MondayMorningInsight - Leadership & Encouragement for Church Leaders

What Bono Taught Bill Hybels

Posted by: Todd
Posted on: Fri, August 28, 2009
Viewed 198
(44) comments so far

According to an article in the US News and World Report, Bill Hybels has learned a lot about church effectiveness... from Bono...

Hybels writes:

The evangelical church has taken a lot of justifiable heat in recent years for being vocal about the things we hate while staying silent about some of the most pressing needs in our world. There are times when I believe the church should be the conscience of our culture, but to Bono's point, a reframing must occur, one where the divisiveness that once defined us as people of faith gets edged out by a unity around great societal causes. And what has to unite us in this day and age is the fight against poverty and disease. Faith leaders the world over expected this day would come. What we didn't expect was that it would take an Irish rock star to demand the dawn.

As leaders, there are so many things we must get better at: casting vision, building teams, solving problems, enforcing values, and building the next generation of leaders. But if we excel in those areas and still neglect to use our leadership octane to address God's clear mandate to serve the poor, what have we really gained?

Since Bono's clarion call three years ago, well-resourced churches have banded together to take a bite out of poverty, pouring vast amounts of resources into building orphanages, clinics, schools, and sports fields through partnerships with underresourced churches around the globe. Not that the ultimate judge comes in the form of a leather-clad superstar in shades, but still it was gratifying to hear Bono's assessment of progress to date: "I knew [the church] was a sleeping giant, but I didn't know the giant could run so fast."

What do you think? Is your church more active in social justice issues now than in 2006? And what effect does Bono or Bill Hybels have on your church? Bono's 2006 address was huge... but was it the catalyst for change or was something else behind it?

Todd

Comments

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Wendi Hammond on Fri, September 04, 2009

Dave Z, in answer to your very smart question about Willow, here some of what I know and have experienced.

For the past few years the WCA has teamed up with World Vision to give away the Courageous Leadership Award to churches that are doing significant and effective things to address the Aids crisis in sub-Saharan Africa. The goal, I�m sure, is not to puff up pastors of big churches (some are hardly big), but rather to expose us to the many different ways to engage our churchs significantly.

I saw the award given out last year and when I noticed a pastor (Arnau van Wyngaard) from Swaziland was a finalist (I�ve been working in Swaziland for 4 years), I immediately contacted him. The work of his VERY small, indigenous church to mobilize now 600 local volunteers, many HIV positive themselves, is nothing short of miraculous. After a year of communication with Arnau, we decided to take a team to work with his ministry and learn how we might support the work of these local heroes. We returned just a month ago, and now my church and our team (from numerous churches) are launching a �sponsor-a-caregiver� program designed much like Compassion and World Vision�s programs to sponsor children, hoping (believing) that we will engage many other churches in our community. These caregivers are adults who are already serving their neighbors and will continue to do so, for no reward other than the kingdom impact they hope to make, whether or not Americans come along side to help replenish their medical backpacks each month or purchase a food parcel for their families.

A year from now we hope that every one of the 600 caregivers will have a western sponsor and friend, with whom they�ve been sharing hopes and dreams, encouragement and times of challenge. You can learn more about this ministry in Swaziland here: http://www.swazimission.co.za/English/index.html

Dave (and anyone else interested), take a look at the award winners and finalists for the last few years. You will get some great ideas.

Many churches are doing great things to address this problem, but I am so grateful to the WCA for using the platform afforded by the Leadership Summit to gather these stories so we can learn from one another and avoid unnecessary mis-steps, sincere but ineffective efforts or duplication of ministry.

Thanks for asking Dave.

Wendi
Gino on Fri, September 04, 2009

Hey CS:
I agree with what you said in your response. My point was on the other side - don’t just jump on their bandwagon because they are big. I appreciate the place from which you wrote. Others probably don’t share our view here.

It’s nice that WCA is getting word out through the Leadership Award of the significant actions that churches are making.

How about an award to churches that have not compromised the gospel and who are impacting their community and the world for Jesus Christ? I guess that would be too controversial…
Wendi Hammond on Fri, September 04, 2009

Gino - I am quite certain that the winners of the Courageous Leadership award are doing exactly what you’ve described. Why would one assume otherwise?

