Justice, beauty, evangelism: making sure our good news is really good

With our teaching and thinking at Network Vineyard focusing on mission in recent weeks, one of the things I’ve been thinking about it is how important it is that our good news really is good. What I mean by that is that our life together as a church should show that God is at work. I’m reading a book by Tom Wright which puts it like this:

But how can the church announce that God is God that Jesus is Lord, that the powers of evil, corruption and death itself have been defeated and that God’s new world has begun? Doesn’t this seem laughable? Well, it would be if it wasn’t happening. But if a church is working on the issues we’ve already looked at – if it’s actively involved in seeking justice in the world, both globally and locally, and if it’s cheerfully celebrating God’s good creation, and its rescue from corruption, in art and music, and if, in addition, its own internal life gives every sign that new creation is indeed happening, generating a new type of community – then suddenly the announcement makes a lot of sense.

- Tom Wright, Surprised By Hope: p. 239

Justice, beauty and evangelism – three parts of mission that as a church we should be holding together. As we stand up for justice, as we sing songs of God’s beauty, as we tell people about the new life in the kingdom, we’re doing mission.

- Nathan Hobby