As a Presbyterian minister and sociologist who does not match either of those statistical categories, I keep asking, “What about distinguishing criteria? Indeed, what are the visible signs, socially measurable signs, of any Christian church?”
In my study of the Bible, the one word that keeps emerging is koinonia. In classical Greek, koinonia means an association or a partnership: when different parties come together to participate together in something. It was often used to refer to a marriage, where two parties come together to share in a life. Essentially the word koinonia comes to mean to share in something.
In the Christian sense it entails sharing in something divine. It “denotes that common participation in the grace of God, the salvation of Christ and the indwelling Spirit which is the spiritual birthright of all Christian believers” (John Stott).
It is the trademark of the Christian church.
What does it mean to be a Presbyterian today? According to statistical probabilities, a person labeled Presbyterian is likely to be white and rich. Only the Episcopalians and Unitarians rival our spending power.
As a Presbyterian minister and sociologist who does not match either of those statistical categories, I keep asking, “What about distinguishing criteria? Indeed, what are the visible signs, socially measurable signs, of any Christian church?”
In my study of the Bible, the one word that keeps emerging is koinonia. In classical Greek, koinonia means an association or a partnership: when different parties come together to participate together in something. It was often used to refer to a marriage, where two parties come together to share in a life. Essentially the word koinonia comes to mean to share in something.
In the Christian sense it entails sharing in something divine. It “denotes that common participation in the grace of God, the salvation of Christ and the indwelling Spirit which is the spiritual birthright of all Christian believers” (John Stott).
It is the trademark of the Christian church.
Through that koinonia, we share in, and with, our Triune God a fellowship with creation. Much like Jesus said, through our love for each other the world will know that we are his disciples. Through that koinonia the world will know we are Christians.
According to Acts 2:42-47, this sharing had two directions. One was the sharing IN and one was sharing OUT. The sharing IN refers to the time when Christians were devoted to the Apostles’ teachings. They shared inwardly the teachings of Christ. They shared with each other how Jesus Christ had revealed himself to them and their lives. They also shared inwardly their material possessions. They ate together and helped each other out financially. They shared with each other their worship — a corporate, not individual, act. And they prayed together. They shared with each other their most intimate conversations with their God.
This fellowship also shared outwardly. Acts 2:44-45 claims that All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need (TNIV). They did not share out of convenience. They didn’t merely share their leftovers. They sold what they had in order to help out someone else.
This is one of the scariest passages for Christians today, especially rich Christians. Pay close attention: they gave to anyone — in or out of the church — who had need.
One of their best known ministries was the caring for the widows and the orphans. A widow in first century Palestine had a life expectancy of about three weeks after her husband died; the same with her children. They had no welfare, no social institutions to help them. Women had no rights. If they were poor, they would just die. Christians came along and said, “This is no good. Our God would want us to take care of these people.” And so they did. And it was this form of sharing IN and OUT that sustained churches throughout history.
I have struggled with the issue of what distinguishes us as Christians; I wonder if maybe it is our failure to fully take part in this sharing that has led us to our present state.
I recently read Jeffery Sachs’ book The End of Poverty. Sachs, an economist at Columbia University’s Earth Institute, also serves as the director of the UN Millennial Project, which seeks to end poverty around the world. His book offers some relatively easy and proven methods of lifting people out of poverty for good. It proposes that together we can end poverty in this generation.
Yet as I finished reading his book I had a mix of emotions, I felt encouraged, hopeful, and terribly sad. I was saddened by the fact that in the currently most important book on ending poverty, Christians were not mentioned. Jeffery Sachs is an economist and he was writing from an economic development point of view. I am not criticizing him. But it’s more of a self-criticism. What happened to us that a very long and thick book prescribing the solution for the problem of poverty could be written with Christians out of the picture?
I believe it’s impossible for any of us to get into the mind of God. But there are certain things that as Christians and students of the word of God, we know about God. We know that when we worship and pray God is happy. We know making peace on earth brings joy to our God. But we also know that when 1.1 billion people in this world are currently too poor to survive, most of them being children under age five, that’s probably breaking the heart of God. We can be pretty sure that 30,000 people, most of them children, dying each day of hunger-related illnesses is not making God happy. And if the problem of poverty is solved while Christians, the very people of God, stand by and watch — if we really don’t play a role in solving the problem of poverty — that too will break the heart of God.
But there is good news. We can do something.
First, even with the decline of denominational affiliation, we remain a powerful force in American religion and worldwide religion. We have the members and we have the money to make a difference in this country and the world.
Secondly, you don’t have to sell everything you have. I’m not going to tell you to give up everything and give it to the poor, though if you are convicted in such a way I will not stop you. If you look closely at the referenced passage in Acts, the believers maintained their private homes. They retained private possessions, selling them only when needs arose. They did not live in communes. So you can keep your houses and things. That’s fine. But if we want to really do something about the problem of poverty I think we need to wrestle with this challenge: to sell our possessions, to give up what we have in order to help those in need.
Presbyterians have the numbers and the money to make a real difference. According to Sachs’ calculations, it takes only $350,000 a year to lift an African village of 5,000 people out of poverty permanently. We have the numbers AND the money to truly fellowship with those in need. But we must be obedient. We have to be willing to give.
Scripture speaks of tithing: the giving of 10%. It’s not a very popular idea with Christians today. I’ve never heard it preached in a Presbyterian church. But if we Presbyterians would revive the practice of tithing, it’s amazing what we could do. God is letting us keep 90%. He has the right to ask for a 100% but he is asking for only 10%. The rest is yours. Now some would argue that 10% is too little, and I would probably agree. But the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is a bit behind right now. The average contribution per reporting PC(USA) member in 2003 was $909.02 according to our own Web site. If that were a tithe, it would mean the average income of a member of one of the richest denominations in the U.S. is less than $10,000.
Ron Sider broke the numbers down in his latest, The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience. According to Sider the average household income in the U.S. is $42,000-plus. If every American who claims to be a Christian tithed, we would raise about $143 billion a year. UNICEF says it would cost $70-80 billion a year to provide food, healthcare, and education for all the poor children of the world. Can you imagine if American Christians went to the UN and said, “We’ll pick up the tab”? We could pay for food, healthcare, and education for all the children in the world and STILL have $70 billion left to run our ministries here and send missionaries there.
Imagine the implications if we as a denomination decided to do this.
Imagine that every Presbyterian would tithe and the PC(USA) began sending billions of dollars around the world to help the poor and the sick.
Imagine that day when people around the world see the PC(USA) seal and immediately associate it with those who loved their neighbors as themselves.
Imagine the day when social scientists associate Presbyterians, not with white and wealth, but with those who truly fellowship with all of God’s children.
Jesus told us that whenever we do it for the least of these, we are doing it for Him. Ron Sider wrote a very famous book back in the 1970s, Rich Christians in the Age of Hunger. In historian Philips Jenkins’ book The Next Christendom he said that when Ron Sider’s book was to be republished he should re-title it as Rich Christians in an Age of Hungry Christians. Presbyterians were a very powerful missionary force at one point in history. We, along with other Western missionaries, went around the world and preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And the seeds that were planted have grown in an abundant harvest all around the world. This is a reason to rejoice and to act. Because among the starving people around the world, the dying children you hear about and see on TV, are Christians. Now more than ever we need to reach out in order to reach in. The suffering people we hear of and see on TV are not distant, strange people. They are our brothers and sisters in Christ. When we are rejoicing in God’s house, they will be there too.
TONY TIEN-REN LIN is pastor of Providence Church in Gum Spring, Va.
