Justice vrs Ministry, What do you think?
As you may know, we’re in the middle of a rather lengthy series at Dunningville about “the three pillars.” The concept is simple: There are three basic arenas within which a healthy maturing Christian must have some kind of growth and development. This isn’t a legalistic approach to the faith, it’s simply a three-focused approach to helping evaluate one’s faithfulness and (at a cooperate level) helping determine whether we, as a congregation, are being faithful.
In any case, Pillar number two is Ministry & Justice. Of course they’re closely related, indeed, I’ve been describing them as “two sides of the same coin.” But I’ve been marking the difference between the two as essentially being the difference between the “forest” and the “trees.” In other words, both have to do with seeking the priorities of God’s kingdom for all people in all places regardless of the religious convictions, cultures, ect. Both are active ways God’s people seek to establish that kingdom, but justice primarily focuses on doing so at a cooperate and system level (forest), whereas ministry seeks the same kinds of things on a personal and interpersonal one (trees).
What do you think? Is that a fair/effective/helpful distinction?
Just wondering.
Grace and Peace,
`tim
One Response to “Justice vrs Ministry, What do you think?”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
October 1st, 2007 at 6:19 pm
Tim, I never cease to be amazed with the GOOD things you’re able to bring to your congregation. I want to talk more to you about the 3 pillars thing. Is that from The Isaiah Vision? Or someplace else?
Anyway, it really looks like good stuff for my interim church.