A Biblical view: In the beginning, God created the Earth and all that was in it, and called it good. He placed mankind on the earth to rule over and care for the Earth, as a steward (Genesis 1). Man, however, was tempted and fell into sin—rebellion against God’s sovereignty and God’s purposes for man on the Earth. As a result mankind became corrupted and through man’s direction actions and lack of stewardship the Earth became broken and wasted (Genesis 3). God’s desire is to reclaim and redeem mankind and Creation, and he has launched a redemptive effort to accomplish this, beginning with Abraham and continuing throughout recorded history to Jesus and the church (Genesis 12).
Jesus came to rescue the lost (Luke 19:10), redeem and restore the sick/broken/oppressed/sinner (Matthew 9:1-13), and destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8). Jesus did not come into the world to judge the world, but that the world through Him might be saved (John 3:16-17). After his death and resurrection, Jesus commissioned his followers to do the same things he had done.
So, one way to define a resilient community using Biblical terminology is that it is safe (from attack—the works of the devil); that it is whole (restored, healed, resurrected); that it is ‘connected’ (helping and serving others)—and that it is kept this way over time. To be ‘resilient’ according to a dictionary definition is to have the ability to endure damage and bounce back to its original shape.
We can view the work of missions, churches, and evangelists as effort which helps to move a specific community along one or more of these three axes:
- ‘evangelistic’ work (or at least what we often think of as ‘evangelistic’) proclaims the good news of the Kingdom in order to seek and save the lost, affecting the ‘safe’ axis
- ‘healing’ work (compassion, charity, relief, development, social justice, etc) addresses the health, holistic, wholeness, justice axis
- ‘discipleship’ work which addresses the connectedness axis, or how we relate to other people.
The three axes below allow several different combinations. Here are some illustrations:
- Safe, Whole, Connected: a missional community that is reaching out to others.
- Safe, Whole, Isolated: a healthy community that is shielding itself from possible danger.
- Safe, Broken, Connected: a spiritual testimony to others that is hampered from reaching out.
- Safe, Broken, Isolated: a persecuted and oppressed minority of Christians
- Unsafe, Whole, Connected: a powerful community that preys on others.
- Unsafe, Whole, Isolated: a powerful community that walls itself off into an elite group.
- Unsafe, Broken, Connected: a community that others pity and reach out to.
- Unsafe, Broken, Isolated: a little-known and at-risk minority group
