Vocations Empowered for the Common Good

This morning’s speaker at Grace Brethren Church Long Beach, Dr. Steven Garber, founder and principal of the Washington Institute on Faith, Vocation and Culture spoke on being stewards of our common grace for the common good.  His comments related to how the grace of God in a life committed to Him can impact the world for the Kingdom.  Our vocations, when empowered by God’s grace, fulfill the Church’s responsibility to impact the Kingdom life here and now, not just in the hereafter—socially, politically, and economically.  This discussion recalled my studies at Fuller on social advocacy and in particular one particularly powerful statement by Dallas Willard which gave credence to thoughts I’d had on charitable programs.

Willard makes a similar point to Garber’s in The Spirit of the Disciplines that “charity and social welfare programs, while good and clearly our duty, cannot even begin to fulfill our responsibility as children of the light to a needy world.”  He then boldly calls upon the people of God to “assume the responsibility, under God and by his power, of owning and directing the world’s wealth and goods” (1988:202).  He points out that by doing so, with Christ, the church would be able to reduce the causes of poverty.

That is a level of stewardship the church has not attempted on such a large scale—and likely will not—without realizing that the sacred calling of God is not just within the church, but in all vocations and careers. He continues the challenge by declaring the church should commission men and women into “farming, industry, law, education, banking, and journalism with the same zeal previously given to evangelism and missionary work” (1988:214).

Once the people of God are involved as stewards in influencing the marketplace for the community’s good, they can have a hand in advising public agencies in serving the truly needy.  This culminates in the people of God showing how the church “enters into full participation in the rule of God where they are” (1988:218).  That is true stewardship of all that God has made and put under our authority, including social service to those in need.  Religious control of social functions, as it has been in the past, can be seen as an authentic Christian response to need.  P. Beyer, in Religion and Globalization states that this validates the Christian message (1994:197).

By becoming stewards of God’s love and compassion through charity, the church becomes a centripetal force in the world.  Serving societal needs as part of the soteriological effort of the church is the greatest stewardship of all God’s resources, and becomes the attracting light the world seeks.  In the words of Bernhard W. Anderson, “The nations are attracted to Zion, the spiritual center, because the teaching that goes forth from that source appeals to the deeper human longings for šālom (peace, welfare).  Mission is at its best when it brings something to a people that respond to their deepest desire and quest” (2006:116).

• Beyer, P. Religion and Globalization. Thousand Oaks: Sage, 1994.
• Okoye, James. Israel and the Nations: A Mission Theology of the Old Testament. Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 2006. 
• Willard, Dallas. The Spirit of the Disciplines: Understanding How God Changes Lives. New York: HarperCollins, 1988.

Are corporations once again picking up the slack?

Although the industrial age has historically been considered a major contributor to poverty, and thus, an increase in the need for charity, a number of industrialists such as Henry Ford and Andrew Carnegie considered it their responsibility to address these concerns. Ford made new inroads to the hiring, treatment and accommodation of those in need—or charity, as it was viewed in that day. He designed a third of his factory jobs specifically for the disabled so that they could make a living wage. Ford's view of poverty was to “fix the train tracks first” and then help people help themselves.*

Andrew Carnegie believed it wrong to die rich, and purposed to live within a set means and endeavored to give away the balance of his income for the rest of his life. Both men are considered founders of the modern philanthropic movement. From this point onward we see a growing philosophy for a corporate, or central, responsibility for society rather than the local community or the church. General welfare, once supplied via the church, was hereafter seen as the duty of agencies, corporations, and governments—and funded primarily through taxation.

I believe we are once again seeing more so-called "one-percenters" becoming more personally responsible for those around them as were Ford and Carnegie.

*Guinness, Os. Doing Well and Doing Good: Money, Giving and Caring in a Free Society. Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2001, 232.