Rejection of Reductionism

Strategic reductionism is needed to accomplish any task, but theological reductionism is destructive for it limits our capacity for working closely with each other across the body. We must not oppose issues but cause them to flow together. Neither neglecting the apostolic focus, nor ignoring the holistic context of its operation. Some like to reduce the commission only to evangelism. Some like to reduce Jesus' commission to the spiritual. Some like to reduce the commission to church growth. This is good biblical goal, and a strategic goal, like "the word was multiplied greatly," but an intermediate goal to seeing the Kingdom established.

This year is William Carey's bicentenary. He perceived this wider impact of the holistic Kingdom on cities and nations. Have you seen his record of achievements. He planted some churches, and evangelized constantly but he also set up universities, botanical societies, published literature on culture and language, fought for abolition of suttee, (the burning of the widows of the dead) ad infinitum... He understood that evangelism is an intermediate goal, church growth is an intermediate goal, that the bringing of the Kingdom into all structures of society is the mandate he received from Jesus. He understood that evangelism is not counter to brining justice, but that where a man seeks justice, the gospel moves freely. That incarnational involvement in the social issues of the day leads to freedom to speak of a King and his Kingdom's impact on the structures of the city.

The U.S. Centre for World Mission's emphasis on mobilization to people groups has been good strategic reductionism for a while, but because it also is theologically reductionist, has lead them to ignore (or is it reject) any useful focus on looking at cities, and locked them in the paradigm of thirty years ago, (before the massive urbanization of the world took off), the least evangelized tribal peoples. Cities must be reached as both cities and as people groups (socio-economic and linguistic). The strategic has created a theological reductionism

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© Viv Grigg & Urban Leadership Foundationand other materials © by various contributors & Urban Leadership Foundation,  for The Encarnacao Training Commission.  Last modified: July 2010