Being socially responsible is part of the mission-vision of my local church. Coming from a social science background and considering it as a career field at one point, nothing has resonated to me more. It is a pressing truth; we, as God’s people, need to be more socially responsible.
Before writing this piece, I asked the Lord to guide me towards the content He wanted to really advocate for. And from that brief conversation with the Lord, one thing struck to me: being socially responsible first requires us to truly be woke regarding pressing social issues. And come to think of it, have we truly become comfortable within the four corners of the church that we’ve come to easily avoid anything beyond it? Or has the world’s problems become too ugly and painstaking for us to bear? Have we forgotten what it means to be His hands and feet?
Over the years, I’ve developed a very intimate relationship with the Lord. What used to be simple hi’s and bye’s have become 1-2 hours of deep conversations per day, where I would just soak myself in His presence and forget the world around me.
Who knew I needed to forget the world around me for a moment to truly empathize with it?
It wasn’t long before the Lord started to impart His burdens to me and within a while, I received His heart regarding people, regarding issues, regarding the world He loves. I don’t know who needs to hear this, but do listen to the Holy Spirit. You were moved by that old person for a reason. You had compassion for that beggar because God was moving through you. You are His hands and feet and your heart is starting to beat with His and for the world around you.
So, going back to the question: how to be a socially responsible church?
It’s as simple as being His representation on earth, while having the right perspective about what obedience to Him truly requires and implies. What do I mean? We do not live for ourselves anymore. We live for Christ and sometimes we need to die to ourselves to accomplish that. Being His hands and feet means choosing God every time, rather than our fears, our own fleshly desires, our own insecurities, even our own inhibitions. For whose sake? For God and the people He loves.
It is my honest conviction that being a socially responsible church requires being like Christ. For one can never wrong society by embodying everything that Christ is. And we do this by following Christ and living our lives for His glory.
Church, we are God’s people. And as His people, we have the duty to be socially responsible. We have one life. Let’s live it to the fullest by living for God to the fullest!