A More Compassionate Christianity

Jesus said the defining characteristic that would mark his followers would be the love they show for those around them…

… so you’d think after 2,000 years of practice, Christians would be renowned for the love and compassion they have on display.

Sadly that’s not the case!

Far too often words like judgment, bigotry, hypocrisy, and abuse are what make the headlines as many Christians seem determined to make the world receive Jesus…whether they like it or not!

In many cases, it’s individuals and organizations outside the church that are at the forefront of social justice and compassionate action. Secular NGOs, grassroots movements, and even individuals unaffiliated with Christianity often exhibit the kind of selfless service and advocacy that the church is called to embody.

Jesus said as much in Matthew 21 when he suggested that those considered outside the faith were actually embracing God’s Kingdom more than those who were.

That passage was stirred in my mind when I recently attended Foundations I – Introduction to Compassionate Systems Framework,  a 3-day professional development workshop hosted by Peter Senge and Mette Miriam Boell.  Over two hundred educators gathered for the training time, many of us looking for tools that would help address the near-epidemic level of depression and mental health issues affecting today’s teenagers.  

Indeed a number of tools were introduced to us that are designed to analyze various personal and corporate (family, school, community etc. ) relationships through the lens of self-awareness and reflection with the goal of making a positive change to those various systems. 

Then at one point Ms. Boell indicated, “I have little interest in changing any of these systems unless compassion is the value underpinning that change”

Those words has been reverberating in my head ever since!

Although I was attending the workshop in my capacity as an educator, it was impossible for me not to see all I was exposed to through my eyes as a Christian pastor.

Through my many years in ministry I have been familiar with or participated in a number of Christian groups and initiatives that were passionate about changing the world for Jesus.  Although well intentioned, in hindsight I can see the focus was more often on getting our target audience to affirm a certain set of theological statements and less on that attribute of  compassion that Jesus said would be the tell-tale sign of his work in motion. 

We too often failed to fulfil the old adage of “keeping the Main Thing, the Main Thing!

So here I was in a large school hall with 200 other people who were desperately looking for an answer to the brokenness in the school, family, and community “systems” around us and realizing, perhaps for the first time, that compassion was a long overlooked essential ingredient.

On the last day of the workshop I was asked to say a few words on the impact the sessions had had on me.  I shared how, although I know the Center for Systems Awareness has no overtly religious component to it, (which I appreciate as it made it’s tools more readily accessible to all)  I couldn’t help but see much of what I had absorbed over the three days through the lens of my faith. 

Peter Senge had remarked in the workshop that nothing we were being taught was new and sure enough Jesus had used the concept of the Ladder of Inference when explaining the Kingdom of God to Nicodemus in the Gospel of John.  The Ladder of Inference is a “system tool” designed to help a person understand why their actions are shaped by the beliefs and understandings they have developed over time.  The goal is to get “unstuck” and see with a new perspective on the world around them or as Jesus said to Nicodemus, he just needed to “repent” and be “born again” to see God’s Kingdom work in the world around him. Same principle, different language!

I left the three day workshop with a renewed optimism and a new group of friends seeking ways to bring compassion into the relational systems around us.   Despite a lot of depressing news in today’s headlines,  Martin Luther King’s quote that “the moral arc of the Universe is long but it bends toward justice” still holds but I would humbly add that it bends toward justice and compassion!

Peace,

Steve