Economic development and Christian leadership in fulfilling Gospel mandates

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The Bible provides guidance and direction for those who are lost. Christianity has grown and expanded because of the work of early Disciples of Christ and their commitment to serve the Lord. To expand as Christianity has, it involved continued economic development and great leaders that provided morality and stability to their respective communities. This essay will briefly cover the need for economic development in Christianity, the role of Christian leaders, and how all this plays into the mandates of the Gospel. Why must Christians be concerned with economic growth? First, one should look at what God created. God created this world and everything in it. During the time of Adam and Eve, they lived with all their desires and needs satisfied. It was not until the serpent came with his evil words, that humankind became those that toiled and suffered. Despite the fall into sin, humans remain responsible to take on the role of God’s stewards over His creation. To do this, one must be able to provide for him or herself. That means having enough food, water, shelter, clothing, and money to carry on the task of spreading and teaching the word of God. Furthermore, Christians acknowledge God’s special concern for the marginalized people of society (McDonald, 2016). These people are often economically destitute and require money and supplies to survive. How can the church give to those in need without having any money, food or other supplies themselves? This is why economic development is so important. 1 Timothy 6:18 states to command others to be rich in good deeds, to share and be generous. This can be difficult if a person is starving from not having enough food. While the pursuit of wealth for its own sake goes against the Bible teachings, there is a need to grow and expand to provide for others and keep the mission of God alive. Providing for others can mean improving the local education system of impoverished areas. How can that be done? Well, money would be needed to buy books and school supplies. Money would be needed to hire better teachers. In a world where money is used to acquire products and services, one must include the pursuit of some wealth to accomplish these tasks. The community is an important part of religion in that communities support each other and provide themselves with the strength to continue their mission together under God’s wisdom. James 1:26–27 states, “Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless” (Various Authors, 2008). It goes on to mention purity and keeping one’s self free from being polluted by people and the world. This is something that can be difficult to achieve on one’s own. That is why a leader is often there to instill hope, discipline, and a strong work ethic in followers that may be lost in their way. So many people are lost and feel in need of strong leaders that can guide them to a better alternative. This alternative often involves being part of a strong community. Community matters, therefore leadership matters. Christianity involves the actions of many different and diverse people with different and diverse needs. If there is a weak leader for any given community, then that community may fail to thrive and reach their potential. Good Christians are righteous people as they obey the Word of God. Through Scripture, one can see in Proverbs 29:7, the righteous desire justice for the poor (Various Authors, 2008). Strong Christian leaders desire stability in their communities and can evaluate their community’s place and situation in a bigger context (Blakely & Leigh, 2016) To achieve this, there must be a solid sense of justice and an understanding of what is right and wrong. An example of this is when Moses called out the worshippers of the Golden calf in Exodus 32:4. To worship anyone other than God and his Son is wrong to a Christian leader. To promote actions that go against the Bible and against the Word of God in the community is wrong. Another brief example is the idea of people gambling and drinking. Some people do this and have fun, however, within a Christian community, this may lead some people to non-righteous behaviors and addictions that can lead them astray. Christian leaders therefore, often act like the moral compasses of communities as they lead by example and show that the Word of God is the true and righteous path. Luke 6:35-36 teaches to be good to one’s enemy and show mercy. However, Acts 5:1–11 shows Peter not having mercy and killing both the man and wife for being greedy with the money from the land. There is a balance that exists between actions. A leader should be merciful as this teaches those in the community mercy. However, there will be times when leaders must act accordingly to enforce rules and promote justice and fairness. This goes back to understanding and assessing a community’s situation like affected groups, and determining what appropriate course of action to take. To do so is promoting a desire to find solutions as community leaders and allowing for stability to grow. Growth is important, and this is especially true for the Christian mission. While there exist differing opinions on missional mandates or mandates of the Gospel, there are some Bible verses that can provide guidance. For instance, Matthew 28: 18-20, or “The Great Commission” shows Christ’s revelation that it is His command and desire for those that follow Him to continue His work and mission in the world. By asking them to go out and make disciples in every nation, baptizing them and instructing them in what He commanded, He is showing that there exists a wish to continue to spread the Wisdom and Words of God. This can also be seen in Luke 24: 46-49 where Christ gives further instruction to His disciples. Essentially, Christ gave instruction on what their ministry would be made of and shared what would happen to Him, that he would suffer and rise on the third day. From that point forward, Christians would understand what was sacrificed and for what reason (to clear original sin). Peter provides evidence that the mission for the first disciples was indeed fulfilled as he let people know to repent and be baptized under the name of Christ in Acts 2:38. There exists great responsibility for Christians to provide to the world, the kind of information and guidance that Jesus Christ provided to His disciples. This information is invaluable because it teaches people how to be in a world that is filled with corruption and sin. 2 Corinthians 8:2–5 shows the effects of Scripture and God on people as they exceeded their expectations and gave more than what they had joyfully. This kind of demonstration of love and kindness is not experienced by simply existing in the world. Rather, it is taught by learning how to be within the world and that is done through the word of God and His Son, Jesus Christ. The last verse to touch upon for the mandates is Acts 1:8. This verse is the key to properly understanding the power, growth, and expansion of the church as seen through the rest of Acts.