当教会想与社区建立关系，尝试将福音里的公义落实到社群的需要之中，就可能会落入一种两难的困境：到底教会应该投放多少资源，包括时间、精力和金钱，到社区公义的实践之中，以致不会误了传福音和培训门徒的大事？这个问题反映着我们如何看社会公义与福音的关系。我的教会会这样答：「公义就是福音的核心，福音就是公义的核心。」当我们思考和委身到福音之中，并不应该将这两个概念看成是对立的。
如果我们不将实践社会公义看成像用言语讲解福音那样同等重要的话，就是不明白耶稣所说的。「我实在告诉你们，这些事你们没有做在我弟兄中一个最小的身上，就是没有做在我身上了。」（太廿五45，《和合本修订版》，下同）还有，「若是弟兄或是姊妹没有衣服穿，又缺少日用的饮食；你们中间有人对他们说：『平平安安地去吧！愿你们穿得暖，吃得饱』，却不给他们身体所需要的，这有什么益处呢？信心也是这样，若没有行为是死的。」（雅二15-17）我们也要记得好撒马利亚人比喻中所教导的，就是爱邻舍的诫命要伸延至我们团契以外的人。然而，实践社会公义的重点和动机，并不只是一种诫命和责任；更重要的是我们在学效耶稣当时如何回应身边人迫切的需要。耶稣似乎没有将有需要的人区分开来，然后先照顾那些更配得他时间和关注的人，或那些会有更正面回应的人。税吏和妓女所得的关注跟法利赛人和财主一样多，什至更多。耶稣没有试图寻求最大的回报，评估如何最有效地付出。天国就这样临到了他们，神的恩典是没有界限的。假如我们只将社会外展当成是鱼饵，就是将「福音」弱化了，未能明白神的心肠。
然而，单凭恩典、热心和热情还是不够的。我们还要加上知识、技巧和谅解的心去处理身边一些更复杂的社会议题。资源亦要包括适合的设施和特别的训练。我们可能认为设立一间社会企业会更好，因为社企可以提供适当的专业技能，与教会携手合作。这时候我们很容易会想，不如索性另设一非牟利机构来全力推动那样的社会服务吧。事实上也有许多独立的非牟利机构，把事情做得很妥当。然而，这仍不能取代教会将福音中的盼望活出来的责任。
余伟业（Ricky）的朋友都爱称他为「社运份子」，他觉得这个称号很有趣，因为他其实是做生意的。但他搞生意的背后有一个特别目的——他最终并不是想得到金钱的回报，而是想贡献社会。Ricky想到了一个办法去解决楼价高企所带来的问题，他用上高超的生意技巧来帮助一些被边缘化的人。他这样做，是因为想用一种很正面和实际的方式来实践他的基督教信仰。他从前在一些大型的跨国公司工作，但却发现以升职或赢得下一单大生意为目标的话，生命仍会感到空虚和不满足。然而，当他开始上教会，并学习到福音和真理的生命力，他发现自己生活中欠缺了对这些事情的实践。他开始着眼于社会上的需要，发现当中存在着许多不公义和不公平的情况，于是便着手处理租金高昂的问题。许多年轻的单亲妈妈无法负担昂贵的租金，因此也很难为孩子提供一个好的成长环境。
他的解决方法，就是运用某些未被发掘的资源（一些相对富有的业主的空置单位——这些业主希望单位用得其所，而不只是想尽量出租以图得最大利益），跟正在迅速增长的社会需要配合起来。他是位仁慈的地产经纪，又同时是个社会服务的经理；他的公司「要有光」如今已被政府认可成为社会中一个重要的角色。Ricky形容自己像一道桥梁，将富人和穷人、商业和社会需要、官僚和怜悯、基督教和社会之间连系起来，而他也非常热爱这份工作！他很快乐，因为知道自己正运用着神所赐他的恩赐来造福社会。他不介意别人称他「社运份子」，因为他确实在主动积极地重塑社会，又主动积极地帮助政府思考应如何为经济拮据的大众解决房屋需要。
人人都可以参与社区外展。教会作为一个群体，可以透过社区外展接触到更大的社群；教会也可以启发和挑战会友个别地去帮助他们每天遇到的人；基督教机构和企业可以致力解决社会里较大型的问题，为世界带来基督化的解决方案。社区外展是看得见的福音，而教会也有一份独特的先知之责，要在社群中让人知道神怎样爱世人，透过分享这份爱使社会变得更美好。
（聂东尼牧师在湾仔葡萄藤教会负责促进公义事工，是今年十月二十至廿一日亚洲公义特会的主席。大会诚邀读者参与特会。详情请览：www.thejusticeconferenceasia.com。本文资料和意念搜集自以下文章，谨此致谢：Generous Justice [Kim Keller],Create vs Copy [Ken Wytsma]，以及跟余伟业先生〔「要有光」行政总裁〕的个人访谈。英文原文请见下文。）
Justice and social outreach
by Tony Read
When churches begin to engage with their local community and look for ways of expressing the justice heart of the gospel by meeting the needs of the people around them it can sometimes produce a dilemma which can be expressed as follows. How much of the resources of the church in terms of time, effort and finance can be directed towards a social justice project and will this detract from the core issue of preaching the gospel and making disciples? This question reveals a lot about how we see social justice in relation to the gospel. In my church we answer that question by making the following statement ‘Justice is at the heart of the gospel and the gospel is at the heart of justice’. There should be no dichotomy between the two in terms of our thinking and commitment.
