Picturing Theology

9 4 /

P i c t u r i n g T h e o l o g y

Empowering People for Freedom, Wholeness, and Justice (continued)

2.2 Development Workers Development workers are called to confront conditions and structures in the world that do not submit themselves to the rule of God. Therefore, we assert that: Development workers enable individuals, churches and communities to experience movement toward the freedom, wholeness, and justice of the Kingdom of God. 2.3 The Common Link Both missionaries and Christian development workers are united in their common commitment to further God’s kingdom rule in all areas of life. Missionary activity is centered around the proclamation of “good news” that calls people into the Kingdom of God through an experience of salvation and regeneration. It focuses on bringing unreached peoples, cultures, and subcultures into the community of the redeemed (i.e., “bringing the world into the Church”). All of this is done with an eye toward creating churches which can disciple their members to acknowledge God’s rulership and live out the values of his Kingdom in their individual and corporate life. Missionary activity also encompasses development that seeks to call every area of life into conformity with God’s kingdom rule. It evaluates every concrete life- situation in light of the Lord’s Prayer (“thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”) and engages in deeds of compassion, love, and justice that demonstrate the nature of God’s divine plan for all peoples. It focuses on bringing God’s rule to bear on every human relationship and structure (i.e., “bringing the Church into the world”). 3.1 A Partnership Relationship Missionary evangelism and church-planting and Christian development work are partners in the process of proclaiming, demonstrating, and extending the rule of the King. Both are responses to the fact that God has announced his desire to reconcile the world to himself through the gift of his Son. Although each is a legitimate response to God’s plan for the world, neither is a sufficient response

3. Theological Relationship between Evangelism and Development