Churches In Action: The Answer To A Broken World?Sample

Broken Relationships 

Human flourishing depends on a living and real relationship with God the Father through Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit. 

Shalom is about being right with God. It is a gift, not a human achievement, completely dependent on God’s grace. This involves growing in restoration with yourself (including body, mind, soul, feelings, and will) and being able to use your gifts to the glory of God. 

Having peaceful, co-dependent, joyful relationships with those in your own community is essential for collective human flourishing. Such relationships require grace, love, and forgiveness, and when these relationships deepen, we gain a greater understanding of how God is with us. The restoration of healthy relationships between women and men is also crucial; moving away from gender stereotypes and away from abusive relationships to loving and respectful relationships. When this happens, people are released to be who God called them to be, rather than limiting their potential by making them conform to false gender stereotypes. 

For Christians, the local church is the key place of community and belonging. It is in the fellowship of the church that imperfect people are purified. As we learn to love and respect each other as disciples of Jesus, we create a foretaste of heaven on earth. 

Restored relationships mean being able to work out differences with others – those people with who we do not have an immediate affinity. These differences may include gender, race, culture, status or religion. Before restoration, these relationships can be characterized by misunderstanding or ignorance (which leads to conflict, abuse or violence). Being willing to listen and understand differences resolves the sources of tension and is vital for restoration. 

Another important facet of restoration is living sustainably, taking care of creation, including the physical environment and living creatures. This means ensuring that environmental resources such as ecosystems and biodiversity are protected, and resources such as water, land, and seeds and the air are maintained – including limiting emissions of harmful gases that lead to climate change, which in turn impacts the poorest and most vulnerable people.  

Tearfund seeks to end extreme poverty and enable people across the globe to live and flourish. As a Christian organization, one of the lenses through which we examine our work is theological: developing our understanding of the world as it is described in the Bible. 

What would happen if those called to seek the kingdom of God also sought development and flourishing in the world He created?

Video: What is Poverty