A sociological explanation of church in society

"Church in society" has to do with how the church, either as individual Christian or corporately, relates to institutions. Sociologist Bryan Turner draws this picture: "Social institutions are the bridges between humans and their physical environment, and it is through these institutions that human life becomes coherent, meaningful, and continuous."

Sociologists define institutions as

"larger more ger, enduring structures that carry out collective purposes are repositories of resources and of the commitments of their members are upheld by collectively defined meanings and purposes and they are sustained by rewards and sanctions. Some institutions, which we readily identify as "enduring structures" are:

When the church advocates, it seeks to witness to God's Word in a way that is non‑partisan

• Impersonal organizations, e.g. corporations and businesses

• Relatively intimate institutions, e.g. the family, neighborhoods, teams, associations

• Large scale institutions, e.g. the United Nations, the market, political parties, the media, denominations

Less obvious "patterns of action" may also be seen as enduring structures:

• Social customs, e.g. who sits where in church or who lives where in the community

• social processes, e.g. the electing of officials, the studying of global warming, moral deliberation

We shape institutions and they shape us. They form us by giving us identity and a sense of personal wholeness, assigning responsibility, making us accountable, and setting standards Institutions, therefore, have a moral element to them. They try to influence what we consider right and wrong, virtuous or non‑virtuous. For them to do so requires power and money.

Institutions‑at least the ones we typically think of as institutions: government, professional sports, transnational corporations, even organized religion‑have lost status in people's eyes in recent years because they seem to be at odds with personal freedom and because some have become corrupt. This does not change the fact that they are part of God's good creation.

How do institutions have a bearing on the church's work in society? In several ways:

1. Church in society ministry emphasizes the church's collective, corporate, moral response to society.

It does this by:

• Encouraging moral deliberation by groups of people;

• Nurturing the baptized' vocation as citizens, family members, and workers; developing social policy to guide individual consciences;

• educating the church regarding the needs of people and the creation;

• raising up models of care and concern such as social ministry organizations, disaster response, refugee

resettlement;

• offering relief for people who are poor and hungry;

and by celebrating and encouraging the development of coalitions with both faith‑based and secular organizations.

2. Church in society ministry seeks to interact with and critique institutions that set standards, assign responsibilities, hold people accountable and that go by such names as "government," "business," "communities," "science," "organizations," etc.

It does this through:

• community development;

• congregation‑based community organizing;

• and through advocacy for justice to governments and the private sector.

The church takes a risk as it does these things because, as an institution, it too may be corrupted by power and wealth. So, the church must speak to itself as well as to other institutions of society on such things as racism, sexism, and the proper care of the creation.

An operational definition of church in society

A third way to explain what church in society means is to see how it operates when compared to what is commonly thought of as social ministry or the pursuit of justice. There are similarities and dissimilarities.

(You may use the following grid as the basis for group discussion.)

	Social Ministry	Pursuit of justice	Church in Society
Meaning	Charity and	Advocacy for justice.	Charity and compassion, moral
	compassion.		deliberation, and advocacy.
Aim	Direct assistance	Seeks to change systems.	Direct assistance; seeks to help
	to people.		people understand what is going
			on and affect moral behavior;
			seeks to change systems.
Method	Personal ways of	Persuades people with	Personal help, study of issues,
	helping.	power, seeks allies, confronts,	persuasion, coalition building,
		critiques social policy.	crafting of social policy.
Scope	Addresses immediate	Addresses social and	Addresses immediate needs but
	needs.	ecological inequities.	also seeks to change systems that
			account for recurrence.
Grounding	Grounded in Christ's	Grounded in moral	Grounded in Christ's example
	example and	convictions.	and command, in the theology
	command.		and social policy of the
			church.
Time	Ministry occurs now.	Justice achievable now.	Ministry, study, advocacy occur
Orientation			now. Full justice will not be
			accomplished until God's rule is
			complete.

Church in society combines many aspects of social ministry and justice. It moves beyond social ministry in terms of the scope of its attention (i.e. society as a whole rather than individuals) and the means it uses to bring God's will to bear in the world (i.e. advocacy).

Church in society moves beyond the way justice is often pursued by the faith commitments that ground it, in its reluctance to use confrontation except as a last resort, and in its modesty about fully realizing right relationships until the rule of God dawns. Church in society also moves beyond social ministry and much social justice work by incorporating the study of social issues and, through the churchwide organization, forming social policy on which to act.

Advocacy and the relationship of church and state

In what has been said so far, there has been the assumption that the church may and should address government. This is one form that advocacy takes. Advocating for change may also be addressed to for‑profit and not‑for‑profit organizations.

Advocacy is speaking on behalf of others, supporting and defending them, and recommending and arguing for care and justice. When the church advocates, it seeks to witness to God's Word in a way that is non‑partisan, does not bind the conscience of members, and makes no claim to speak unambiguously for God or all Lutherans. There is precedent for advocating for justice in the Bible. For example, God sent Moses to Pharaoh in behalf of God's people's needs (Exodus 3:1‑12). Nathan the prophet condemned King David's adultery (2 Samuel 12)

God commanded the king to act with justice

(Jeremiah 22:3). Jesus pronounced "woe" on the religious authorities of his day who neglected justice and mercy (Matthew 23:23). The word "justice" and related terms occur many times in the Bible.

Among the purposes of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America are: "advocating dignity and justice for all people,..., standing with the poor and powerless and committing itself to their needs" ELCA Constitution 4.02c) and "...advocacy to further human dignity, freedom, justice, and peace in the world" ELCA Constitution 4.03.1).

The ELCA Constitution summarizes its approach to church and state relations when the church pledges to "work with civil authorities in areas of mutual. endeavor, maintaining institutional separation of church and state in a relation of functional interaction" ELCA Constitution 4.03.n. Emphasis added).

Institutional separation affirms that both state and church have God‑given freedom, integrity, and limits. Functional interaction affirms that there are areas of mutual endeavor where both may and should cooperate without undercutting their integrity.

This alternative to strict separationism emerged among most Lutherans in the United States in the course of the twentieth century. It is based on the understanding that, though God governs the world through state and church in distinctive ways, the church prays for the state and holds it accountable to God's rule. 6

Summary

"Church in society" is a rich expression that may be understood from various angles and in this part of the manual we have looked at three of these perspectives. They explain the why, how, and what of church in society ministry.

Church in society means that the church, out of its conviction that God made and redeemed the world and has sent it into the world, engages and addresses the world in the form of institutions with all their power and moral influence. It does this in priestly (proclaiming the Word, praying, modeling, serving) and prophetic (advocating, studying, educating, creating social policy) ways so that God's will may be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Though this phrase is not the only way of describing the relationship of the church to the "big picture" of the world, it does encompass understandings, behaviors, and actions that draw the church away from self‑preoccupation to engagement with the world.

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