This morning, @missiondiary tweeted 2 Corinthians 6:14: “Don’t team up with those who are unbelievers. How can righteousness be a partner with wickedness?”
For some reason, I was reminded of something the early Celtic monastics did, which you can read about in “The Celtic Way of Evangelism” (George Hunter). They built monasteries near population centers, and from them they offered things in trade (e.g. food, etc.) and education for the young. They also usually had what I would call a “visitor’s house.” Anyone could come and live in the monastery with the monks—they had a special house prepared for these guests. The guests would participate in the full life of the monastery: prayers, work, etc. Eventually, these visitors often became converts.
The Celts knew, I guess, what Rodney Stark has studied: integration into the social networks of believers nearly always comes before conversion or acceptance of doctrines. This is what seeker-friendly churches are angling for: encourage people to come in and become part of the social network of the church, and eventually come to faith. (I’m not saying I’m all for seeker-friendly churches: as a believer I typically don’t like their services because I feel the sermons are too light-weight—like trying to drink baby’s milk instead of eating steaks.)
This social-network concept is perhaps a technical explanation for why in-person and relational evangelism is so important. Yes, people do come to faith because of mass-evangelism, crusades, the odd tract left on the coffee table or in the phone booth (do we even have phone booths any more?), the Gideon Bible left in the hotel room. But the plain fact is that the vast majority of people who come to faith are people who grew up in Christian homes; and of the 15 million or so converts from non-Christian homes, most come to faith in the context of a personal sharing of the Gospel. Personal contact is most important.
That value of that personal contact is one reason why it’s a tragedy that 86% of Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists have no contact with a Christian. We have not incarnated the Gospel into their midst. Jesus-in-us has not “taken on flesh and bone and moved into the neighborhood.”
Back to 2 Corinthians 6:14: what do you think about the intersection between this verse and what the Celts did? Were the Celts forming partnerships with unbelievers? Were they teaming up? When does 2 Corinthians 6 come into play in this partnership idea?
I have some thoughts, but let’s have yours first!
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