The Pendulum

Darryl's blog has Darryl's notes on a Tim Keller talk called "What is an evangelical ministry?" I'm a little bit of a Tim Keller groupie, so it will come as no surprise I feature Keller in my first post. I've been thinking a lot the past couple years about social justice. My general tendency is to react to a distaste for the status quo and leap to the other extreme. I think Darryl's post helps put the social gospel and orthodox theology into perspective.

Dr. Richard Lovelace used to say that in history you see the pendulum swing like this: In times of low spiritual vitality, orthodox churches tend to detach justification from sanctification. That is, people say that they are saved without working that out in repentance. As a result, people are shaped by culture and not changed. Then the pendulum swings the other way, and people begin to load sanctification into justification...That is happening again... The new gospel is that the Kingdom of God is here....You become a Christian by entering into community and by a mixture of faith and work in making Jesus Christ Lord.

That's an interesting take. Christianity is full of extremism. Jesus makes extreme claims (e.g. No one comes through the father except through me). We are called to live a life that is extreme--nay, impossible (e.g. Love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, soul, and mind and love your neighbor as yourself. For more on the impossibility of following the law, check out Jesus as Tyler Durden). Perhaps another way to say what Lovelace & Keller are saying is that churches are mistakenly holding to only one of the two great commandments. Either the church emphasizes personal holiness (and becomes a Christian enclave with separatist tendencies) or the church emphasizes loving their neighbors (and becomes a social service center). Lovelace suggests that the church should moderate the pendulum, but maybe that's the wrong way to frame the situation. Maybe there are two pendulum going and we should let them them swing as vigorously as they can.