BIRMINGHAM, England (BWA) — Like Cinderella, the 21st century church must leave the “scullery” and engage the world as Christ intended it to, Steve Chalke told participants at the Baptist World Centenary Congress July 29.
Chalke, a British Baptist minister, is founder and president of the London-based Oasis Trust, which ministers on five continents through hostels for at-risk youth, schools for poor children and health-care facilities for impoverished people.
He called on churches to become “the new health service” for people all around the globe.
To illustrate, Chalke recalled how his mother used to present the story of Cinderella as a great mystery. Cinderella was born to be a princess, but she languished as a servant, dressed in rags and toiling in a scullery, the dreary area of a large house where laundry and cleaning is done.
“Will Cinderella leave the scullery and become a princess?” Chalke's mother would ask her sons and daughter. “We don't know!” the children would squeal, always caught up in the drama.
“Here is the issue facing the church around the earth: We live as Cinderella in the scullery,” Chalke stressed. The church has traded its mandate to engage the world for a diminished role “inside,” talking to itself, he said.
“Did we get pushed inside, or did we retire because we lost our confidence?” he asked.
Answering his own question, Chalke described how the 20th-century church ceded its historic responsibility for caring for the whole lives of people to the “welfare state” of most governments and ceded its moral and intellectual leadership to science. Along the way the church convinced itself — and society confirmed — religion is personal and should not engage culture.
“Our religion may be personal, but it's not private,” he retorted. “Jesus has to be Lord of the universe. … Christian truth is public truth. We are called to engage the world.”
Since God is the God of politics, science, industry, art and all aspects of humanity and society, Christians must be active in the public square, making a difference in the lives of people everywhere.
And that's particularly true for the disenfranchised and disadvantaged residents of the poorest communities all over the world, Chalke insisted.
For example, Oasis Trust recently completed a deal with the United Kingdom government to build a performing and visual arts school in one of the poorest areas of Bristol. Eventually it will build six such schools across the nation.
The schools not only will provide education but also “wrap-around care” for the entire communities in which they are located, he said. They will be centers for recreation, health care and social involvement as well as education for the children.
“We do not build schools,” he said. “We regenerate communities.” If churches are going to make a difference in the world, they must do likewise, Chalke said.
“You have to change the culture” in order to change people, he added. That means “incarnation” — embodying the presence of Christ for people as they are. And that doesn't happen in isolation, since people have not only spiritual needs but also social and physical needs. The church must address the body as well as the spirit.
“Social regeneration and spiritual transformation are integrated,” he said. “You can't transform communities until individuals are transformed. You can't have social regeneration until individuals are transformed.”
Citing Jesus' sermon in his hometown, Nazareth, Chalke noted Jesus described his own ministry as being “good news” to the poor, prisoners, blind and oppressed, and Jesus identified with and cared for known sinners.
“Our gospel is spiritual, physical. It is good news, shalom … wellness, well-being, God's 360-degree care for your life.”
The church's “360-degree care” always must be spiritual, social and physical, but never only one of those elements in isolation, he added.
And the church should not fear compromising its beliefs by working with others to provide that kind of care, he urged. “The greatest compromise is to not get involved, to sit in the scullery. That was the [church's] great compromise of the 20th century.”
Local churches don't need to have the resources to start a hospital, hostel or school in order to make a difference in a poor community, he said. A church can begin by offering a parish nurse program, where people come to get preventive health-care, so they don't become ill.
And by reaching the people's physical needs, the church also has the opportunity to transform them spiritually, he said.
“Is your church the local place where people come to get healthy?” he asked. “This works anywhere in the world.”