Lausanne World Pulse – Themed Articles – What Does Faithful Christian Witness Look Like in a World of Destructive Conflicts?

By Chris Rice

Numerous ideologies of escape steer Christians away from faithful witness. These ideologies of escape include:

  • an adopting numbers of conversions or church plants as a primary measure of Christianity’s growth, allowing churches or ministries to grow with superficial discipleship or in ways that perpetuate social division;
  • dualistic theologies which are silent about social problems, teach individual salvation without social transformation or social involvement without personal conversion in Christ;
  • the fallacy of any ethnic, cultural, gender or national group’s self-sufficiency;
  • a false belief in God’s creation of essentially different people groups, justifying permanent boundaries between them (such as was the case with South African apartheid);
  • a spirit of individualism seen in Christian disunity; and
  • an underlying message of cheap grace which encourages superficial discipleship and reconciliation without repentance.

It is urgent that the Christian community learn to name and unlearn these ideologies.

The Critical Need for a Theological Framework for Peace

While it is a problem when Christians do not see how peace and reconciliation fit into Jesus, it is also a problem when we do not see how the presence of Jesus Christ profoundly reshapes a vision of justice and reconciliation.

Indeed, the fullness of reconciliation is friendship with God in Jesus Christ. The wholeness that God seeks to bring to all areas of brokenness is summed up in the rich scriptural notion of shalom. Shalom as God’s peace envisions the wholeness, well-being and flourishing of all people and all creation in their interrelatedness with God and with each other.

This work of becoming peacemakers between divided people is not secondary or optional, but is central to Christian mission along with planting churches and making disciples.

Shalom embraces mercy, truth, justice and peace through both personal conversion in Christ and social transformation. One crucial implication is that Christians must stand against any destructive or dehumanizing barrier, whether those who suffer are Christian or not.

Reconciliation as an Essential, Long and Costly Journey

This work of becoming peacemakers between divided people is not secondary or optional, but is central to Christian mission along with planting churches and making disciples. This witness begins at home. For the Church to make peace, she herself must embody God’s peace as a living sign of God’s reconciled community. Pages: ALL   Prev    1    2    3    Next   

Chris Rice is co-director of the Center for Reconciliation at Duke Divinity School in North Carolina, USA. He served as convener of the Lausanne 2004 Issue Group on Reconciliation. He is author of More Than Equals: Racial Healing for the Sake of the Gospel and Grace Matters.