Roger Smith

Roger Smith photo

What's your thing?
Social Policy, Church Planting

Currently leading a church plant in Richmond. With four children and four grandchildren, he's a birdwatcher, Magistrate and Spurs supporter! Previously Head of Public Policy at CARE and Vice-Chair of the Centre for Bioethics & Public Policy.

Church: Richmond Borough Church

My Articles

Would anyone in your community notice if your church ceased to exist? So runs the question from the Evangelical Alliance’s new 'Square Mile' initiative.

This excellent initiative is but one amongst many coming from Christians who believe that there is more to life than simple pious faith.  We are confronted with concepts such as ‘community mission’, ‘integral mission’ and ‘integrated theology’.

But what are we to make of the Square Mile question?  Maybe we need some definitions before we can answer the question.

What is ‘your community’?  What is ‘your church’?

Maybe we are in danger of falling into the same trap as the lawyer who questioned Jesus with his famous question ‘who is my neighbour’? Even putting that aside -  should ‘your community’ refer to a defined geographical area or is there another way of understanding community?

Does it have to do with our immediate circle of friends or family?  Maybe it just extends to our neighbours and work colleagues or maybe it can be seen as an all inclusive term covering the whole of our national life or even international life.

Also, are we supposed to think in terms of ‘gathered church’ or should we be thinking more in terms of a ‘sent church’ comprising many individuals in many diverse situations?

I do not ask these questions in order just to be difficult, as the answers that we give will be crucial in shaping the activities we get involved in.

The church, gathered or sent, can relate to its surrounding community in differing ways.  We hear stories of transformation, influence, responsibility and opportunity, all of which will necessarily be worked out in different ways depending upon which community we are referring to.

As with any human activity, we need to establish specific targets or goals in order to ensure that we achieve them.  What will our communities look like with our involvement?

David Muir, Director of Public Policy, at the EA suggests that “safe, prosperous and peaceful communities are what we are looking for”

Malcolm Duncan, Leader of Faith Works, wants to see “communities become safer places”

Charles Finney, in his 23rd Lecture on Revival (note to self: I really must read the other 22) says that the gospel “releases a mighty impulse toward social reform” and that the Church’s neglect of social reform grieved the Holy Spirit and hindered revival.  He also suggested that “the great business of the Church is to reform the world….The Church of Christ was originally organised to be a body of reformers.  The very profession of Christianity implies the profession and virtually an oath to do all that can be done for the universal reformation of the world.”

Tom Wright in The Challenge of Jesus tells us that “our task, as image – bearing, God – loving, Christ – shaped, Spirit – filled Christians, following Christ and shaping our world, is to announce redemption to the world that has discovered its fallenness; to announce healing to the world that has discovered its brokenness; to proclaim love and trust to the world that knows only exploitation, fear and suspicion.”

Reading these quotes, together with many others, it would be easy to assume that as soon as someone is born again, they become effective in changing the world around them.  Sometimes this is the case, but more often there is a need to train and equip people to see how personal salvation can bring about social transformation or as Tom Wright suggests, community redemption.

Something to think about before coming to the Everything Conference:
What would ‘transformation’ or indeed ‘redemption’ look like in your community?

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