Wendi
Arnau van Wyngaard on Sat, September 05, 2009

Wendi, thanks for your kind words about Shiselweni Home-Based Care in Swaziland. Sitting in the midst of one of the poorest areas in Swaziland (and in one of the poorest areas in sub-Saharan Africa) as well as being in the area in the world which has been the hardest hit by the AIDS pandemic, it took a long time for our church to realize that we are there, not only to evangelize the people of the community through church- and revival services, but to reach out to people in their homes and to demonstrate the love of Christ to them. This is not the same as merely doing social upliftment. Our vision is formulated in the words: �To become the hands and feet of Christ in the community� and whenever we enter a homestead, our objective is to look for ways in which we can demonstrate this love to the people living there, be it through caring for the sick and the dying, by fetching water from the closest river, washing a sick person, even cleaning the house if the person living there no longer has the strength to do it herself.
The spiritual effect that this has had on the nineteen communities where we presently have home-based caregiving groups (almost 600 caregivers in total), is nothing short of miraculous. Without having special revival services, people have asked to accept our God that would make people do this type of work. In two of the communities churches have sprung up almost spontaneously as new believers indicated that they wanted to be part of this Christian fellowship. I�m not saying that we do not evangelize people. In fact, we are equipping our caregivers with the basic knowledge they need to share their faith with their clients and many are doing this. But mostly people accept Christ in response to experiencing His love in action.
In different times in history, the church has been challenged by social circumstances which they are called to address. Should the church put this low on their agenda, or even ignore it, then it is missing a great opportunity to witness to the world about the love of Christ. One of the passages that played a great role on the change that had occurred in our church, is James 1:27: �Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress.� But the Bible is full of examples of how God wants His people to react to the distress and injustice so often encountered in the world, as in Isaiah 1:17: �Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.�
Obviously, as receiver of the 2008 Courageous Leadership Award, I have great respect for the vision of Bill Hybels. Unfortunately I was unable to attend the 2009 Leadership Summit and have not heard Bono�s talk as yet, but I am pretty sure that what people like Bono and Bill Hybels are doing, to challenge the church to do more than merely attending church services and speaking about Christ, and to become involved in the social issues of today, is absolutely Biblical. In fact, I am convinced that, if Jesus had been living on earth today as a human being, as He did 2000 years ago, we would have found him, not in our fancy church buildings, but in the slums, the homesteads and the rural clinics, caring for those in need.
If you are interested to read the story of how God changed me, you can read the story on my blog: http://missionissues.wordpress.com/2008/03/19/meeting-jesus-over-lunch/
Dave Z on Tue, September 08, 2009

To Wendi and Arnau, thanks for the tips, I’ll be checking them out. Arnau, I’ll add another scripture to those you listed. In Acts 10, Cornelius get a visit from an angel because of his “prayers and gifts to the poor,” which were an offering to God.

Gino, I asked about Willow Creek for the same reason I watch any other church; to see if they have good ideas that I can learn from.
David Buckham on Tue, September 15, 2009

I wonder if this has any relevance here…

From Mark 9 in the NASB.

38 John said to Him, �Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name, and bwe tried to prevent him because he was not following us.�
39 But Jesus said, �Do not hinder him, for there is no one who will perform a miracle in My name, and be able soon afterward to speak evil of Me.
40 �For he who is not against us is for us.
41 �For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because of your name as followers of Christ, truly I say to you, he will not lose his reward.

all about Christ,
David
Sherwood on Wed, November 18, 2009

I agree with Gino. The church of the Lord Jesus Christ should not compromise the Gospel to engage merely in social reform. The mission of the church is to preach the Gospel to all the world. Furthermore, Jesus stated that the poor you will have with you always and whenever you want to, you can do them good. Feeding the poor and confronting AIDS is wonderful, but to do so without preaching the gospel to the human soul is a tragedy. As Jesus Himself stated, what shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?
Arnau van Wyngaard on Wed, November 18, 2009

Sherwood, in principle I agree with you. From more than a quarter of a century in full-time mission, I have learned that I need to earn the right to share the gospel with someone and that I need to do this with integrity. Becoming involved in the total lives of people, as we are doing now in Swaziland - and, may I add, as Jesus also did while He was on earth - gives us the necessary integrity and the right to share the gospel and the long-term effects cannot even be compared with the effects we had in the past when we only had revival services in small communities. Where, after a six week period of revival services, we often ended up with two or three people becoming church members, we have now found, in one area, that SIXTY people have indicated their desire to become church members, partly at least, because they experienced God’s love in a tangible way. It’s not a matter of one or the other. It’s doing what God calls you to do. And certainly, people will not be saved because they have a full stomach. But when it was Christian believers who helped them to have a full stomach, it might just be that much easier to listen to the good news of salvation.
Peter Hamm on Wed, November 18, 2009

Old thread… re-awakened.

