DISTINCTIVE CHANGE:

Justice and Mercy as Worship

For the past 6 years, “Feasting with the Poor” has been a core distinctive of Citizens Church. This month (March 2021), we’re changing this distinctive to “Justice and Mercy as Worship.” This distinctive will include two initiatives: Feasting with the Poor and Pursuing Racial Equity.

Please read more below about the vision behind this distinctive.

Amos 5:21 – “I can’t stand your religious meetings. I’m fed up with your conferences and conventions. I want nothing to do with your religion projects, your pretentious slogans and goals. I’m sick of your fund-raising schemes, your public relations and image making. I’ve had all I can take of your noisy ego-music. When was the last time you sang to me? Do you know what I want? I want justice—oceans of it. I want fairness—rivers of it. That’s what I want. That’s all I want.” (The Message)

God designed humans for worship. He linked our joy and our flourishing to the pursuit of His glory. If you look throughout the scriptures, in both the Old and New Testaments, you will find that the word "justice" is inextricably linked to what worship actually is. Micah 6:8 says, “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”

“What is the chief end of man? Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.” (Westminster Shorter Catechism)

At Citizens, we long to be a worshipping people, acknowledging who God is and what He has done and living in response to that. Jesus brought justice and mercy perfectly together in His life, death, and resurrection. He appeased God's wrath for our sin, and pardoned us in His mercy. This has unleashed in us the freedom to give to others what we have received. In doing so, God is glorified, and we are offered daily reminders of what we have received from Jesus.

Because we live in a fallen world, there are countless needs for both justice and mercy in our city. Where do we start? We must live within the limits of our resources, and ask The Holy Spirit to guide us toward those initiatives that He has marked out for Citizens. Our hope would be that Citizens can only increase our expression of justice and mercy as worship over time, as God brings more resources. In the meantime, there are two initiatives that we are presently engaged with: 

+ FEASTING WITH THE POOR

Luke 14:12-14 – “He said also to the man who had invited him, ‘When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.’”

Jesus did not command His disciples to feed the poor. He commanded them to feast with them. He didn't command them to put on gloves, stand behind a table and hand out food. This raises barriers, establishes hierarchy and is often self-serving. Instead, Jesus says, sit beside, at the same table with, the poor. And esteem them even more than you do your rich, privileged neighbors. What a lofty and humbling command this is! 

The truth is, Jesus has already thrown the feast. There is a party going on now. The question is, will we come to His party? If we do, the poor will sit at our right and our left, and with you next to them, the poor will be on their right and their left as well!

At Citizens, we don't just serve the poor. We don't just tolerate them. We don't program for them. We don't simply welcome them. We need the poor. We require them. They are of the utmost value. We want more of Jesus, and we can't get more of Him without them. They are essential to our Christian experience.

+ PURSUING RACIAL EQUITY

Revelation 7:9-10 – “After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: ‘Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.’”

All throughout Scripture, we see that God created humans of varying ethnicities, cultures, and languages – each one unique, beautiful, and made in his image. And yet, in our sin and brokenness as humans, we have assigned hierarchies based on racial constructions, designed systems and policies to oppress certain races, and maintained racial biases and prejudices.

As followers of Jesus, we submit to the values, postures, and practices of the Kingdom of God, which affirms the dignity and worth of all persons, acknowledges and seeks to undo systems of racial injustice and oppression, and pursues a society of shalom that facilitates the flourishing of all persons.

As a church, Citizens is committed to listening and learning from our neighbors and friends who have experienced racial inequity and injustice. We are asking the Holy Spirit to reveal our racism, help us practice repentance and confession, and empower us to live as people who have been reconciled to God through Christ and are now ministers of true peace, equity, and justice.

Learn more here about how we're currently pursuing Justice & Mercy as Worship.

You can read about our other distinctives as a church on this page.