I just returned from a week in Columbus, OH after staffing the first ever Justice Revival. What an exciting experience. Sojourners (my employer) partnered with Vineyard Columbus and First Church of God(along with 38 other churches) to host an incredible city-wide event that called people to Christ and a commitment to social justice. The response was phenomenal with upwards of 100+ people coming forward each evening for prayer, to commit their lives to Christ and to deepen their commitment to justice. Just imagine a mix of charismatic zeal, old-time altar calls and Jim Wallis preaching. It was quite an event.
Rich Nathan (senior pastor of Vineyard Columbus) said, "God is healing the divorce between the mainline and the evangelicals." The gospel is no longer limited simply to salvation or social justice, but the church is being brought together together as we say both are equally important. Each evening, the pastors of the partner churches processed in and would stand on stage, while the members of their congregation cheered. It looked like the kingdom. Mainline pastors in their collars, next to emergent pastors in flip-flops and shorts, next to African-American pastors, next to suburban pastors - all gathered to say the gospel is not either/or. Those assembled did not agree on everything, but they did agree that God has a deep concern from the poor and oppressed of Columbus and the world and they that had a responsibility to put their faith into action.
As the book UnChristian has pointed out, the church has a serious image problem, but events like the Justice Revival in Columbus are helping to reshape the churches image. Five years ago, if you asked for a definition of an evangelical, it would be, "white, suburban Republican." The definition is changing and slowly the political baggage is disappearing, the answer is increasingly becoming, "evangelicals are those who care for the least, the last and the lost."
Click here to read a front page article from the Columbus Dispatch about the Justice Revival.
Comments