If we do not see that engaging in social justice is as much a witness of the gospel as preaching it using words then we have failed to understand the force of Jesus words.”I assure you, when you refused to help the least of these my brothers and sisters you were refusing to help me” (Matthew 25:45), and, “Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says ‘I wish you well keep warm and well fed’ but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead” (James 2:15-17). And we should remember that the parable of the Good Samaritan teaches us that the command to love our neighbor extends way beyond the boundaries of those who are part of our own fellowship. But the heart and motivation to be engaged in social justice is not one of mere commandment and duty. It is more based on the response of Jesus to the pressing needs of the people around him. He did not seem to delineate or discriminate those who were more deserving of his time and attention, those more likely to respond positively. The tax collector and the prostitute received as much and maybe more attention than the Pharisee and business-man. There was no attempt at prioritization based on best possible outcome, no effort to maximize result. The kingdom of heaven was there present among them and the grace of God observed no boundaries. If we only consider social outreach as bait to catch the fish then we will have emasculated the meaning of ‘gospel’ and missed the heart of God.
However there comes a time when our grace, enthusiasm and passion is not enough on its own. We will need to add knowledge, skill and understanding to deal with some of the more complex social issues we meet around us. And our resources will need to encompass dedicated facilities and special training. We may consider it more appropriate to set up a dedicated social enterprise to provide the right level of expertise and input to work hand in hand with the church. At this stage it is tempting to spin off a separate ngo to undertake the task entirely . There are many ngo’s that do operate independently in this way and do an excellent job. However this does not diminish the responsibility of the church to fully express the hope of the gospel in word and deed.
Ricky Yu is amused when his friends refer to him as an ‘activist’ because he is a businessman. But he runs his business with a special purpose - the bottom line is not financial gain but societal gain. Ricky has found a way to solve a problem caused by the rapidly rising cost of housing, using hard-edged business skills for the benefit of those who are marginalised. He does this because it enables him to express his christian beliefs in a very positive and practical way. When he was previously working for large multi=nationals he found that just working for the next promotion or winning the next big contract was still leaving him feeling empty and unfulfilled. And yet when he attended church and heard the vitality of gospel truth he saw that there was no practical expression of that in his life. When he began to look around in society he saw that there were many issues of injustice and inequality that were causing problems and he began to wrestle with the issue of high housing rents making it very difficult for young single mothers to survive economically and raise their family well.
He hit upon a solution which involved leveraging an untapped resource (vacant properties of relatively wealthy owners who wanted to see the property used for good purposes not just maximum financial gain) and he matched it with a growing social need. He became a benevolent realtor and a social service manager all rolled into one - and his company ‘Light Be’ is now recognised by government as providing an essential role in society. Ricky describes himself as a ‘bridge builder’ - between the rich and poor; between business and social need; between bureaucracy and compassion; between christianity and society - and he is very happy! He is happy because he knows that he is using his God-given skills and gifts for the benefit of society. He is happy to be called an activist because he knows he is actively reshaping society and actively helping the government to rethink how it supplies housing for those who are financially challenged.
Social outreach is for everyone. It is for the church as a community to reach out to the wider community; it so for the church to inspire and challenge its members to reach out individually to meet the needs they encounters day by day; it is for christian ngo’s and businesses to grapple with the big issues of society and bring christ-shaped solutions to the world. Social outreach is the visible expression of the gospel and the church has a specific prophetic role in demonstrating to the community around them how God sees them, what his love looks like and how sharing that love can change society for the better.
Tony Read is the Justice Advocate for The Vine Church in Wanchai, the host of The Justice Conference Asia on October 20-21 this year. We sincerely hope that you will join us in the conference this year. For more, please visit www.thejusticeconferenceasia.com. This article was written based on ideas and information gratefully gleaned from ‘Generous Justice’ by Tim Keller, and ‘Create vs Copy’ by Ken Wytsma, and a personal interview with Ricky Yu, CEO of ‘Light Be’ lightbe.hk
