Foundation #2: Faithful Presence
The danger of believing we're meant to change the world and a suggestion for a better way forward.
Changing the world seems to be all anyone wants to do these days.
Parents claim that they just know their 2-year-old is a future world-changer. Christian universities declare that certain graduating classes are bound to change the world. Coffee mugs, t-shirts, and wall art are all available for people that want to identify themselves as world-changers.
In complete fairness, I used to want to change the world. Or, at the very least, I felt a certain pressure to be a world-changer.
But now, I don’t think I’m really meant to change the world and I don’t think you’re meant to either. And that’s okay.
The American Church and the American Dream
Don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying I don’t want to make a difference. Nor am I saying you can’t make a difference. What I’m saying is that I no longer think it’s realistic or healthy to talk as though a single person has the power to or is meant to change the world.
An influential professor of mine helped me come to this realization. One day before class, my professor asked us to consider a theoretical student who takes to heart his school’s proclamation that he will change the world. So, upon graduation, that alumnus moves to a closed country to become a missionary. Unfortunately, he doesn’t see a single person get saved in his first five years of missions work. In fact, he’s beginning to doubt if he’ll ever see spiritual fruit from his labor. Disillusionment begins to set in. He starts asking himself, “Where did I go wrong? Was I disobedient? Is this actually what God wanted me to do? Am I a failure? Wasn’t I supposed to change the world?”
Can you see how dangerous it can be if changing the world becomes the primary standard and language of the Church? For example, when Christians feel called only to changing the world, then many times they’ll be limited to a certain type of life. Megachurches with abundant resources and significant influence become the only option for work and Sunday morning worship. Numbers will become the primary way to gauge success and value. They’ll make time for large events and conferences but end up with no time to care for the outcasts and the forgotten.
If that sounds eerily familiar that’s because I’m afraid the ‘world-changer’ philosophy has already caused some of the American church to mirror the American dream.
The Attraction of the World-Changer Philosophy
This idea is very personal for me as a recent college graduate trying to figure out what type of work I’ll spend my life doing. And frankly, at times I want to go back to the world-changer idea.
Part of me wants to believe it because I want to feel important. I wouldn’t mind being remembered for generations. Like I’ve shared before, my ego is a caged animal fighting for attention.
Another part of me wants to believe in world changers because if one pastor, one election, or one revival can change the world, then that makes my life easier. If one pastor will change the world then I’ll just sit back and wait for God’s anointed one. If one election will change the world then I don’t have to get involved in the messy work of loving my neighbor. If one revival will change the world then I don’t have to worry about the awkwardness of evangelizing anymore. But while God may use one pastor, election, or revival in incredible ways, there’s danger in the Church talking as though everyone is meant to change the world.
Types of Change
We live in a flashy age where everyone wants to burst onto the world stage and make a difference that can’t be ignored. Oh, and we want people to commend us for what we’ve done. I’d be lying to say I never want those things. To put it another way, we want the impact of our lives to look something like Mount St. Helens after its 1980 eruption.
Immediate. Significant. Undeniable.
But is that what Christians are called to? Is that what the world needs from the Church right now?
In conversations I’ve had and in stories I’ve read, I come to realize there are innumerable people that have been hurt by Christianity. They are mad. They are disgusted. The Church no longer feels safe or trustworthy. And many of them have good reasons for feeling such ways.
Damage like that can’t be undone in a Mount St. Helens kind of way. It’s going to take much, much longer. We need to settle in for a lifetime of quiet obedience that resembles a river creating a canyon.
Day by day, it might not seem like anything is changing. But after a few decades or centuries, I believe we’ll see the rough made smooth, the immovable moved, and the true power of the living water that flows through the Church.
A Better Term
All of that finally brings me to the title of this blog: A Faithful Presence.
I think the church needs to replace its world-changer emphasis with one that encourages believers to live lives of faithful presence. This is a term drawn from the professor and author James Davison Hunter in his book To Change the World. If you’re ready for a challenge, the whole book is insightful and challenging. But I’ll skip to the end, in which Davison explains this term a bit more.
… a theology of faithful presence obligates us to do what we are able, under the sovereignty of God, to shape the patterns of life and work and relationship—that is, the institutions of which our lives are constituted—toward a shalom that seeks the welfare not only of those of the household of God but of all.
If you have questions about what that means or how that’s supposed to look—good. So do I. That’s exactly what this blog is for.
The Rec Center
Trader Joe’s stocking its shelves with all of the fall-flavored goodness you could ever hope for (including its incredible Spiced Apple Cider): 8.5/10 would recommmend.
The Why It Matters podcast explaining how world events and national headlines actually affect us: 7.5/10 would recommend.
Trying to find a way to legally and affordably watch your hometown NFL team when you live out of state: 3/10 would not recommend if you have student loans.
Virgil Wander - A book with cold weather, rich characters, and beautiful writing that’s set in a small, forgotten Minnesotan town: 9/10 would recommend reading alongside a cup of hot cider.
The word quotidian, which means ordinary or mundane, and is a good way to describe Virgil Wander: 7/10 would recommend.
Photo by Martin Sanchez on Unsplash
Photo by Dave Dollar on Unsplash