When I was younger (just a few years ago!), people used to talk about ‘gateway drugs’. According to Wikipedia, “The gateway drug theory … is the theory that the use of less deleterious drugs may lead to a future risk of using more dangerous hard drugs and/or crime. It is often attributed to the use of one of several drugs, including tobacco, alcohol, and cannabis.”
I think that this theory could be applied in a positive sense. Some practices are gateways for good; practices that create entry points for the Spirit of God to change peoples and cultures. I have had the opportunity to work with people in countries (sometimes including our own!) where the dominate version is contrary to the gospel version. There are so many places where greed, ambition, injustice, oppression, suppression and idolatry hold sway. Given that we are a people of “sub-version” (thank you, Walter Brueggemann), I like to think about what things we can offer to or encourage in the world that create space for the Spirit to be at work in a people and a culture in a way that can subvert the ways of the world and give birth to the Kingdom of God. How can we offer or teach something that is not so tainted by our culture that it does a disservice to the gospel in the lives of our neighbors ?
Over the course of time, I’ve come to the conclusion that the most subversive radical, revolutionary things we can do as people in mission… the best things we can do to pave the way for the Spirit to work in the hearts and culture of people are:
#1: Teach People to Read
Being able to read allows someone to learn for themselves and not be held captive to the propaganda or agenda of others. As a good protestant, of course, I think that the ability to read scripture for oneself is of utmost importance. (What more transforming book could one read than the Bible?) Additionally, the ability to read means that a person can continue to expand their horizons without ever physically leaving home; and can encounter new ideas from other people and places — and if that’s not subversive/dangerous, I don’t know what is.
“Wherever books are burned, human beings are destined to be burned too.” – Heinrich Heine
#2: Help People Learn to Pray
Prayer brings the stuff of scripture off of the page and into our hearts. Whether our prayers consist of speaking to God, listening to God, interceding for others, or simply resting/dwelling in God, it is here that the Kingdom is formed within us and in the world around us.
“God shapes the world by prayer. The more prayer there is in the world the better the world will be, the mightier the forces of against evil …” – E.M. Bounds
“The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays.” – S. Kierkegaard
#3: Show People how to Serve One Another
At first, I was tempted to title this point “teach people to serve” or to “serve others” but this way of looking at our incarnational mission task would imply a one-way action… and we’ve had enough of that in the history of Christian mission. Besides, such a model would not honor our Lord, who came to serve others but also received from them (an anointing from Mary, service from his disciples and a mission-expanding lesson from the Syro-phonetician Woman). Jesus tells us to serve our neighbor, and later tells us to love one another. We all are neighbor to someone, so learning to serve one another seems consistent with both the actions and words of Christ. Learning to serve one another keeps the emphasis on a posture of giving and receiving (or as some would say, evangelizing and being evangelized).
“For it is in giving that we receive.”― St. Francis of Assisi
Thoughts & Images from the Heart 