JourneyOnline
Prominent and outspoken UK evangelical leader and social activist Rev Steve Chalke claims Jesus never asked anyone to become a Christian.
Founder of the Oasis Trust and the Faithworks movement for Christian social action, Mr Chalke spoke recently to a packed audience from across Brisbane churches.
“Jesus never asked anybody to go to a religious service.
“He did once tell someone he’d cured of leprosy to go and present himself to a priest, but that was to get a medical clearance.”
Mr Chalke claims that Jesus did consistently ask people to follow him and his lifestyle.
“His promise was, ‘If you follow me I’ll give you a life worth living’.
“I believe it’s the church’s task to say, ‘Follow Jesus, and if you do you’ll have a flourishing life’.”
Mr Chalke believes evangelicals have focused on saying, “Pray this prayer and you’ll go to heaven”.
He said this is “an incredibly 20th Century, hedonistic, me-centred culture” and has very little to do with what Jesus was really about.
“Jesus was actually a social activist – Jesus did things.
“He did extraordinary things, he did provocative things, he healed people on the Sabbath, he preached to women, he ate with tax collectors and drunkards, he reached out to Gentile people, he touched untouchables, he smashed the temple up.
“Jesus did provocative things all the time, and just sometimes he stopped to talk about what he was doing.”
Mr Chalke told Journey that the kind of theology that only asks people to pray the prayer to get to heaven can only be countered through good solid teaching about Jesus in context – what he actually came to do and how he taught us to live.
He believes that Jesus wasn’t primarily a preacher but was a person of action right though to his death on the cross and resurrection.
“Our whole faith is based around what Jesus did. He did stuff that has changed the world.
“It strikes me that our task is exactly the same.”
Mr Chalke claims that through the 20th Century evangelicals became known for talking.
“The people of the Word became the people of lots of words, thousands of words, millions of words, millions of books, millions of sermons.
“But we became less and less known as people of provocative action.
“In the 21st Century, in a world that’s so full of words, what’s needed is some more action.”
Photo : Waiters Union team leader Dave Andrews and World Vision National Church Segment Leader Carolyn Kitto talk in Brisbane with UK Evangelical leader Steve Chalke. Photo by Duncan Macleod
