What are we to say, and how are we to be involved in the great issues of our times: War, global poverty, and the environment? And what does our understanding of the kingdom of God say about the divisive and defining U.S. political issues of abortion and gay rights?

On these and other controversial issues, church leaders are seeking a middle way. Without suggesting an official stance, here are positions I see emerging among Nazarene leaders on a few critical issues of the day.

Gay rights - Accept gay people and support their civil rights without compromising the church’s opposition on homosexual activity and gay marriage.

Pro-life - Redefine and support pro-life without criminalizing women and doctors, advocate for life after, as well as before, birth and support programs to help women avoid unwanted pregnancies.

Immigration – Welcome strangers and aliens among us even while supporting needed immigration reform.

Environment – Understand that creationism requires protecting the earth as well as our bodies from abuse.

Wealth and poverty – Oppose social and economic systems that reward the rich at the expense of the poor.

Racism – Affirm that all people are God’s children with a common spiritual, if not physical ancestry, and advocate for inclusion and equality in the church as well as society.

Before we take on these, and many other, local and global challenges, we have some internal issues to settle.

Idolatry of the church

Perhaps our biggest struggle is restoring social Christianity or social holiness to a proper balance with individual faith. Compassion was not just a program or a project for Wesley and Bresee. Responding to the needs of the poor and advocating for social justice were expressions of their faith. For them, evangelism without compassion would have been evangelism without the gospel.

As accepted as compassionate ministry now is, it remains in the minds of many, if not most Nazarenes, ancillary to the main task of making converts and disciples. I’ve come to believe that compassion and social justice will remain somewhat secondary, however publicized, until our popular and practiced ecclesiology matches these words in the foreword of the Manual (2005- 2009) of the Church of the Nazarene.

The Church of the Nazarene exists to serve as an instrument for advancing the kingdom of God through the preaching and teaching of the gospel throughout the world.

Programs to promote and grow the church may have created an idolatry of the church, that is, the church as an end-in-itself rather than a meansto- an-end, which is advancing the kingdom of God.

• It is church idolatry when we work to increase membership, attendance, and giving without regard to the quality of life in our communities, and when we’re more concerned about growing the church than advancing the Kingdom outside as well as inside the church.

• It is church idolatry when we spend our tithes and offerings on elaborate buildings that serve as barriers to “the poor, the disenfranchised and the disposed.”

• It is church idolatry when our worship becomes self-centered, when we forget that the worship God wants is a display of compassion, righteousness, and justice.

When the church is an end-initself we are tempted to do expedient things to advance the church rather than the Kingdom since the ends justify the means. That’s never the way of the Kingdom since in the kingdom of God all that matters is the means. The ends are up to God.

We are called to live by the Sermon on the Mount, which someone has described as the constitution of the kingdom. That’s how we are to live regardless of the consequences. The church is the place we are to hear the call to discipleship and learn to be followers of Jesus, not just members of a club. And the seminary is the place where leaders are prepared to “advance the Kingdom,” not just manage religious societies.

I have begun to talk to pastors and churches about “mission growth” rather than “church growth.” Grow a mission and the mission will grow the church. Sustainable, healthy church growth is always the result or byproduct of being on mission.

We need to be reminded, however, that throughout church history there have been many instances where dedicated Christians have been on mission, doing all the right things with little or no numerical growth. I know the frustration of pastors leading extensive compassionate and social justice ministries who don’t have statistics to report whereby their effectiveness is evaluated. Much of their evangelism—touching people at the point of their need with the compassion of Jesus and inviting them to become followers of Jesus— goes unreported, if not unnoticed.

Whether anyone notices or not, a call to serve is to live in alignment with the Kingdom—God’s reign—in our personal lives, our faith communities, and, to whatever extent is possible, the world around us. Jesus taught us to pray, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10, NIV). The church is not the Kingdom. It is a sign community where followers of Jesus commit to live according to the Kingdom, or God’s will in their lives.

Compassion and Justice

While I agree with the slogan, “Compassion as a lifestyle,” I want to be reminded that a personal lifestyle of caring and simple living is not enough. As important as it is to not consume more than we need, if we remain uninvolved with public policy issues, our influence, regardless of our life-style, is limited. Philanthropy, simply giving to good causes, is not enough. Some philanthropists are willing to give away what they don’t need and can’t use as long as things stay as they are. Our giving to compassionate ministries, our volunteering, and our life-style must be combined with advocacy for social justice if we are to advance the Kingdom.

The compassion of Jesus compels us to change the structures and cultures of society that perpetuate injustice, as well as respond to personal impoverishment. Many compassionate ministry agencies begin with programs to provide emergency services. They inevitably get involved in development programs. As we have often heard it said, it’s not enough to respond to the dead and wounded at the bottom of the cliff, someone needs to build a fence to keep people from falling. Or, give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day, teach him to fish and he’ll eat for a lifetime.

The Future of Compassion

As members and friends of the Church of the Nazarene, we are invited to join in God’s mission of compassion close to home and around the world. We have the opportunity to build on one of the best theological and biblical traditions with radical optimism about the possibilities of personal and social transformation. We may be closer now the vision of our spiritual forbearers than anytime since our formation in 1908.

by Tom Nees
Presiden, Leading to Serve
From the Nazarene Theological Seminary
Lectures on Social Justice
March 11-12, 2008