Emerging Peter: Benefactors of the Community

Last updated on: March 15, 2006 at 6:00 am by Scot McKnight

Emerging Peter: Benefactors of the Community 2006-03-15T06:00:05-06:00 Scot McKnight

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Peter mixes the powerlessness of his readers, who were resident aliens and temporary residents — a social descriptor, with the challenge of bringing God’s redemptive work in Christ to Asia Minor and he begins by exhorting them to do God’s work in God’s way. And now he tells the same folks to be benefactors of the community. Yes, that’s right. Benefactors.

They are to be people of “good conduct” (2:12a — first word in Greek) among the Gentiles and people of “excellent deeds”. Bruce Winter, at one time Warden of Tyndale House (I don’t know if he still is), wrote an important book on this topic and it is called Seek the Welfare of the City and his central claim for us is that what Peter is speaking of here is acts of benefaction in a community, done by the Christians to demonstrate that they were good citizens, good people, and worthy of trust. This theme dominates 2:13–3:12: be good people; maintain a good reputation — but Peter’s strategy is not overwhelmed by the honor-seeking of the Greek and Roman worlds but by glory-reflecting to God. Here’s a quotation from p.21 of his book:
“The observation of their high-profile good works would not only be an eloquent defence of ill-founded allegations against Christians accused of being evil-doers, it would also be the mean by which critics became converts who glorified God ‘in the day of visitation’ i.e. the day referring to personal salvation.”
Here’s a commentary on what Peter was urging the Christians to do, and it comes from Embracing Grace and it comes from the first draft of that story, one that applies a little more here:
NorthBridge
Tucked into a public building at the corner of highway 173 and 83, in Antioch, Illinois, is a burgeoning church. The pastor is Mark Albrecht and the worship leader is his wife, Michelle. Michelle’s brush with cancer led both Mark and Michelle to a deeper level of commitment to gospel ministry, and so, with the blessing of their mother church, Hawthorn Hills Community Church, in Libertyville, Illinois, Mark and Michelle, and a couple dozen others decided to plant a church in Antioch.
But, instead of spending all their energies raising funds to raise another church building, NorthBridge Church’s families decided that they want to make a difference in their community. Consider these facts: the percent of money given to local churches is nearly exhausted by building expenses, salaries, and fees, with very little (if any) left for the community in which those communities live. What I mean by “communities in which they live” is clear enough: I mean the “needs that arise in the community,” and not just evangelistic or mission events. This helps explain why only 44% of American non-Christians think positively of the clergy, why only 32% think positively of “born-again” Christians, and why only 22% think well of evangelical Christians.
Knowing these figures, Pastor Mark Albrecht and his team leaders are exploring a new paradigm for NorthBridge. When Mark, along with other church leaders in the area, heard about the financial crisis in the Grass Lake school district, he approached the Superintendent Jim Beveridge and asked what they, as churches, could do. Jim informed Mark that an old school building was out of code, no longer usable, but that it would cost over a quarter of a million or so to rehabilitate. Mark and the leaders convened, prayed, and came up with a plan: they decided to fix the building, but not by hiring it out, but with volunteer labor from the churches. Together – something local churches often struggle with – they fixed that old building, and the costs were about a tenth of expectations because of the volunteer labor poured into the project.
Church work and community help, gospel ministry and social ministry got all wound up into one effort and both benefited – and the gospel was heard. Instead of pouring scorn on the local school administrators, instead of yanking their kids out of under-funded schools, instead of raising funds for another private Christian school, these churches entered the public square and did what they could to help – and they got “nothing” out of it.
They also got nothing out of ShareFest, another community event organized by Pastor Albrecht and NorthBridge Church. The community had a bundle of needs, mostly undone and lower on the priority list of things that would be done anytime soon, so ShareFest was organized. Some people painted fire hydrants, others painted a public works building, some winterized senior citizens’ homes, while others worked in the local wetlands. There was a clothing and food drive as well as a musical performance. Albrecht was quoted in the local Antioch Press: “We went out and asked, ‘How can we help?’ It was kind of revolutionary.”
Pastor Albrecht is not doing this by himself; he does not want the credit or the glory or the attention. He wants to see the gospel embodied at NorthBridge Church, and he wants to be part of it. It is an exciting work, and many churches throughout the world are catching a new vision of the gospel today.

Emerging Movement

Previous Post

March 15, 2006

Atonement: An Emerging Issue

Next Post

March 15, 2006 TNIV and the Apocrypha

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Acts of the Apostles Adam Advent Anabaptism Angels Anglican Apologetics Atonement Baptism BCP Prayers Bible Biblical Studies Birds Blogging Bloglossary Bonhoeffer Books Calvinism Christianity Church Church History Coffee Colossians Commentary Recs Conversion Creation Creeds Culture Death Ecclesiastes Economics Education Embracing Grace Emergent Emerging Movement Eschatology Essays Ethics Eucharist Evangelicalism Family Fasting Fathers Fellowship of Differents Footsteps Tour Fun and Whimsical Gospel Grace Happiness Heaven Hell Holy Spirit Irenaeus James Jesus Jesus Creed Job Justification Kingdom of God Law Lectures Lent Liberalism Love and Marriage Mabanteneni Manhood Mary Miracles Missio Alliance MissioLife Missional Missional Jesus Movies and Film New Perspective Northern Seminary OneLife Origins Project Orthodox Parables Pastor's Spouse Pastoring and Leading Pastoring and Preaching Patristics Paul Paul-John Tour Pharisees Pietism Political Theology Prayer and Formation Preaching Problems for Faith Psalm 119 Psalms Public Issues Purgatory Religions Resurrection Revelation Romans Rule of JCreed Science and Faith Sermon on the Mount Sports Ten Commandments Theology Third Way Top Ten Lists Translations Uncategorized Universalism University Ministry Way Out Weekly Meanderings Wisdom Women and Ministry Work Worship Writing & Blogging Youth Ministry

Select a Month July 2021 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 0000

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What does "Satan" mean in Hebrew?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Adversary Deceiver Destroyer Murderer