I don't have his book in front of me, but somewhere in Missional Renaissance, Reggie McNeal explains how after WW II, our society began to structure in such a way that people began to farm out things to specialists...families even began to assign spiritual growth as the job of the church. (He explains this much more intelligently).
The Church is guilty of this as well. We've assigned the role of caring for the poor to the government system, and we 've assigned the judicial system the role of determining justice and reforming prisoners. This is insane, really. Who could think that such systems and programs alone will really make the difference in people's lives?
I sat in a court room the other day with a judge, a county attorney, a defense lawyer, and the defendant, a friend of mine. I watched the three employed in the judicial system look through their files, make notes, argue a few points, and determine a sentence for my friend. This, before they moved on to their next case to do more of the same. All I could do as I watched this proceeding is think, "Come on, Church, where are you?" I considered the ratio of all the churches and followers of Jesus in town to how many are engaged and walking with the poor or the prisoners in town. There's some room for engagement. And a better path for reform.
No comments:
Post a Comment