Transforming Christian Theology: For Church and Society

18. Constructing Theologies of the Community for the Community: The Six Steps

138 18. Constructing Theologies of the Community for the Community: The Six Steps I n this chapter I offer six steps for developing Christian theologies that support social transformation. In the past, the standard way of describing the task has been to create a theology for Christian involvement in broader society. The trouble is that each of those words carries baggage; the connotations point in the wrong directions. “Involvement in society” sounds like an (external) obligation—sort of like having to do “community service” after you’ve been convicted of a crime. “Christian” in this context suggests something like a voting bloc. It certainly connotes “Us versus Them”—or at least an insider/outsider mentality that puts “us” on the other side of the fence from “them.” And preceding the whole thing by “theology” makes it sound like there will be some cold system of requirements , abstract principles, and ethical mandates, all of which will be laid on the shoulders of innocent, well-meaning folks like the yoke of the cart is laid on the shoulders of tired oxen. We need to approach the whole question in a radically different way. The Excitement Principle Notice how things change when one moves outward from the starting place we’ve identified in earlier chapters. Here are the first three steps: Go back to the story you’ve learned to tell about what draws you 1. to Jesus’ Way and how Jesus’ life and teachings are relevant to how you want to live. Add the answers to the Seven Core Christian Questions that you 2. have started to develop. Remember, it’s not sufficient to give answers that you have memorized from other sources; you have 18. Constructing Theologies of the Community for the Community: The Six Steps | 139 to list what you can actually affirm. (It’s better to give minimal answers that are really your own than to list a bunch of propositions that someone else has told you that you have to affirm.) Reflect on the kinds of actions that you can genuinely take part 3. in, actions that stem from your experience (question 1) and your actual beliefs (question 2). Why begin with these first three steps? Folks in mainline churches have had so many heavy ministry obligations laid on their shoulders that a sort of “compassion fatigue” has set in. Many church people feel so guilty about all the forms of oppression that exist and all the ways that they are complicit in the suffering of others that they walk around like zombies. They’d rather do anything than come to church for another serving of guilt. It reminds me of those days early in the environmental movement when we cluttered our kitchens with twenty-six different recycling receptacles and still felt guilty about what we were wasting. Increased political and environmental sensitivity is important, but creating guilt is not the way to get there. People will not begin to pour themselves with passion into social justice ministries as long as these ministries are hung around their necks like albatrosses and held in place with the heavy chains of guilt. Contrast the guilt approach to social justice ministries with the way that “witnessing” is traditionally taught within evangelical churches. In the churches of my youth, “sharing your faith” was expected. But we didn’t experience it as a chore or burden. Our spiritual lives were filled with excitement from encountering the risen Jesus, experiencing the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit, and believing that we had just been reborn. Witnessing simply meant sharing that excitement with the people we met. We could fight about the relative importance of winning souls for Christ versus social ministries and community organizing. But that’s not the point here. The excitement principle—the personal involvement and conviction— can be the same in both cases! Whether you agree with them or not, the reborn Christians I just described act out of a deep passion and conviction that is fully consistent with their particular theology. There’s no reason that mainline Christians can’t find a similar excitement, one that is equally consistent with their own theological commitments and personal narratives. A brief example: an African American seminary student named Chrystal walked into my office today. She’s in the middle of a full-time summer 140 | Transforming Christian Theology internship, working with a ministry that provides shelters...