David, your words are filled with challenge and conviction. I can, and will, join in praying daily for those who need to hear of Jesus and those who can, and will, go to them!
The word "justice"... I'm resonating with what you're sharing here, David, and I can't quite put my finger on why I'm uncomfortable about the word "justice" in association with the gospel gap. As someone who's done far more thinking (and acting) about it than I have, have you heard any pushback on that term in particular?
well, I didn't get into the semantics in this article, but I'd put it this way:
Justice is about power, and about the misuse of that power or withholding of it from those without it.
If one believes that having access to the good news of Jesus Christ is powerful, and perhaps even the greatest power there is, then withholding it from those without access is an injustice. Likewise, many are simply born into circumstances where they don't have access--through no fault of their own--much like these other injustices. So providing access overcomes that gap.
Now, I would also say that the WAY one communicates and does this work of closing the gap can be unjust as well. One need look no further than colonialism to know this. That era influenced mission work more than mission work influenced colonialism--and some of that bled even into 100 years ago and how it worked. But missiology in thought and action has developed MASSIVELY in the last 50 years and I haven't met a missionary in any country of the world in the last 20 years that wasn't directly countering those trends and building redemptive non-threatening relationships to give access to those without it.
That's a kind of long answer.
tl;dr: justice is about power, and the gospel is a power we must share
This is a very important article...packed with support for justice work from Scriptures and a variety of sources in the footnotes. and informed my prayers for the 4 in 10.
David, your words are filled with challenge and conviction. I can, and will, join in praying daily for those who need to hear of Jesus and those who can, and will, go to them!
so thankful for your prayers for them!
The word "justice"... I'm resonating with what you're sharing here, David, and I can't quite put my finger on why I'm uncomfortable about the word "justice" in association with the gospel gap. As someone who's done far more thinking (and acting) about it than I have, have you heard any pushback on that term in particular?
well, I didn't get into the semantics in this article, but I'd put it this way:
Justice is about power, and about the misuse of that power or withholding of it from those without it.
If one believes that having access to the good news of Jesus Christ is powerful, and perhaps even the greatest power there is, then withholding it from those without access is an injustice. Likewise, many are simply born into circumstances where they don't have access--through no fault of their own--much like these other injustices. So providing access overcomes that gap.
Now, I would also say that the WAY one communicates and does this work of closing the gap can be unjust as well. One need look no further than colonialism to know this. That era influenced mission work more than mission work influenced colonialism--and some of that bled even into 100 years ago and how it worked. But missiology in thought and action has developed MASSIVELY in the last 50 years and I haven't met a missionary in any country of the world in the last 20 years that wasn't directly countering those trends and building redemptive non-threatening relationships to give access to those without it.
That's a kind of long answer.
tl;dr: justice is about power, and the gospel is a power we must share
A+. So, hoarding / not sharing that "power" is an injustice. I'm tracking. Thanks for articulating that.
This is a very important article...packed with support for justice work from Scriptures and a variety of sources in the footnotes. and informed my prayers for the 4 in 10.
wonderful... thanks for your prayers for them!
Yes and amen!!!!! Thank you for writing this!!
no problem!