Social Justice When I was in Britain in the1980s I was talking to a young woman, and remember there was a great receptivity to the concept of the Kingdom of God. When we talked about the Kingdom of God then, it was always in terms of social justice, alleviating the suffering of the poor, standing up for the oppressed, facilitating a change in the social order, bringing about a transformation of society so that oppressive political and economic structures would be challenged and replaced by justice.

Glamourous Christianity
I am sure it used to be that the Anglican Church, the Church of England was somehow immune to this sort of thing, but it is not - it gets swept up in it too. My own feeling is that Christianity is so successful in the United States, where religion is glamorous, even the nice guys are glamorous - Billy Graham is a glamorous, handsome, articulate, charismatic individual. But the Brits are always looking for ways to copy us and hence succeed in ways that we have succeeded. And hence everybody is looking for the short cut to building a big church.

The Willow Creek Model
Now the one thing that has worked very well over here, is the Willow Creek model. Churches have done quite well with it, to turn the morning service into a user friendly gathering and then use the Bill Hybel model of doing in-depth Bible study and nurturing during the week. That particular approach I have seen emulated across communities.

So, some things borrowed from the States may work out quite well. But there is a strong tendency to borrow the spectacular Pentecostal expression. My sense is, and I am deeply committed to the Pentecostal movement, that it always has a danger of going in extreme and strange directions. Pentecostalism very often refuses to allow itself to be critiqued by Biblical theology hence ends up propagating that would not stand up to Biblical teaching.

Vitality and Scriptural Soundness
But so much of what they do is necessary because they bring an enthusiasm and vitality and an aliveness and I think that Brits see that vitality and that aliveness and look at their own dead churches and think, we need that.

I've been in a couple of Anglican Churches, particularly in Northern Ireland that have picked up a charismatic direction and they are doing brilliantly and they follow the gospel, they are also into justice issues.

What I would love to see, and I guess all of us would love to see, is somehow a wedding that would marry healthy charismatic evangelism with social justice, because I think both of those are strong emphases of scripture.

This is an edited version of an interview that first appeared in The Church of England Newspaper: www.churchnewspaper.com

Claire Shelley is news editor at the Church of England Newspaper and managing editor of CounterCulture.

email: claireshelley76@hotmail.com

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