The Just Church: Becoming a Risk-Taking, Justice-Seeking, Disciple-Making Congregation
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The Just Church: Becoming a Risk-Taking, Justice-Seeking, Disciple-Making Congregation
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Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781414377612 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Tyndale House Publishers |
| Publication date: | 09/21/2012 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 288 |
| File size: | 1 MB |
Read an Excerpt
THE JUST CHURCH
Becoming a risk-taking, justice-seeking, disciple-making congregationBy Jim Martin
Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
Copyright © 2012 International Justice MissionAll right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4143-7128-3
Chapter One
The Failure Point
ONE OF THE BEST things about my job is getting to work with people like Blair. For more than three years, Blair directed the work of IJM in one of our South Asia offices. Much of what IJM knows about freeing slaves from the rice mills, brick kilns, farms, and rock quarries that become the scenes of their violent and prolonged captivity comes from the hard-won, operation-by-operation learning curve that Blair and his team laboriously climbed during his years in the field. By freeing hundreds of slaves through the patient, professional, and steady application of hard work, Blair now occupies some of the most rarefied air of the human rights community, along with legendary figures such as William Wilberforce and Harriet Tubman—though in his humility, he will almost certainly be embarrassed when he reads this comparison.
Blair is now based out of Washington, DC, where he serves as the regional director for all of IJM's offices in South Asia. I take advantage of having lunch with him about every chance I get. I enjoy these conversations for several reasons, not the least of which is that Blair is one of the funniest people I know. His considerable intelligence and quick wit make him a lot of fun to share a meal with. But more than that, as a pastor, I find myself both mystified and fascinated by one question in particular: Where do people like Blair come from?
There is little mystery as to what produces a well-qualified and very capable lawyer, and Blair, a graduate of Wake Forest with a professional background in corporate law, is a classic example of the breed. But among lawyers, even good lawyers, the ability to manage and lead teams of people is a surprisingly rare gift. Blair has this gift. Beyond this, more perplexing to me are the questions that have to do with faith development and discipleship for someone like Blair. What produces people like Blair, who consistently make the kinds of Kingdom-oriented choices he has made and continue to take the kinds of risks he has taken? Certainly he could be working for some high-powered law firm. Both the prestige and the financial rewards would make possible for him a kind of life that is likely out of his reach now. So what is it that makes him different?
When you ask him, Blair talks about his journey as a collection of circumstances, surprises, and "accidents" that most of us would identify as familiar to our own experiences of life. He's one of the many people who, when looking back over their past, often exclaim in surprise, "How in God's name (literally) did I get here?"
But just the other day, Blair related a story that helped me understand how people like him are formed. It wasn't a story of great discernment or courage. In fact, it was a story of failure—in particular, it was a poignant story of the failure of Blair's faith. This story unlocks a bit of the mystery of how an ordinary disciple like Blair ends up doing extraordinary things in God's name.
In his work supervising IJM's offices in South Asia, Blair travels frequently to work alongside our colleagues there. Several weeks ago, he was working with one of the offices that had carefully planned an operation on a local brick kiln where the owner held several individuals as slaves. A careful investigation had been conducted and six victims identified—three who had escaped and sought protection from the violent kiln owner, and three more who were still trapped inside. The victims' stories were documented in painstaking detail. Relevant sections of the law were cited to remove any question as to whether the victims were slaves fully deserving emancipation and restitution. Local authorities were approached and made aware of the situation. An agreement was reached and a date was set for an operation on the establishment to remove the victims from the kiln and to arrest the perpetrators. A veteran of at least fifty such operations, Blair was riding along to lend advice, help, and support to the team, some of whose members were new IJM staff.
The first part of the operation seemed to go well. As the local magistrate and IJM team entered the brick kiln, the victims were easily identified. And almost immediately, the magistrate questioned them in order to confirm their status as bonded labor slaves—a good sign. Over the years, Blair had learned to move this early stage of the operation along as quickly as possible. The longer it takes, the greater the chance the perpetrators can get word to their friends, sometimes resulting in crowds gathering around the facility. Crowds can quickly become mobs, and IJM staff have been beaten and threatened in the midst of such throngs in the past. But so far, no crowd gathered at the brick kiln.
The team encountered its first operational snag, however, when another government official arrived at the kiln. This official was known to Blair's team. On a previous operation, this man had been hostile both to IJM staff and the victims they sought to rescue. This same official aggressively inserted himself into the questioning already underway, bogging down the entire process.
