CHRISTIAN SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION — Praying and working for the coming of the Kingdom of God in metropolitan Richmond.
Do we Christians transform our society?
How do we do that? By sheer force of will? Collective osmosis? Wishful thinking?
How do we do that? By sheer force of will? Collective osmosis? Wishful thinking?
Before we become agents of transformation, agents of change, change is required on our part. “Become the change you want to see.” (who said that?) This change comes at a personal level, a molecular, individual level. It involves changing our minds, our hearts, and our behavior, too.
Beginning with our minds, let’s think about our notions of community. What does it mean to you? Community used to mean a group of interacting people, living in some proximity (i.e. space, time, or relationship). It usually refers to a social unit larger than a household that shares common values and has social cohesion. In this time of social media, our digital virtual connections begin to surpass or usurp realtime face-time with our neighbors. We have the possibility of “friending” those who we like, while flaming or conveniently ignoring those we don’t.
Examining our hearts, what do we find? Isolation that is inherent in our digital platforms sneaks up on us. “Me? Lonely? Are you kidding? I have 500+ friends on FB and 637 connections on LinkedIn. Don’t tell me I’m not connected!” To function well in a fully engaged manner, our hearts need to be tuned to both vertical and horizontal frequencies. That is, vibrating on a north-south axis, from the heights of heaven into the depths of our soul. As well as cultivating a horizontal awareness and love of all that surrounds us — in the form of people, places and things.
Now we come to our behavior. This is how our beliefs and intentions manifest themselves in the “real world.” Thoughts and beliefs that are not reflected in some sort of action bear little fruit. We are called to act, but, at the same time, often our actions are constricted, limited by our experiences, fears and failures.
Jesus brought radical possibility into play with His ministry. He came to set us free from our constraints. And He is waiting to see what we will do with our precious possibility. I’m thinking we could all benefit from an inside-out approach to this transformation process…from inside: get clear, get thinking, and then, get working outside…and see how the Kingdom of God emerges in our own small corner of metropolitan Richmond.
This is Kingdom building, one brick at a time. May it ever be so.
Richard Rumble
October 2013
