Holy Subversion

Imagine interviewing for a church position today and saying, "I believe God wants us to be kingdom-focused and mission-minded. It could be that as we start to move into more intensive discipleship, we will shrink before we grow."

In most churches, you would be shown the door quickly. It's too risky. No one wants to hear about shrinking. Never mind that the concept is biblical. Never mind that Jesus talks about branches being pruned for the good of the tree. Never mind that shrinking actually happened in Jesus' earthly ministry.

The church in the West is booming on a financial and social level. There are more churches now in the United States than ever before in our history. The percentage of people attending church weekly continues to hold steady. Buildings. Budgets. Baptisms. We have them all. But the influence of Christianity on American society is waning. Our impact is hardly felt. Could it be that we finally have reached the pinnacle of worldly "success," and that this Caesar is undermining our witness?

We subvert the Caesar of Success whenever we, as a community of faith, reject the idea that bigger is necessarily better. We subvert success when we go from riches to rags on behalf of the world's poor … when we find happiness and contentment in people, not things … when our churches partner with one another, not as competitors, but as co-workers in the kingdom.

Above all, Christian communities subvert the Caesar of Success when they recognize the Holy Spirit's power over results, redefine success to include the embrace of suffering, and actively pursue unity in the body of Christ. Christians are not called to be "successful"; we are called to be faithful.

An excerpt from the late-2nd-century Letter to Diognetus sums up the early Christian understanding of success and faithfulness: "Christians do not find happiness by ruling over their neighbors, or by seeking supremacy over the weak, or by being rich, or by attacking the inferior. On the contrary, Christians see success in taking upon themselves the burdens of their neighbor, using their positions of superiority to benefit the deficient, and in distributing whatever they receive from God to the needy. This is what it means to be an imitator of God."

Related Elsewhere:

Holy Subversion is available at ChristianBook.com and other book retailers.

Christianity Today articles by Trevin Wax include:

A Private Matter | Forced resignation of Southern Baptist leader prompts calls for transparency. (July 13, 2009)

Not an Academic Question | Pastors tell how the justification debate has changed their ministry. (June 26, 2009)

The Justification Debate: A Primer | Two of the world's most prominent pastor-theologians on justification—and what difference it makes. (June 26, 2009)