A Call for Christian Social Involvement

In recent months, the needs of Regina’s inner-city have been much in the news. Drug addictions and homelessness are major indicators of underlying social problems. These are just some of the more immediate and more dramatic social needs attracting our attention.

Over the years, a variety of Christian initiatives have developed to focus on the spiritual and social needs of inner-city Regina. Support has been received from the larger Christian and secular communities. But problems are chronic and are largely out-of-mind until a crisis erupts.

Our larger community is being threatened by a general social breakdown. While appeals are made for governments to do more, we see evidence of limited responses whether justified or not. In this context, what is the role of the faithful Christian community?

Collaborative reflection and action

I would like to propose the formation of a Christian Social Action Network, primarily Evangelical in theological orientation and practice, with the following goals:

Promotion of greater understanding of current needs, developments, and strategic responses
Identification of practical means of personal engagement by Christians in addressing and responding to needs
Providing support and encouragement to Christian ministries and agencies addressing social needs.

What follows are some initial suggestions for active consultation on current issues and local needs.

An Evangelical Community perspective

I recognize there may be some challenges in bringing those of an “evangelical” mindset together around some concerns. Our traditions and theologies have generally approached faith and action in somewhat different ways than groups we often identify as the “social gospel” approach. Rather than approaching the Gospel in terms of contrasting polarities, I recommend the more unifying perspectives around the meaning of Evangelicalism that flow from as long history of evangelical thought and practice. This includes not only the emphasis on scriptural teaching at the time of the reformation, but exploring also the highly effective approach during the Great Awaking commencing in the mid-1700s. A more recent articulation of our biblical mandate was shared internationally under the guidance of Billy Graham and John Stott with the Lausanne Covenant (1974) and continuing Conventions. Literally thousands of evangelical delegates have met internationally from time to time since then, attempting to promote a common vision around core biblical beliefs and action around evangelism, discipleship, and social action.

A personal perspective

As a family, we have been well-connected for a number of years with current local inner-city problems. Many decades ago, we adopted an Indigenous child who was recognized only later to be suffering from fetal alcohol effects. Many such children can be found today in our community, schools, social services programs, and in our prisons. Their stories are often tragic. While mental illness and disabilities are a significant cause of poverty and serious social breakdown, there are other factors too.

Alcohol abuse, drug addition, growing crime and homelessness are all part of the phenomena. While the causes of poverty are not isolated to any one ethnic group, there is much awareness the our Indigenous people struggle with these problems to a much greater degree than others as they attempt to transition to modern urban life. Yes, our personal experience with North-Central Regina families relates to this demographic, the biblical call is to care for “our neighbour,” especially those caught in the current web of poverty.

Historic Christian perspective

Christians, for many centuries, have sensed a need to be involved in addressing social needs. Churches have recently got a bad rap from their involvement with residential schools. It is a sad legacy, and truly a trauma that needs our understanding and efforts to promote healing and reconciliation. A variety of Christian ministries, such as the Red Cross and Salvation Army, are best known. They have attempted to persevere over the years in giving aid to those in distress. Locally we now have many newer services developing and expanding. Many now function with Indigenous leadership and staffing. Many are explicitly Christian; others are led and staffed with more latent Christian commitment and values.

The needs continue to grow. Christians often express their sense of loss on how to best respond. It is understandable, since so many of the poverty-related problems are inter-connected and often multi-generational.

The “early evangelicals,” during the times of John Wesley and, earlier, others such as William Wilberforce, exerted much leadership in bringing needed social change to Britain and elsewhere. In more recent years, Evangelical have been challenged internationally through such initiatives as Ron Sider’s Christians for Social Action, Jim Wallis’s Sojourners, and Stott and Graham mentioned above. All have sought to expand the focus of the evangelical movement to a more biblically-balanced commitment to care and compassion towards others.

What may not be so clear as an effective strategy is the current highly combatitive and divisive political initiatives, primarily in the USA, that have arisen out of the best intentions of the Moral Majority. This call to local dialogue and action attempt to avoid political partisanship in the spirit of open searches for solutions and collaboration focus on the welfare of those in need.

However, one may view these historic developments, it seems clear enough that there is a strong scriptural call to care for our neighbours and especially look out for, and seek justice for, the poor. To ignore such is to negate the historical evangelical commitment to be guided by “scripture only” in our life and practice as Christians.

Evolving changes in focus

Christians today are aware of how the agenda of social action has shifted from the Church to secular institutions. The views most prominently expressed today in news media come from social activists that are too often identified with political polarities. University people are now often at the forefront of social advocacy and often contribute to the harsh polarization tendencies .

Little appreciation appears here of past or present church involvements which are often unknown and ignored. Indeed, our reliance on mass media means that even within our Christian community much of our own history of active social involvement by Christians is not appreciated. In recent years, the Christian concern for social needs and solutions has been preempted by the infighting that tends to paralyze decision-making and fails to keep the focus on careful assessment and collaborative action.

Keeping and strengthening our focus

As Christians, we pray “Thy will be done… on Earth as in Heaven.“ In terms of Kingdom teaching, of which the Gospels speak so persistently, what then is our role as ambassadors of the Kingdom of God?

What might Christian Social Involvement mean? Let me suggest just a few initial ideas:

The practice of Christian disciplines includes the care for others, guided by deep understanding (in our respect for Truth), and practice of Faith expressed in Action;
A major social concern is a commitment to strengthening families, faith communities, and the surrounding society/culture.
Effective Christian involvement is promoted through intentional preparation for this type of ministry and progresses through well-conceived strategies that are consistent with the teachings on the Greatest Commandment and our call to be Salt and Light.
Within all of this, social involvement thrives in the context of effective guidance, involving prayer and sensitivity to the work of the Holy Spirit. Our ministry outward to surrounding society needs to be guided by mature followers of Christ backed by the prayers and faithful guidance of our church communities.

I offer this as a call to unity with openness to further clarification and refinement. We have so much in common even as we may choose our areas of ministry and styles somewhat differently. We desire to be Christ-like in our visible outward ministries, demonstrating compassion for others, servant-style leadership, and spirit-led creativity in effectively addressing emerging social realities. The Christian call to unity across our communities means we can learn from one another. We are stronger together than in isolation.

First published: 2022/05/05
Latest revision: 2023/10/09