What followed was a confusing and bizarre turf battle as the two officials seemed to fight for control of the investigation. An inspection of the kiln was called for, as well as a demonstration of the brick-making process. The frightened victims complied with the officials' commands, while all along Blair and the IJM team watched more and more time go by.
Eventually the six victims were all removed to the office of the local magistrate, the government official with the authority and responsibility to determine the slaves' right to be set free. It is the magistrate who issues each victim's release certificate—a personal Emancipation Proclamation—declaring that person's legal freedom and right to restitution under a government program. This new freedom and release also signals the survivor's enrollment into IJM's two-year aftercare program.
It was at the office of the magistrate that a crowd began to gather. Before the inquiry could be completed, almost fifty people howed up. Most appeared to be in league with the brick kiln owner. As is usually the case, there was a lot of yelling and some pushing. There are two things that happen in these situations. First there is an electric sense of insecurity and fear that radiates through the crowd, turning an already chaotic situation into a potentially explosive one. Second, there is an almost imperceptible pendulum that swings back and forth as the powerful brick kiln owners and their friends try to influence the magistrate's decision. The simple goal of such a mob is to create enough of a tug-of-war between rule of law and rule of power that the slave owner can convince the magistrate to disregard the clear standard of the law and order all the victims back into captivity.
Standing in the middle of the chaos, Blair experienced a flood of different feelings. As the veteran, he was there to instill confidence in both the IJM employees and the government officials, all of whom had significantly less experience with these operations. As the veteran, it was his job to give clear direction to the IJM staff and determined advocacy on the victims' behalf to encourage the magistrate to do the right thing. And as the veteran—and one of just a few obviously foreign faces—Blair found himself the lightning rod for the crowd's anger. Blair was all too aware of the power of a crowd. The outcome of such operations is never secure, and often the scales of justice hang on the thinnest of threads.
As the futures of the six children and adults removed from the facility teetered back and forth, Blair felt he should pray. Clearly God cared about each of the victims. Clearly God was concerned about the safety of the staff under Blair's care. But in this moment, pushed to the limit as he was, Blair's faith reached a failure point: he found himself incapable of the faith such prayer would require. The faith muscle he needed so desperately was exhausted at the very instant he needed it most. In his paralysis, Blair sent an e-mail to his IJM colleagues in Washington, DC— an urgent call for prayer.
I remember this message being relayed to us during our daily staff prayer meeting. We prayed for the safety of Blair and his team. We prayed for the safety of those who had been removed from the kiln. We prayed that the magistrate would have the courage to do the right thing and release the slaves.
Muscle Failure
As I grow older, one of the things I find hard to live with is the inevitable loss of physical strength. I am by no means feeble (yet), but for much of my life I've taken for granted my healthy, strong back and the ability it affords me to lift heavy things. As I work my way through my forties, there is a perceptible loss of muscle mass that seems inversely proportional to the weight gain I've experienced during the same period. The result is a slow, seemingly inexorable settling of the body into middle age.
Recently I decided to try to begin counteracting this process. My ten-year-old son, Aidan, and I began a fitness program that includes both aerobic exercise and weight lifting. Doing this together has been a delight. At the beginning especially, there was painful stiffness and soreness, but the discomfort was soon overcome by the surprising joy of doing this crazy program together.
I was particularly interested in the weight lifting aspect of our program. The literature I'd read promised that while loss of muscle mass was inevitable, it could be counteracted with hard work. New to me was the idea that the goal in strength training is to push your muscles to the failure point. It is a simple process. You start an exercise with a comfortable level of weight at a higher number of repetitions, then progressively increase the weight and decrease the repetitions until essentially the muscle group you are exercising fails.
It's fascinating. One minute you can lift the weight; the next minute you can't. You can watch it happen. Your brain tells your muscles to lift, and a weight that under normal circumstances would be no problem at all goes up slowly, stops about halfway, hovers for a moment, then floats back down and you are spent.
What was new for me about this process was the idea that this "failure point" is the very thing that induces muscle growth. In the days following the exertion, the muscles actually grow—they recover and are more ready for the next challenge. In fact, if we don't push to the point of failure, we will find our results significantly decreased.
I believe the same thing is true of faith.
