Our vision paper “A Christian Vision for Flourishing Communities” lays out how we see the challenge of renewing theologically formed Christian wisdom for the common good and human flourishing in the advanced modern world.
En Español: “Una Visión Christiana para las Comunidades Florecientes“
Inside, you’ll find:
- Inspiring quotes and informative extracts from key leaders and works
- Why the church and the economy are linked in the mission of God
- Our “Twelve Elements of Economic Wisdom,” grouped in four themes:
- Stewardship & Flourishing
- Value Creation
- Productivity & Opportunity
- Responsible Action
- Five “Pastoral Pathways” for applying economic wisdom in the church
- Theology
- Pastoral Care
- Compassion
- The Common Good
- Youth & Family
- Endorsements from our community of theological scholars
While the Twelve Elements usually get most of the attention, we also want to hold up the five Pastoral Pathways, which provide vision both for why the church so urgently needs to think wisely about the economies our people live in, and how they can do so well.
Here’s an example. For more, check out “A Christian Vision for Flourishing Communities” today!
Pastoral Pathway 4: Common Good
When marketplace Christians actually capture the understanding of living into their work as mission, their work as neighbor love…churches and communities will be much better off.
Amy Sherman, author (Sagamore Institute) and servant leader
From her lectures on theological education at the 2016 Oikonomia Network faculty retreat
Summarizing her research on new initiatives in theological education connecting the mission of the church to the world of work, Amy Sherman observed:
Such initiatives…are nurturing a better kind of future pastor…future leaders who are creative, who see the need to emphasize whole-life discipleship and who have seen the fruit of what happens when marketplace Christians actually capture the understanding of living into their work as mission, their work as neighbor love. The practical training and equipping…is helping them to become future pastors who will lead churches that will put a high value on…serving their communities and affirming the strategic vocational stewardship of the scattered church, as they labor in the various cultural influencing sectors of society. Because of partnerships like this, churches and communities will be much better off.
Sherman’s many years of work in this field, especially her book Kingdom Calling, have highlighted the important new questions being asked today about the role of churches in promoting the common good.
Christians have always wrestled with the relationship between the church and society. However, this struggle has rarely been as acute as it is today. There is more and more need for a Christian contribution to the public good, yet the church – concerned about subordinating its mission to partisan agendas – is more wary than ever of seeking public influence.
Work and the economy offer a promising path out of this dilemma. Economic work is what makes civilization run, and most Christians spend most of their lives doing exactly this kind of work. When Christians integrate faith with the economic sphere of life, not only do they live out their callings to full-time discipleship, but they have the potential for an enormous transformative impact on civilization.
Recently, many Christian leaders have turned to the periods of exile in the Old Testament to provide a helpful model for the post-Christendom social context. When believers are in exile, they see that their faith cannot be reduced to a cultural agenda. However, they also know that they are called to love their neighbors and manifest the Spirit through their daily lives. Where faith flourishes, it ought to impact the flourishing of civilization as well.
In the New Testament era, the calling to manifest our faith in public life is only intensified by the Great Commandment and the Great Commission. Our mission is not to make converts of every nation, but to make disciples (Matthew 28:19). The difference between a superficial “convert” and a fully formed “disciple” is the transformation of daily life through apprenticeship to Jesus. The Old Testament community was sent into exile with an admonition to bless Babylon, but it was not sent there for that purpose. By contrast, the New Testament church has been sent out to the nations on a missionto change how people understand and live their lives within every human civilization. Teaching people to live in a way that serves the common good is as central to the Great Commission as it is to the Great Commandment.
