moment we step into another community with the aim to serve, we will contribute to some sort of change in the situation, one’s perception of the West, or in our case, one’s perception of the Church. At the end of the day, we need to ask ourselves: What is it that we are trying to accomplish and why?
Difficulty of defining the problem
In our technocratic society, many Westerners view poverty primarily in economic terms, believing that increased incomes will solve the problem of poverty. Others hold the view that poverty is caused by a lack of education, which leads to interventions rooted in better schooling. Secular cultural anthropologists may perceive social change in light of cultural preservation with interventions that foster ‘natural’ progression with little to no outside influence. This perspective may be particularly hostile to missions. The list of perspectives is broad, deep, highly debated, and invariably informed by the worldview that one holds.
A theology of social change
Within the church itself, the issue of social change has evolved into a more heated theological topic within circles of Christians, particularly younger generations who seek to “redefine” the role of the church when it comes to serving the poor. Some of the more liberal theological agendas within the American church have suggested that serving the poor is the gospel; some have suggested a movement towards asceticism. Still another stream of theology that is storming developing countries is the prosperity gospel. Meanwhile, I have noticed a generation of young Christians who are very concerned about the poor while being very serious about theological orthodoxy. This group, in which I include myself (except I’m not too young!), need not look to other movements for answers about serving the poor. The Bible so beautifully reveals to us that Jesus is the center of the gospel and that He has called us to love our neighbors through the lens of Christ-centeredness, which includes serving the poor in a way that focuses our hearts, as well as the hearts of those we serve, on Jesus Christ himself.
Seeking a biblical worldview
So what is this biblical worldview that should be informing our social change process? As a Christian, how would you answer this blog post’s initial questions differently from others in our society?
It is my aim and prayer that this blog series challenges us to take a deeper look into how we might be more faithful to God’s call in proclaiming Christ and serving the poor according to the Word of God, so that all glory and honor would be given where it belongs—to God alone!
Additional Notes for this Blog Series:
In When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor and Yourself, Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert summarize these issues in a very clear and systematic way. This book gained notoriety in 2009/2010 when it was voted as one of the top 30 recommended books by World Magazine and has since earned excellent reviews from many, including Kevin DeYoung. For a more in-depth theological study of serving the poor, I would also recommend Timothy Keller’s Ministries of Mercy: The Call of the Jericho Road and Bryant L. Myers’ Walking with the Poor: Principles and Practices of Transformational Development. While I (as well as Safe Harbor) do not endorse everything that is suggested by the authors, their work challenges us to think about critical concepts of poverty alleviation from a biblical perspective. These books will be referenced throughout this series. 1
1 Steve Corbett is the community development specialist for Chalmers Center for Economic Development at Covenant College.
Brian Fikkert is an associate professor of economics at Covenant College and founder / executive director of the Chalmers Center for Economic Development.
Timothy Keller (M.Div, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary; D.Min., Westminster Theological Seminary) is senior pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, New York.
At the time of publication, Bryant L. Myers served as Vice President of International Program Strategy at World Vision International.
3 Comments on "Worldview and Social Change: Are we being biblical?"
I love the idea of this article series. I feel like there are a lot of people who want to love their own version of God and unintentionally ignore the whole scope of scripture. For example, as you mentioned, there are a lot of Christians who want to do a bunch of great things, but they leave out the truth and the good news. Also, though, I think it is worth noting that there are also some Christians who love truth and the good news gospel, but they are not the most loving people. I think we need both: truth AND love.
Oooooh this series looks good! “Are we being biblical?” is a question we should constantly be asking. Another question is “Are we being gospel-centered?”
These are excellent comments, and I look forward to your continued reflections throughout this series. It is such a pleasure to know that we will never stop asking those questions “Are we being biblical?” and “Are we being gospel-centered?” while on earth! May we always encourage one another to these ends.