One perspective on what happened for Blair that day at the magistrate's office in South Asia was that he failed. In a moment when he was called on to offer leadership and support to younger and less experienced staff, he fell short. And perhaps there is some truth to this perspective. But I think there is a much deeper story, one that helps explain who Blair has become as a courageous follower of Jesus. What happened that day for Blair is something that has undoubtedly happened for him many times before: his faith muscle simply reached the failure point. At the very point when he needed to exercise faith, he found himself incapable. God's power to act remained unaffected by Blair's faith, but Blair's ability to trust in God was simply depleted, exhausted.
If faith can be compared to a muscle, then Blair is someone who exercises it more than most of us. The very nature of the work he's chosen dictates that he is likely to hit failure points like these with some regularity. And if faith, like a muscle, grows best when it's been pushed to the failure point, then perhaps this offers some meaningful explanation for how Blair has become who he is today. Perhaps the steady exercise and growth of Blair's faith offers some perspective on why a challenging call to leave a life of safety and security to step out into a world of risk and uncertainty is something that Blair has wholeheartedly accepted. Blair came to IJM already familiar with what it looks and feels like to push one's faith to the failure point. He is a testimony to the truth that when faith is tested and pushed—especially to the failure point—it can recover stronger and more ready for the next challenge.
The resolution to Blair's story was not simple or quick. Eventually the crowd around his team dispersed. In DC we continued to pray, but resolution was slow to come. In the end, however, the magistrate did the right thing. All six slaves were given official certificates of freedom and enrolled in IJM's aftercare program.
Looking back, of course, it's much easier to see that God was the one in control. God was "on the hook" for the success or failure of this operation. When we look into the Scriptures, we see that God was and is much more deeply concerned about each of these men and women than Blair or the rest of our IJM staff could have ever been. Blair reaching his failure point had no impact on God's willingness to act. Blair finding himself unable to muster the strength to pray did not limit God's willingness to rescue. Blair gave it his all. He left it all out on the field. The miracle was God's responsibility.
Discipleship at the Failure Point of Faith
For most of us, learning to do anything requires the willingness to fail. An unwillingness to fail can be a significant barrier to learning. Gifted students are seldom limited by intellect; what undoes them most often is fear of failure. Why should it be any surprise that the same is true of faith? Any significant growth in faith will require risk and even failure. Understandably, this is uncomfortable. Especially as we get older, we become used to being successful and in control. Over time our comfort zone shrinks to encompass little more than the things we are good at and endeavors at which we can reasonably expect success.
God's gracious call to us is an invitation to pursue him out of our comfort zones and into a place where failure is a real possibility— perhaps even an inevitability. It's a call to follow God to places where dependence on him is a necessity. Because he loves us, God invites us into his work in the world. And if we accept, we will face problems so big, situations so complex, suffering so profound, evil so real and palpable that our faith in God will hit its failure point on a regular basis. But to shrink back from this invitation is to accept a lesser, weaker version of faith. To accept this invitation is to discover that the work of justice is significantly about our own discipleship.
Questions to Consider
• What do you think of the concept of the failure point?
• As you look back over your faith journey, when have you experienced significant periods of growth? How are these periods of growth related to risk?
• Have you ever experienced a failure point in your faith? If so, what was that like?
• What are the kinds of challenges that are most likely to lead you to the failure point?
(Continues...)
Excerpted from THE JUST CHURCH by Jim Martin Copyright © 2012 by International Justice Mission. Excerpted by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Foreword ix
Introduction xv
Part 1 Justice, Discipleship, and the Failure Point of Faith
Chapter 1 The Failure Point 3
Chapter 2 The Nature of Faith 13
Chapter 3 Finding Trouble in the Andes 33
Chapter 4 Recovering from Failure 53
Chapter 5 The Secret of Joy 71
Chapter 6 From Mailbox Baseball to Missional Risk 83
Part 2 The Justice Journey
Chapter 7 Finding Better Fuel 99
Chapter 8 Encounter: Meeting the God of Justice in an Unjust World 107
Chapter 9 Explore: Discovering the Intersection of Talent, Need, and Call 139
Chapter 10 Engage: Moving from Fear to Faith 185
Chapter 11 Real Churches with Real Problems 211
The Final Word 233
Acknowledgments 235
Appendixes
Appendix 1 Justice Materials for Further Study 237
Appendix 2 Justice-Related Scriptures 241
Appendix 3 A Sample Encounter Strategy 249
Appendix 4 IJM's Community Justice Assessment Tool 253
Notes 255
What People are Saying About This
Sara Groves, Singer/songwriterThere is so much injustice in our world today, and organizations like International Justice Mission do a huge amount to fight it, particularly through the work they do to free children, women, and men from slavery; bring the perpetrators to justice; set the captives free; and care for them. I welcome this book as it seeks to help churches get more involved in this issue which is so close to God’s heart.
