The Gospel and Transformation

I just had a very good friend return from South Africa. He is the same friend who took me there just over a year ago. It is SO AMAZING to hear him talk of his experiences there. The devestation occuring as a result of AIDS and poverty, the dangers from thugs and car-jackers, the amazing transformation of lives and hope represented in some of the ministries there. It is all so overwhelming and stirring just hearing my friend share his trip. But there was one question in particular in the midst of our 45 minutes together that got me thinking. While there, my friend saw radical life change in many, many people. I am talking about the kind of life change where a drug user and dealer has now quit cold turkey. A thug and criminal is now living the straight and narrow. A once hopeless and helpless bum has hope and drive for his future. And the numbers of people who have experienced such radical life change is staggering. These stories that are happening every day over there would make the front stage of our church as a BIG DEAL. And they are common place over there.

This lead to the following question:

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Why is the gospel of Jesus Christ making such a radical impact and changing lives over in South Africa, and not here in Indiana (or America)?

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Don't get me wrong...it is not to say that the gospel is not impacting lives here. But it seems life change in episodes...maybe one here or there. I would contend my church is pretty relevant and effective in our culture, but we don't see the kind of positive life change happening every day like there. The impact is expotentially less.

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Why?

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I have no real answers. But my gut and my own experience both in South Africa and here in the US tells me it is true. Lives are changing radically over there, but not so much here.

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I have been reading a book called Under the Unpredictable Plant, but Eugene Peterson. It is a book written for pastors on how to cultivate a spiritual life in the midst of working as a pastor. Peterson makes a big deal out of our consumer culture here in America. He says on page 80 and 81 "The people in our congregations are, in fact, out shopping for idols. They enter our churches with the same mind-set in which they go to the shopping mall, to get something that will please them or satisfy an appetite or need."

"Mostly they want to be there own god and stay in control but have ancillary idol assistance for the hard parts, which the pastor can show them how to get."

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I am wondering if Peterson is on to something of an answer to my question in his book. Peterson talks in metaphors at times, and one I like is the idea of being a farmer and working the soil. If the soil is the culture by which we work in, I wonder how different the soil is in South Africa than in America? Perhaps in America our consumer culture has created a soil that does not allow for the gospel to take root and grow up in the way that changes lives so radically.

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And if this is in fact the reality of our soil, I do have great hope. Maybe if we can change the soil a bit, the gospel will find root, and this sleeping giant that is the American Church just might awake. Oh man...then what might happen. Poverty? Aids? Irrelevance? No more. But what will it take to change the soil? Another good question. I think I am only allowed one per blog.