Signs of the Times

Silas Torvend

Standard Register Leader

The Reverend Silas Torvend Bethel Lutheran Church, Cupertino in the Standard Register Leader Sunnyvale, California

The world we live in today is filled with anxieties, frustrations, tears and hope. . . . We are confronted with political, social and moral problems of increasing proportions. . . . We hear it asked. "What is the church doing to solve these problems?" . . .

The manner in which the church approaches these problems has been ill-conceived by some people. The church is not a political body that speaks the views of religious people, as some would like to make it. The church's mission is to restore man to a right relationship with God and through that reconciliation bring about a transformation in his life that will not only make him a better and more useful citizen, but enable him to bring his witness to bear in the society where he lives. The church believes that man's troubles lie in not being rightly related to God and that in order to cure society's problems you must begin with the individual.

Once the individual is transformed he can then become a leaven in society by bringing his witness to bear in politics and social reform groups and by speaking out against its moral problems. The church's mission then is to transform people so that they can go out into society as individual Christians and members of the body of Christ to speak as the church in society.

Now, there is no question but what the church can do a better job in fulfilling its real mission in this world. But if it is to do a better job we will have to "Let the Church Be the Church" and not make it into a political body or a moral reform society which attacks problems from without. Let the church continue to get at the root of the problem, which is within man.

When the leaven in society becomes greater, eventually the whole lump may be leavened. If we take the church away from its God-given mission we will only find ourselves swatting flies instead of cleaning up the garbage clump. The church will bring its witness to bear in society, not through official and sometimes unofficial proclamations by church leaders who presume to speak the political views of all their followers, but by fulfilling its mission of transforming lives into purposeful and responsible citizens.

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