Inside Out People

Sider, writing fifteen years ago, saw the 90s as an historic time to be alive and on mission with God, and while we’re now beyond the 90s and almost into the 10s (!), I think much of the opening of this chapter still holds true and bears repeating:

Christians privileged to live in the last decade before the year 2000 face a historic opportunity. The number of Christians worldwide is growing at unprecedented rates. A shrinking global village and new technology make it easier to get the message of Christ to those who have never heard. Growing agreement on both the

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As we further explore the “inseparable partnership” between evangelism and social action, we consider the incarnational way in which Jesus loved, served and taught during his earthly ministry in the first century in the Middle East:

Jesus did not throw words at sinners from afar. He lived among them and modeled how the Good News of the kingdom brings radical transformation of the status quo.

So how do we, as followers of Christ sent out into the world as witnesses of his Kingdom, become incarnational missionaries? What does it look like in our particular context? We can speculate or surmise what it(…)

If we evangelize by word and deed, does that mean that social action is part of evangelism?

This raises the base question, which we have touched on already in earlier chapters: What is the gospel? Is the gospel primarily a message, a way of life, a person? Or is the gospel a combination of these and more? This answer will determine whether we believe social structures and societies can be evangelized.

Sider believes it is important to distinguish between the two. He notes that evangelism calls for conversion and repentance, something corporations and nations are not in a position to do. He(…)

For those who are of the persuasion that social action is a lesser concern for Christians when compared with things such as evangelism, we ought to consider the fact that

The Bible says more about God’s concern for the poor than it does about prayer or the atonement or Jesus’ resurrection.

Sider continues,

The biblical insistence on God’s concern for the poor is first of all a theological statement about the Creator and Sovereign of the universe.

But what role does social action play? Where does it fit in with what it means to be a Christian, and how does it relate to evangelism?(…)

Ron Sider says in this chapter that while he is convinced that his niche in God’s kingdom work is to be an evangelical social activist, and he is also convinced there is a biblical mandate for his kind of work, he wishes he had done more evangelism all along, and is committed to doing more of it in the years to come. So, why evangelize?

The most important reason for evangelism is God’s astounding, overflowing love for a lost and broken world. The mission is not primarily ours. It is God’s. It is because God so loved the world that we

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Sider writes,

Right relationship with God inevitably also involves more just, loving relationships with sisters and brothers in the church and the larger human family.

Is this inevitably true, as Sider says? Consider the Crusades, the Inquisition, slavery, the Holocaust, the Rwandan genocide, and various other manifestations of evil that Christians as a whole did not immediately confront, though they were at least present, if not directly involved in perpetuating these evils. Were these Christians all out of right relationship with God? Is it possible we have blind spots as well? How do we become aware of these sins - personal and(…)

Last time we considered the way we define the gospel. Now, let’s consider what we mean when we talk about salvation, in reference to people being saved by Jesus Christ.

Sider says,

In the Old Testament, salvation is clearly social and corporate and includes every aspect of life… But the Old Testament does not speak of God’s salvation as present apart from his covenant with his chosen people where he is consciously confessed as Lord… [In the gospels,] receiving salvation and entering the kingdom are virtually identical… Experiencing the salvation of the kingdom that Jesus announced meant a total transformation of values,

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In church circles we talk a lot about “the gospel” and about sharing it with others. But what do we mean by “the gospel”? How do we define it?

I see a few possibilities. You could define it as a set of core biblical teachings we believe to be true - particularly about God, Jesus, humanity, sin, heaven, hell, etc. Some would sum it up with John 3:16 or what is called the Romans Road. But is the gospel primarily a set of ideas that we are to intellectually assent to? Or is the gospel the person of Jesus? If so,(…)

We have seen, I think, how traditionally one group of Christians, in paying attention to private sins have neglected to notice social sins, and the other groups has done just the opposite, paying a lot of attention to social sins while not caring much about the private variety.

Jesus was different.

Jesus and his new community of disciples challenged evil wherever they found it… Precisely because Jesus knew how good the Creator intends culture and civilization to be, he challenged surrounding society wherever sin had introduced brokenness.

How do we view our own sin? Do we focus a lot of attention on the(…)

In student ministries not too long ago had a series on the Kingdom of God, which would make Ron Sider (and Jesus) happy:

Unless Matthew, Mark, and Luke are totally wrong, all who want to preach and live like Jesus must place the “kingdom of God” at the center of their thought and action.

Sider suggests that to best understand what Jesus meant when he announced the kingdom to his listeners, we need to understand the Jewish messianic hope which was derived from the prophets. With this in mind, imagine being present at the synagogue in Nazareth when Jesus read a very(…)