|
At the outset, what are your immediate thoughts when you read these two words “social Christianity”? Breaking it down into its parts, “social” meaning an association with people and “Christianity” being the faith that proclaims Christ as saviour, how do these two words interact as a single phrase?
There is a trend for certain activities to be labelled as “social” with the implied meaning that they are harmless because they are much milder than the pure form of the activity. Examples that are popular enough in society are those of social drinking and social smoking. Those who partake of such activities will claim that their use of alcohol and nicotine, respectively, are less harmful than those drinkers and smokers who use the same substances purely for their effects on the individual. Why is this? It is because the ‘social drinker’ will say that his drinking is done in the presence of friends, and the act of enjoying their company at the same time will mean he is concentrating less on the alcohol, and so he drinks less and this makes it less harmful to him.
Whether or not “social drinking” is actually less unhealthy or not, the fact is that many activities are influenced by the social aspect. I would consider Christianity, or the act of following Christ, to be one of these. We are social beings, and as such spend a great deal of time in the presence of others. But I would say that this greatly influences the way in which our faith is acted upon. And so I would look at two different ways in which we could practise “social Christianity”.
If like the case of “social drinking”, “social Christianity” is just a lighter form of true Christianity, it might be sort of like a person who is a church goer, and serves in the church occasionally, but doesn’t really ever really get into the spirit of Christianity which is focused on reaching those who haven’t heard the gospel. This sort of “social Christianity” is really interesting, because you can spend a lot of time within your Christian circle, and you can enjoy yourself and be immersed in all the activities that can happen in the church environment, but you may come to realise down the track that it’s a life that lacks something from what the Christian values say.
On the other hand, there is a social Christianity that is about being social in the literal sense, where you are willing to put yourself forward and reach each and every person around you, no matter their disposition towards you, their religion or their cultural background. Someone who is able to live out their Christian faith so socially truly believes in the great commission and will not stop at his or her Christian circle of friends and be comfortable there. Instead, this social Christianity will always aim for new contacts, and new people to influence in their faith.
In that sense, both these forms of “social Christianity” serve their purpose. In fact, both can be enjoyable, both are required in some amount in Christian living, so don’t try to go all out in either one on its own, because you’ll never reach new Christians if you’re just the first type, and you’ll just be neglecting the church if you’re the second type who just hangs out with non-Christians all the time. But there is one thing that should be taken from this little spiel I’ve given: there is no such thing as an “unsocial Christianity”, all Christians should learn to interact with people, whether they be people within the church, or out there in the unbelieving community.
|
