Lausanne World Pulse (September 2010) on Christians in the Public Arena

September’s issue of Lausanne World Pulse is online, this one containing pieces on Christians in the public arena. The full version is available here, and the executive summary (from which the following summaries are drawn) is available here.

Doug Birdsall
Christians in the Public Arena: Our Calling from God
Christians and the public arena for the most part have not been peaceful bedfellows. However, Christians are called to be active in the public arena – to deliver God’s message of hope so others will believe in him. We must work toward creatively engaging the public arena with excellence in our work and testimony, Birdsall writes.

Ram Gidoomal
Christians in the Public Arena
There are Christians working in public service at all levels across the world, with major opportunities to represent Christ and impact society through their words and actions. Gidoomal offers six Christian principles for public service, including social justice, respect for life, reconciliation, active compassion, stewardship of resources, and empowerment.

Dion Forster
Business as Ministry
Many Christians spend between sixty and seventy percent of their waking hours at work – but how many of us, as Christians, deliberately work toward ‘taking Jesus to work’ with us so that others can encounter him? Forster shares an example from South Africa of how mission is being doing in the workplace.

Brett Elder
Stewardship and Discipleship: Two Sides of the Same Coin
It is urgent for the future of the Church that we recover a whole-life model of discipleship that understands every legitimate human activity as responding to a call from God. Millions of churchgoers are ‘Christians’ for only an hour a week – Christianity is something they do on Sunday morning rather than a way of life. The withering of discipleship is one of the gravest threats facing the Church today, Elder writes

John Godson
Christians in Public Service: Biblical Foundations, Lessons, and Dangers
After pursing politics himself, Godson shares reasons Christians should get involved in politics and advice for those pursuing this realm of civic life and others supporting those in politics.