Holiness

As we interact with many non-yet Christians in Paris, I appreciate what Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch say about "holiness" in their impotant book The Shaping of Things to Come: Innovation and Mission in the 21st-Century Church (Hendrickson, 2003). They write the following (pp. 54-55):

Holiness

Jesus said, "Let your light shine before [everyone] that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven" (Matt 5:16). Built into the very fabric of New Testament teaching is the assumption that when the Christian community embraces a godly, holy lifestyle, it will so tantalize the wider community that they will seek after God. And yet so much of what typifies the so-called holiness movement in the fundamentalist-evangelical churches has had the opposite effect. When the wonders of life in Christ are boiled down to teetotalling, it's hardly likely to arouse great interest in the community about us. If by holiness we simply mean no drinking, no smoking, and no dancing, we have a very limited view of the concept. In his letter to Titus, Paul encouraged him to teach his congregation to be respectful, self-controlled, kind, loving, and faithful. He told him to discourage drunkenness, slander, gossip, and disrespect. Why? "So that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive" (Titus 2:1-10).

The missional-incarnational church will make Christian teaching attractive by living it under the very noses of those who have not yet embraced it. What impact can a church that has withdrawn from society have on that society? The traditional-attractional church often quotes, "Come ye out and be ye separate," a reversal of Jesus' command to be salt and light in the world. Rather, our lives which must be marked by commitments to acting justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with God (Micah 6:8), must be lived in close proximity to those we are seeking to reach. It might be all very good to choose to abstain from the consumption of alcohol as an act of devotion to God, but if our lives are marked by greed, self-centeredness, arrogance, and fear, in what way is our light shining forth?