disruptive grace/distructive debt

Posted by Paul | Filed under uncategorised

When reading Irresistible Revolution and Resident Aliens (see previous post), I got to thinking about ways that the church can act in ways that deal with problems in radical ways; ways that are based on the belief that Jesus came, rather than simply fitting in with the surrounding culture; ways that exhibit ‘disruptive grace’. I don’t think we’re all called to live in community in poor areas, but we are called to step outside the mainstream to take part in an alternative community. The question is, what does this look like in real terms?

I started pondering about the problem of personal debt, so lets use that as a thought experiment. If we are in any way touching a cross-section of society, we have to expect that people are going to come into the with substantial personal debt. What do we do about this?

Well, we can go for debt counceling. This is important and I have nothing to say against it. (I have friends who do a great job in this area.) But… is it really radical? Does it show the disruptive approach of the gospel? In the view of Resident Aliens — is it an approach that depends on people believing that Jesus has come and changed everything? I don’t think it goes that far.

Perhaps a step in the right direction is this — if you are debt-ridden in our church, we will provide interest-free loans to enable to you to be free.

Perhaps a further step is this — if you are debt-ridden in our church then we will pay off your debts.

After all, don’t we follow someone who proclaimed freedom for captives – in a culture where many captives are their due to debt. Don’t we follow a book that instituted the startling concept of a Jubilee year, where all debts are written off? Can we think in smaller terms?

I know, ‘risk’, ‘taken advantage of’, ‘doesn’t make sense in our culture’. But isn’t that the point? Again, following the gist of Resident Aliens — if we only do ‘sensible things’ (from the perspective of our culture), then what difference is our belief making?

Tags: ,

Permalink | July 1st, 2007

3 Responses to “disruptive grace/distructive debt”

  1. jonnyjpg Says:
    jonnyjpg July 4th, 2007 at 8:46 pm

    i love that idea of disruptive grace.
    but as much as pay off someones debt does this in a moment – if they have addictive behavious – it could be a quick fix. no one is an economic island – so we need to allow the disruptive grace spread further than the bank balance into a whole life.

  2. Paul Says:
    Paul July 4th, 2007 at 10:12 pm

    Yeah, of course. You are right. In fact, I had a conversation a couple of days after posting this that brought home the same point.

    In line with the big picture I guess we need both forgiveness and sanctification. We shouldn’t restrict to one or the other.

  3. jonnyjpg Says:
    jonnyjpg July 5th, 2007 at 11:04 am

    yeah we on the same thought. (embrace and discipleship.)

Leave a Reply