Written by: gfesadmin on March 18, 2013

I was attracted to George Fox’s D.Min program because it was designed for ‘reflective practioners’.   This past week’s reading helped me to be just that.      Being a practioner on the field speaking often, and working, in the villages with women and children, on the premise of changing the world and building God’s Kingdom, Hunter’s book helped sharpen my thinking of why I was doing what I was called to do.   He explicitly states that we don’t build God’s Kingdom, which is an essence of divine act, but only serve to exemplify Kingdom values of love, peace, justice, equality and unity which are foundational then to cause change in the community.  

Who exemplifies these values and how has been a question of much debate over the years.   Hunter in his second essay elucidates the case of the Christian Right, the Left and the Neo Ana-baptists who, leveraging ‘politics’ and ‘power’ have sought to ‘Change the World’ and ‘Extend the Reign of God’.   However, the political stance and resulting action has not quite resulted in over-throwing neither the reigning ‘darkeness’ of the consumer culture or poverty related issues.    While efforts have resulted in some random change, it hasn’t been enough to create a ‘culture’ change, which again Hunter argues is not only impossible but also should not be attempted as a goal since the ‘mission of the church’ is not about changing culture but ‘making disciples’ as commanded in the Great Commission.  

So what does all mean to me as a reflective practioner? I advocate ‘culture change’ in communities bound by idolatry, superstition, and where real spiritual darkness is apparent.   I rally for ‘culture change’ in areas where women and girls are subjected to domestic violence, female infanticide, bonded labor, child marriages, and dowry deaths.   I speak about changing the culture where exploitation, bribery, and extortion are rampant.   But I have always had to stop and ask myself is it just about culture change!? No.  I do all of this because I am called and sent..because I am a disciple in the process of making disciples. 

This is not done in a vacuum but through the church that is the vehicle that God uses to extend His Kingdom.    The church, as Hunter writes rightly, must have a ‘faithful presence’.   But I have come to understand through my ministry that just being present doesn’t mean being complacent or ‘actionless’ (pardon my English J).  The church is called out, commanded and sent to be the ‘Salt and the Light’.   Salt cannot afford to lose its saltiness and the Light cannot be hidden.   As the church lives out its mission in its entirety, not taking sides, not leveraging power, not advancing hidden/personal agendas, the church, I believe can create a ‘culture change’ and in fact provide a ‘foretaste of the Kingdom’.   

Block 21, was a settlement of thugs, drug peddlers, and rapists.   No one, especially women, dared walk through the streets of Block 21 after 4 pm.   Notorious for its anti – social activities, the general public and even the politicians feared to do anything to ‘change’ the situation at Block 21.   It was this place that God chose for pastor Rajkumar 20 years ago.   He stepped on to the streets to preach the gospel.   He was persecuted, beaten and sent away.   But he persevered and prayed.   Today there is a thriving church of 200 believers.    These believers by their ‘faithful presence’ have created a ‘culture change’.  But the change has also come through the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit.  Power encounters, miraculous healings and life changes are an everyday event at Block 21.   The place is not only inhabited by peace – loving individuals, a safe haven for women and children, but it is a model community.  

To the world outside it may seem that the ‘faithful presence’ of the church extending God’s Kingdom may not equal the audacious claim of changing the world, but to the believer who is living it, experiencing it by the power of the Holy Spirit and praying ‘Thy Kingdom Come’, it not an impossible dream.   Having reflected on the reading and transformations I have experienced, I feel affirmed to press on to do that which I have been called and sent to do. 

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