We can’t separate the pursuit of justice from the grace we receive through justification by faith. In fact, the former can only truly flow from the latter.
When it comes to good works, however, there is no need for church plants to reinvent the wheel in the pursuit of justice. There was already great work happening in our city, for example. So our church got involved in helping organizations that have been here for a long time. Working alongside them has been much more effective and fruitful than creating our own initiatives. It also helps us maintain the right focus and priorities as a church.
Pray for God to Work
Last, never forget that we preach the gospel to people who are spiritually dead. Our arguments and approaches, no matter how carefully nuanced and constructed, cannot raise the dead to life. Only the Spirit of God can do that. So we must turn to God in prayer, pleading that he might use us, in all of our weakness and uncertainty, to breathe life, hope and peace into the lives of the people around us.
Even though secular cities can be hard soil, the good news is that the Spirit of God can till the hardest of clay. And if planters have a long-suffering commitment to do the hard work of cultivating, planting, watering and praying, they need only wait on God to give the growth (1 Cor. 3:7).
This article originally appeared here.
