Amy L. Sherman - Agents of Flourishing: Pursuing Shalom in Every Corner of Society

Ive written this book for those Christ-followers who have found in Jeremiahs words a compelling vision for the church in our time and for those who are open to this idea. Like the Israelites in Babylon at the time of Jeremiahs letter, we, too, are in exile.

We are generally in exile in the sense that all of humanity has been in exile since human beings were sent out of the Garden of Eden because of our sin. All of humanity longs to be back home, though some people are more willing to admit it than others. Christs disciples experience a further dimension of exile. We are members of a kingdom that Jesus taught was not of this world (Jn 18:36). We are exiles scattered throughout the nations (1 Pet 1:1). We feel uncomfortable with all kinds of worldliness because weve been made new creatures in Christ. We are trying to obey the command to not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of [our] mind[s] (Rom 12:2).

As Christians in post-Christian America, we feel keenly a specific sense of exile, perhaps similar to the Israelites in pagan Babylon. Were experiencing dislocation because, increasingly, our basic convictions about God, truth, nature, and human nature are unintelligible to our fellow citizens. We feel dismayed by the cultures moral relativism. In our workplaces some of us experience disdain or hostility toward our Christian faith. Older believers in particular remember a time when mainstream culture seemed more in alignment with traditional biblical values. As Bible Society CEO Paul Williams writes, We live in a generation in which our elders at least can remember a time when Christianity was still a major force in our Western or Western-influenced societies. Thus we feel its declining influence more acutely.

This disorientation has prompted a variety of opinions about how to respond, with some favoring retreat and others attack. I think many Christ-followers in the United States today feel caught. They are disturbed by the aggressive culture-warrior stance of some within conservative Christianity and with this groups seemingly uncritical marriage to right-wing politics. They grasp that Christendom is gone and that the church today must find a new way to be in our current culture. They also sense that it is important to stand up for their moral commitments, to be brave enough to insist on true truths. They dont want to attack, but they dont want to capitulate either, giving in to a version of political correctness that derides basic biblical teachings on such topics as gender or marriage.

Into this context the words from Jeremiah land with freshness and challenge. Rather than trying to conquer the world around us and rather than giving in and accommodating to its values and agendas, we hear Gods call to engage this world. Its a call to be, in Timothy Kellers memorable phrase, a counterculture for the common good. It involves dwelling in the land, not withdrawing from it. It involves maintaining faithfulness to our distinct, biblical convictions while simultaneously laying down our lives for our neighborssome of whom ridicule and reject those very convictions. It involves trusting God, who showed us grace while we were his enemies, when he says that this path of sacrificial love can bring both us and them true flourishing.