Deep spiritual maturity—where God is known intimately, where prayer actually feels like the essential lifeline it truly is, and where joy emerges from the profound sense of having “been in on” King Jesus’ work as he does the seemingly impossible—is not a pursuit for the faint of heart. It requires facing risk, fear, failure, and tragedy. But if we want to experience it, this book shows the way. For the justice journey not only brings hope to victims of abuse; it transforms us profoundly along the road.
The American church doesn’t primarily suffer from heresy or persecution but from inaction. Jim Martin’s book is more than a call for Christians to practice Christianity; it’s also a road map guiding us from apathy to action.
The Just Church winsomely presents a rare kind of faith that can not only stem apathy, but can also sustain our work in justice. . . . This alone makes the book worth the read! But Jim, through his experiences as a pastor and an activist, also refuses to let us merely simmer in emotion alone, pressing us toward thoughtful, concrete action. Read, then do.
Jim Martin’s profound book suggests that justice is not only about mission, but also about our own discipleship. Along the way there are many stories of both success and failure, all of which become valuable teaching points. The work of IJM around the world is brilliantly inspiring, and so is this book. The Just Church captures the heartbeat of a commitment to Christ and to his justice movement.
This is a deeply engaging, exciting, and important book. Martin’s message is simple: faith that seeks justice bears spiritual fruit like joy and deeper faith; but it also can bring about real, vital, powerful, meaningful changes in the world. This is not about some easy profession of faith. It is about a whole church learning to live out what it claims to believe. That means that this book is both clarifying and terrifying in all the right ways. Martin has a gift for telling simple stories that will change the way you think about everything. On the surface, much of the book is about IJM’s life-changing work around the world, and that makes a good story. But Martin tells about that work in a way that illustrates what it means to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.Many churches are unprepared for the long, slow work of justice. If you recognize your church in that last sentence, this book is the beginning of your training regimen and a guidebook for what to do next. Your church needs this book.
Justice is about discipleship, and what the world needs most is healthy people following Jesus. Jim Martin loves the local church, and The Just Church is all about equipping and empowering the church to follow where Jesus leads!
If ever there was a time for a deeply thoughtful, energized, and embodied approach for congregations to obey God’s call for justice, it is now. And if ever that approach were offered to us with clarity, conviction, and hope, The Just Church is that offering. In this superb exploration of the indivisible connection between the pursuit of justice and discipleship, Jim Martin deftly weaves story, wisdom, and application, inviting any who read it into God’s heart and God’s world—a world that we in the Western church have ignored for far too long, but can do so no longer. Any local congregation that takes Martin’s work seriously will find itself forever changed. I can only say: be that congregation.
Sara Groves, Singer/songwriterThere is so much injustice in our world today, and organizations like International Justice Mission do a huge amount to fight it, particularly through the work they do to free children, women, and men from slavery; bring the perpetrators to justice; set the captives free; and care for them. I welcome this book as it seeks to help churches get more involved in this issue which is so close to God’s heart.
Jim Martin understands that following Jesus requires us to move past mere good intentions and into the rewarding adventure of seeking justice and rescue for our neighbors in desperate need. The Just Church not only provides a convincing call to action, but it offers church communities the desperately needed handles to take next steps with clarity and conviction. This is a must-have resource for any who have concern for the oppressed but have felt powerless to act.
If there is an organization with the authority to speak on the church’s pursuit of justice, it is International Justice Mission. If there is a leader with the authority to speak as one who has been there, who has tested it in the local church and seen amazing advances, it is Jim Martin. I wholeheartedly recommend this book!
Deep spiritual maturity—where God is known intimately, where prayer actually feels like the essential lifeline it truly is, and where joy emerges from the profound sense of having “been in on” King Jesus’ work as he does the seemingly impossible—is not a pursuit for the faint of heart. It requires facing risk, fear, failure, and tragedy. But if we want to experience it, this book shows the way. For the justice journey not only brings hope to victims of abuse; it transforms us profoundly along the road.
In a world facing a courage deficit and humility deficit, Martin invites today’s church to both! The Just Church is a brilliant balance of biblical justice teaching, compelling stories of church communities engaged in fighting injustice, and practical tools needed for the journey. It’s an essential resource for any church leader passionate about God’s global mission.
