Throughout history there has been a debate over the role of the Church as an institution when it comes to having a relationship with government and our society. Does the Church even have a role to play? This is a key question to answer in building the Church Ambassador Network. We must be able to clearly share why the Church has a role to play in society, especially at a time when the United States has largely bought into the motto of “separation of Church and state.”
In his book, The Bold Church Strategy: Serving Our Way Back to the Center of the City, Josh Hershberger shares four roles of the Church regarding how we impact our communities, our states, our nation, and our world. The following provides a framework to communicate those roles.
Other Foundations
Another lens of viewing the roles of the church has been shared by Timothy Keller. He believes that the first century church embraced the fact that “Jesus is Lord.” This statement unified the church. Additionally, the early church had four basic foundations:
- Life is sacred
- Marriage is sacred
- All people are equal
- Care for the poor
It is interesting to note that many churches embrace one or two but few embrace all four. Also the major political parties seem to only focus on two at a time. A role of the Church can also be to embrace all four in a healthy manner, encouraging local congregations as well as governing authorities to consider these God given issues.
Foundational Principles: