We can’t abandon chunks of Scripture!

Elections, sexuality and immigration: how can the church engage confidently on today’s issues? We asked the EA’s Damilola Makinde (pictured above, inset), who is a guest speaker at this month’s Elim Leaders Summit .

“Twenty twenty-four is going to be messy – more crises, more elections and ongoing wars,” wrote Evangelical Alliance UK director Peter Lynas in his January blog.

“There will also be incredible opportunities to speak truth and hope into some of the most controversial issues of our day.

“But will we as the UK church be distracted by division and bury our heads in the sand? Or will we see the opportunity offered by the difficult questions of our day to extend wisdom, hospitality and offer a hopeful way forward?”

It is against this backdrop that the EA’s advocacy engagement lead and ELS main stage speaker, Damilola Makinde, spends her working week – visiting churches across the UK to equip them to be a force for change in today’s turbulent culture.

“My job involves asking what it looks like when we tell the world about the church, but also when we tell the church about the world and about what God is doing in it that we need to be a part of,” she says.

There are so many challenges that might lead us to shrink from proclaiming and living out our faith, she points out.

Her role involves helping churches navigate these with wisdom and sensitivity, but also with boldness and courage.

“Crucially, this flows from not being ashamed of the gospel but sharing it through everything from our regular Sunday services and food banks to our engaging in the upcoming general election,” she says.

Damilola’s goal is to “catalyse a vision for gospel faithfulness” that includes approaching contested cultural issues with conviction and compassion.

What are some of these issues? Damilola says we need to consider one other thing before she answers that question.

Recovering the whole Bible

“Beyond looking at any particular issues, one thing I would say first is that I’d love to see the church recovering a whole-Bible ethic of life,” she says.

“It’s easy to just preach a gospel of ‘You’re a sinner and you need to turn to Jesus’ or ‘God loves you and wants to help you’. Both are true, but the biblical story is so much bigger.

“One thing that hampers our witness is that we’ve abandoned taking wisdom from the whole counsel of Scripture. There are entire chunks that never get touched.

“Confidence comes when people walk through the relevance and unity of the whole Bible story and how that helps us to live in 2024. We need to let the fullness of the Word of God inform our approaches to church and society.”

THIS ISN'T THE END OF THE STORY!

Read the whole article in context in the May 2024 issue of Direction Magazine.

Direction Magazine

Direction is the official monthly publication of the Elim Pentecostal Churches in the UK, and is packed with all Elim's latest news, inspiration, vision and teaching. Find the latest edition and many back issues of Direction here.