A social gospel

I wanted to share some thoughts I had during our sermon this last Sunday. Bill's sermon was called "fruit inspection". He was talking about false prophets and that we can recognize them by the fruits of their message. Specifically, that the fruit their followers will demonstrate will be rotten. He had four rotten fruits, which I don't remember. One rotten fruit I remember is that the result of a false message was a focus on a single message or issue rather than Jesus. That is what prompted this train of thought:

There are churches that pursue a single issue such as abortion (Bill used this example), and I definitely am not pro-choice. But they spend their time and effort on that single issue, rallies, political meetings, etc. They become defined by that issue rather then Jesus. They've lost their true focus. Bill went further to say that when churches focus on Jesus then the other issues that we are worried about start changing as well. Society changes as we focus on Him, and He changes our hearts. We can't get wrapped around the axle about issues we have to fix, rather focus on Him and "introducing people to the life-changing power of God's mercy and truth". (Evanston Vineyard's Mission Statement) As God moves through people's hearts and lives society as well goes through a transformation. From what I've seen in the history of the church, this is a documented pattern. God brings a time of revival that in turn has a purifying effect on society.

I know that there are many issues that I am concerned about in our society; fatherlessness, a culture of objectifying women, attitudes of victimhood, and the list goes on and on. But my thought was the United States (and the rest of Western Europe for that matter) is ripe for a revival. I've had that thought before, but it was more poignant due to the sermon. What is going to change our society for the better isn't combating these issues head on, rather seeing where God is at work in lives around us and meeting Him there. In addition, praying and fasting for revival for our nation. I'm sure there will be key leaders that will arise and moments when issues will be confronted/dealt with in our society as the time comes. But it seems to me, we don't start there, but rather with Jesus.