Week 4 - The Role of Church in Society
- timandeliza
- May 2, 2014
- 3 min read
Week 4: The Role of Church in Society Speaker: Alex Ferron Main Theme: This week we looked at how we, as the church, are meant to approach development. We are to share God's love through acts of service and to bring reconciliation to those outside the community of believers. If we want to pursue development at church and community levels, then we must first be pursing it at a personal and family level. The importance of careful planning was emphasised as essential to being able to achieve personal and community goals. We were introduced to "seed projects" as bite-sized projects that could be started within a community and grow into something bigger. The 4 areas that we focused on for development were Wisdom, Social, Physical and Spiritual, which was based on the scripture in Luke 2:52 where it says that Jesus grew in Wisdom, Stature and in favour with God and man. Some Key Ideas…
When we go into a community we should look for the resources and potential that they already have instead of trying to bring in outside resources.
When resources are poured into a country through foreign aid, it can blind a people to the things that they have, which can often be better than what is being "provided" from the outside.
60% of a nations "wealth" is human potential, so when you invest into people, your investment goes far.
Jesus is our model for balanced, holistic development. Jesus developed perfectly - despite being born into low and somewhat despised social circumstances, poor, a part of an oppressed people under the Roman empire, etc.
In Luke 2:52 “Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.” - Jesus developed physically, spiritually, socially and in wisdom. The purpose of development is to move towards God's purposes in all of these areas.
Ideas can be like seeds that start small and can grow very large with time. Good or bad, they have consequences and will grow in the right environment.
Seed Projects - A seed project is small, short-term ministry by believers. It is done with local resources to demonstrate God’s love to those outside the faith community. Seed projects can give confidence and experience to move forward to larger projects -they can grow, but you start with something small.
The size of someone's contribution doesn't limit the potential of it's effect. No contribution is too small when it is placed in God's hands.
Some things we learned… Eliza - When we discussed Jesus developing perfectly despite his upbringing and circumstances it really impacted me. People don’t need the technology, complicated health systems, perfect politics and all the other things we strive for in the modern world to be able to develop fully. Of course these things help improve life but the lack of these things doesn’t necessarily inhibit development. I think this idea helps us to look at the resources with a more open mind and to also discover the essential areas of development as seen in the Christian Magna Carta. Tim and Eliza - Seed Projects are a valuable tool for taking a simple idea and applying it to a community need by using resources from within. Through good planning, you can have several impacts within the community and get them involved in what you are doing. The desire is to always have a spiritual aspect to what you are doing, but often, the primary impact will be Wisdom, Social or Physical. It's also important that the focus be aimed towards those outside of the body of believers.
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