By Joshua Heavin
Several decades ago, missiologist Lesslie Newbigin wrote about our impulse towards pragmatism in the post-Christendom West:
In discussions about the contemporary mission of the Church it is often said that the Church ought to address itself to the real questions which people are asking. That is to misunderstand the mission of Jesus and the mission of the Church. The world’s questions are not the questions which lead to life. What really needs to be said is that where the Church is faithful to the Lord, there the powers of the kingdom are present and people begin to ask the questions to which the gospel is the answer. And that, I suppose, is why the letters of St. Paul contain so many exhortations to faithfulness but no exhortations to be active in mission.[1]
Newbigin’s call to prioritize fidelity over expediency remains a timely and difficult word for the church today. To be fair to those of us striving to answer the world’s questions, we certainly should aim to love our neighbor by removing avoidable stumbling blocks that cause Christianity to seem weirder than necessary to our neighbors who are indifferent or hostile to the faith.
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