This is the book I have been waiting for—a thoughtful and thought-provoking look at how discipleship and justice work are inextricably connected. If your heart has been broken by the news of slavery and abuse around the world, and if you have ever wondered how you can generate or participate in a sustained response to injustice, read this book! Nothing has stretched and grown my faith like my attempts to take God’s heart for justice seriously. This book is an incredibly inspiring resource for doing just that.
Martin skillfully combines story and Scripture to stir up our hunger for a world in which God’s justice becomes reality. Then he provides a step-by-step manual for satisfying that hunger. Challenging, inspiring, and practical . . . The Just Church will benefit all whose hearts cry out for God’s Kingdom to be made manifest on earth as it is in heaven.
As the church embraces her responsibility to “do justice,” we need experienced voices leading us from awareness to action. In The Just Church, Jim Martin develops a comprehensive, practical, and compelling case for how congregations can reflect God’s heart for the most vulnerable across the street and around the world. I highly commend it to you.
The Just Church is a valuable tool to get the church engaged in raising disciples who will shine the light and love of Jesus into the darkest places on this planet. I love how Jim Martin has connected justice to discipleship and has given us practical steps for its integration within the local body of Christ. My prayer is that the church will not just rise up, but will lead the way in our pursuit of freedom and justice in our generation. I am thankful that this book was written, because this message is needed . . . for such a time as this.
An “elephant in the room” is something huge that most people choose to ignore. Biblical justice could be such an elephant. There are few words that occur more often in the Bible, few things that God tells us more often that he passionately cares about. It is something that every biblical genre talks about somewhere—in the Law, the narratives, the Prophets, the Psalms and wisdom literature, the Gospels and Epistles. But how many “Bible-believing” evangelical churches preach, teach, and act upon it in any serious way? Sadly, very few. This heartwarmingly honest book challenges and encourages churches to take such steps—and gives abundant practical and wise advice on how to do so (and how not to). Compassionate, realistic, down-to-earth, and very easy to read, it speaks powerfully into an issue that is a key part of the church’s integral biblical mission and a stark test of the church’s authenticity and integrity.
The Just Church is as practical as it is transformative. It’s about how discipleship and “doing justice” are linked, and can literally change a congregation from the inside out. I can’t wait to get this book into the hands of the small groups in our church—and to the future pastors in our seminary.
The Just Church offers insights into a central topic for the next evangelicalism. By connecting discipleship with justice, Jim Martin reveals the high calling for the church to embody God’s justice for the most vulnerable in the world. Clear and workable insights and strategies highlight a book that will become a standard text for pastors and lay leaders.
Risk-taking, trouble-seeking, and failure-embracing, Jim Martin casts a bold vision for a justice-seeking church. This compelling pursuit of justice, he reveals, is not simply an outward expression for the church, but a magnetic pole capturing the attention of faith seekers and forging courageous Christians. The Just Church is no mere book; it’s a compass that points us toward God’s heart.
This is a deeply engaging, exciting, and important book. Martin’s message is simple: faith that seeks justice bears spiritual fruit like joy and deeper faith; but it also can bring about real, vital, powerful, meaningful changes in the world. This is not about some easy profession of faith. It is about a whole church learning to live out what it claims to believe. That means that this book is both clarifying and terrifying in all the right ways. Martin has a gift for telling simple stories that will change the way you think about everything. On the surface, much of the book is about IJM’s life-changing work around the world, and that makes a good story. But Martin tells about that work in a way that illustrates what it means to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.Many churches are unprepared for the long, slow work of justice. If you recognize your church in that last sentence, this book is the beginning of your training regimen and a guidebook for what to do next. Your church needs this book.
Honest, insightful, and hopeful, The Just Church is a great resource for leaders who long for more than good intentions. Filled with practical principles born from on-the-ground experience, Jim paints a compelling picture of what justice engagement can do in the life of a church. With an honesty that is both vulnerable and courageous, Jim names the fears that trip up many well-intentioned starts. The Just Church gives detailed, biblical principles to help churches move forward, wherever they are on the justice journey. A helpful and needed resource!
The work of compassionate justice is a life-giving expression of the love of God. In this book, Jim provides practical pathways for the church to stay engaged in the work of human care and to embody the very message we all hope to represent.
The Just Church is as practical as it is transformative. It’s about how discipleship and “doing justice” are linked, and can literally change a congregation from the inside out. I can’t wait to get this book into the hands of the small groups in our church—and to the future pastors in our seminary.