Folks, Mathew 25… let’s review.

We will not be judged by how well we offer a cup of water to a stranger rightly combined with preaching the Gospel. We will, it seems, be judged merely by how we loved the least of these.

Let’s face it, that’s terrifying, and far too many people use “the poor you always have with you” as an excuse to do nothing (check the Deuteronomy passage IN CONTEXT that Jesus is referring to when he says that…)

Or they use their own particular sectarian-based understanding of the Gospel and it’s presentation as a barometer for judging the humanitarian efforts of people like Bono.

Shame on us…
Sherwood on Wed, November 18, 2009

Arnau, I totally agree with you. We must earn the right to speak into someone else’s life (whether that comes through feeding them, giving them clothes, providing medicine, praying for the sick, etc.). As Raymond T. Richey stated, “Healing is the dinner bell for the Gospel”.
CS on Wed, November 18, 2009

Old thread resurrected indeed….

“We must earn the right to speak into someone else’s life (whether that comes through feeding them, giving them clothes, providing medicine, praying for the sick, etc.). “

No, that’s wrong. Our works are a testimony to our words, and our words explain the reason behind our works. But you don’t have to do nice things in order to earn the right to speak to someone. You can share the Gospel with a complete stranger on the spot without having to do something nice for them first.

—
CS
Wendi Hammond on Wed, November 18, 2009

CS � what do you do with the Matt 25 passage Peter reminded us about?

Your statement, IMO, actually affirms what Arnau says. Our works validate our words (you said �gives testimony to�). Of course you can share the gospel with a stranger without doing nice things for them. But, as Jesus says, when we SEE the person hungry, in prison, sick, etc. and do nothing, we will be judged harshly (Jesus will say �I never knew you�). The gospel is incomplete without the demonstrated care about human need. It is, as some would say, a �watered down gospel.�

And everything doesn�t have to happen in the same encounter. Often we care first for months, and then people begin to believe we are really representing Jesus. This was St. Patrick�s method, and he had a miraculous evangelism track record.

My frustration is that many America evangelicals treat the words of Jesus in Matt 25 as optional, preach the words first (make sure they know they�re heading for hell) and then, if the situation and time allows (usually it doesn�t) demonstrate some kind of human compassion. This neither follows Jesus model nor mandate.

Wendi
CS on Wed, November 18, 2009

Wendi:

You and I come from opposite ends of the same spectrum when it comes to evangelism and deeds. In your experience, as you’ve said above, you see people who are quick to talk and slow to act. In my experience, I see people who are quick to do good deeds, reach out to their communities, and do works, but never get around to sharing the Gospel in a concrete, formal, and direct way. Both of us agree that the Gospel must be shared and good works must be practiced, but we differ on the timing and practice of both.

I tend to side on presenting the Gospel more quickly and openly because people may yet die while good works are taking place. It won’t matter how many bellies are filled, sicknesses healed, and people are nurtured if they go to Hell along the way. But, like you said, that would be no excuse for not doing good deeds, which is why I apply equal weight to Mark 16:15 and Matthew 25 and do both in my life.

However, where I disagree is with Sherwood’s assertion that the good works give us the right to share the Gospel—or, to state it in the contrary way, one cannot share the Gospel until good works have been demonstrated. That is ludicrous and cannot be found in the Bible at all. We are called to go into all the world to preach the Gospel; it does not say, “Go into all the world, do good deeds, and then you will be able to preach the Gospel.”

—
CS
Arnau van Wyngaard on Wed, November 18, 2009

When I train people on evangelism, I like to say that Jesus was a gentleman. He didn’t kick in doors in an attempt to convert people. When speaking to the woman at the well, He took some time to determine her real needs before offering her the water of Life. When the paralized man was brought to Him, he first healed him and then forgave his sins. It’s really not so much a question whether I’ve done enough good deeds before I can present the gospel. I maintain however, that I have to earn the right to speak to someone about something as personal as his/her spiritual life. And this can be done in a variety of ways: giving food or water, helping the sick, merely sitting down and being willing to listen to someone sharing their life story. It is really not a choice about sharing the gospel or sharing food. It’s more a choice about: How can I make sure that this person will not only listen to the gospel but accept is wholeheartedly.