There’s an interesting article in this month’s Evangelicals Now by Phil Hanson and Terry Young arguing that the church should be involved in creating jobs. There is much that I like about the article. I agree that we shouldn’t stop at offering charity. Foodbanks and help to pay off debt are good, food pantries where the needy community get more involved in contributing as well as receiving. Similarly, it’s better to train people to manage their finances as well as just giving them a handout.
I fully support the idea that Christians should engage in the world around them. Indeed, that’s been the historic evangelical position. Whilst some Christians have at times been suspicious of being drawn into a social gospel agenda, the reality is that Evangelicals have been involved in campaigning against slavery, have founded schools and hospitals and in recent years have done much through charities like Home For Good to support adoption and fostering.
It was the Evangelical Alliance who in 1974, sent aid out to Bangladesh and brought a plane load of products back to sell here in order to provide ongoing work for those who had been helped. The result was the Tearcraft wing of Tearfund (The Evangelical Alliance Relief fund).
The question though is whether or not this means that job creation, or indeed any of those things is part of the Church’s mission. Church leaders are consistently told that this or that cause is part of their mission and indeed a priority. I wonder if there isn’t a risk there that we become overwhelmed and so none of these things get done or done well. People are waiting for the church to act and the church doesn’t know where to start. It is also perhaps ironic that those who are often most insistent that it isn’t the job of the State to do these things insist that it is the job of the church.
Central to Hanson and Young’s argument is this statement:
“This is why we have been asking whether churches should help society by creating jobs. Not because job creation is the gospel. It is not. But neither should churches imagine the gospel has nothing to say about work, unemployment, bad jobs, or the value of useful and dignifying work, not to mention jobs as the major source of daily bread.”
There are many things that arise as implications from the Gospel. We refer to those things as aspects of discipleship and the Christian life. However, we don’t therefore say that it is the church’s job to do them. Bringing up your children in a godly way is something that the Gospel has something to say about. We do not therefore conclude that the church is responsible for parenting children. We expect that application from our Bible teaching will include parenting. However, we expect parents to apply that teaching in the home.
Similarly, if Scripture has something to say about employment and unemployment, then I’d expect those of us who teach God’s Word to have something to say about those things. Maybe we should have more to say than we do. I am cautious though about jumping to conclusions. Perhaps this is a priority in churches where there are people in a position to create wealth and employ people. However, I would argue that it remains the case that it is up to Christians individually or working together to apply God’s Word to their attitude to employment and job creation.
What this enables the church to do is to focus on its mission and not get distracted. Our job is to make disciples. This means more than just proclaiming the Gospel to get converts. It includes teaching them to obey Jesus. A church that is doing this will teach on work, unemployment, bad jobs and good jobs etc. In a healthy church, Christians will respond obediently to such teaching as they able.
Faithroots 