Rethinking Our Witness to the Neighborhood

The gospel is not merely a formula for individual salvation but the announcement that in Jesus Christ, God has defeated sin, reconciled the world, and now reigns as King. That reality must be proclaimed into isolation, addiction, purposelessness, injustice, and despair in our neighborhoods. Faithful witness today requires listening well, discerning where Christ’s lordship confronts brokenness, and inviting people to enter the Kingdom already breaking in through the Spirit. When we recover proclamation as announcing what God is doing now, everyday life becomes the arena of mission.

Communities that live life in and among the neighborhoods and the stuff of everyday life have numerous opportunities to proclaim the gospel. But at times, we are confused.

The gospel is not this singular version. As Scot McKnight, NT Wright, and many others have been writing, the gospel is that God has come in Jesus Christ and fulfilled his promises to make the world right. In Jesus, in his life, death, and resurrection, God has accomplished the victory over the powers, evil, sin, and death. He now reigns. Jesus is Lord. And through the sending of the Spirit and the church, He is bringing in His Kingdom. Will we participate?

Rarely has there been a need in the history of the church to reinvigorate this gospel and contextualize it more than now, in the West. We simply do not know how to translate this gospel into everyday lives and in the social realities around us.

In Prodigal Christianity, the upcoming book I’ve written with co-pastor of Life on the Vine, Geoff Holsclaw, we offer four proclamations as a starter. These are “realities” that can be proclaimed in the midst of the chaos and vacuum of hope we often meet in day-to-day situations. But the truth is, there are many more. The four we proposed are:

“God Is Reconciling You in All Your Relationships”

Everywhere around us is enormous isolation: relationships that are disconnected, broken, or abusive. We can proclaim into people’s lives, when the occasion arises and the Spirit prompts, that God is at work reconciling all relationships, including our relationships, in Jesus Christ (2 Cor 5:17-21). Sometimes this means calling one another to receive forgiveness in Christ, and sometimes it is a call to ask for forgiveness. Sometimes it is seeking reconciliation between businesses or political organizations that have done harm to people in a neighborhood, repairing wrongs done. If this invitation is accepted, people enter the kingdom of the righteousness of God, restoring relationships. And this salvation spreads into every area of our lives and our contexts.

“God Is at Work”

Everywhere around us is busyness and emptiness. Many are losing faith in the American dream. We have failed at a job, marriage, personal, or moral health. We are financially trapped. We have no vision for the future. In response, we can proclaim that Jesus is Lord and at work renewing all things—making a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17). As we listen, we can point to places where, by the Spirit, we see God at work. We can proclaim the gospel: Jesus is Lord and King over that place or person, bringing his purposes into being. We must learn to ask, “What is God saying to you? What is God doing?” and believe that God is really at work, taking us somewhere, building the kingdom. “Can you take steps of faith and obedience in response to what God is doing? Can you enter?” Again, if the invitation is accepted, people enter the kingdom, and this salvation spreads into all areas of their lives.

“God Has Put the Power of Sin to Death and Is Calling You into Life”

Everywhere around us are places of addiction. People find themselves powerless, trapped, and overwhelmed. They ask if things will ever change and believe they never will. We can proclaim that Jesus has defeated the powers of sin and death (Col 2:15). The kingdom of death (the first Adam) is crumbling, and the kingdom of life (the second Adam) is coming. We must learn to invite one another to put these desires to death on the cross with him in order that new life might be resurrected in and out of us (Rom 6:6-7). We must call each other out of the evil powers of lies and falsehood by asking, “Can you enter in?” Again, if the invitation is accepted, people enter the kingdom, and this salvation spreads into all areas of their lives.

“God Is Calling You into Mission”

Everywhere we find people who lack purpose. We work 60 or 70 hours a week, have nice things, and yet our lives feel empty. Or if we’re younger, we have none of these things and find the pursuit of them empty. We can proclaim that the mission of God is to bring the whole world to God’s own righteousness, justice, new creation, and reconciliation. We can invite our neighbors into God’s mission, even if they have yet to recognize God in their lives. A mission project, a service effort we’re doing in the community? A trip to Haiti? Will you join us? They may not yet even fully know or trust God in Jesus Christ. Nonetheless, there is a point of entry in the proclamation that, over all the injustice, hate, and emptiness in the world, God is at work to redeem it all. If the invitation is accepted to join in, this salvation can spread into all areas of their lives.

Learning to listen, be present, and be available to one another and the Holy Spirit is the pretext for any such proclamation. It is not a program; it is part of everyday life. It is only through living that we can find the right words to proclaim. Yet we must understand we are speaking “reality” into people’s lives by the Spirit, and we too are being challenged and changed in the process. This dynamic of proclamatio, I believe, has been lost because a.) our preaching has become limited to a teaching exercise, and b.) we have limited the gospel so narrowly that we have lost many, if not all, the entry points with our culture.

For now, what other ways have you learned to proclaim the gospel in your context?