The believer must bring his whole self, his gifts, his talents to bear in the situation before him. If he is an economist in a corrupt system that is containing his witness and his light, he must courageously expose, confront and bring godly financial measures into place.

Missionary statesman Loren Cunningham, in his volume The Book That Transforms Nations, states that there are seven areas of society that are like classrooms to disciple nations:

Family

Religion (Church and mission)

Education

Celebration (arts, entertain-

ment, sports)

Public communication (media)

Economy (including business,

science and technology).

Government.

In most of our Caribbean nations the Church is still the major player in the first three areas, but we have all but abdicated responsibility over the arts, the media, the economy and the government.

We have abdicated these areas to our great peril. The arts and entertainment are decidedly anti-Christian. The media in The Bahamas is fond of ridiculing the Church, and businesses in the country don't pay us any mind. And as for government, who has not been told that real Christians don't get involved in politics.

I am here to tell you that we cannot disciple the nations by ignoring any of these tools or allow the enemies of the faith to have complete mastery over any of them.

Let me illustrate the power of Christianity's powerful social influence by quoting from well-known missionary author and statesman Herbert Kane as he sums up the noble contribution of the true followers of Christ as thus:

"The missionaries of the 19th century were a special breed of men and women. Single-handedly and with great courage, they attacked the social evils of their time: child marriage, the immolation of widows, temple prostitution, and untouchability in India; foot-binding, opium addiction, and the abandoning of babies in China; polygamy, the slave trade and the destruction of twins in Africa."

"In all parts of the world, they opened schools, hospitals, clinics, medical colleges, orphanages and leprosaria. They gave succor and sustenance to the dregs of society cast off by their own communities. At great risk to themselves and their families, they fought famines, floods, pestilences and plagues. They were the first to rescue unwanted babies, educate girls and liberate women."

We hear frequently from the academics that all social changes happen because of great need, which causes the change agents of a society to seek a solution. But if that were true, argues Loren Cunningham in his book The Book That Transforms Nations: "Why weren't orphanages and hospitals and all kinds of humanitarian agencies created in India or China, where the needs were the greatest?"

"Necessity was not the mother of invention; the revelation of scripture gave birth to these ideas. It has always been the Bible-informed heart that sees problems and works to meet the needs." Amen, well said!

Do you see the need? You must accept the responsibility that you alone have the message, the concern and the spiritual resources to make the needed changes.

Christians are called on to "examine everything carefully" (1 Thess. 5:21), and John warns us not to "believe every spirit" but to "test" them "to see whether they are from God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world" (1 John 4:1).

Now, the 'everything' that we are called to examine includes more than just religion, but philosophies of life as well. In fact, there are philosophies of life in operation in our world that carry more weight than religion. Humanism, secularism, post-modernism - whether we know them by their names or not - are directly impacting on our present day worldview.

In defending the faith, we must not let the enemies of the faith define the arguments, or misconstrue the facts so as to put the Church on the defensive.

They love to spin the facts in such a way as to emasculate the Church.

The enemies of the Lord use such arguments to take the high ground against the Church. For instance, right now homosexual lobbyist use moral sounding arguments to appeal to the sensibilities of 'good people' by framing the issue of opposition to gay marriage as Christians denying them their rights to marry the persons they love.

The Church must, in its goal of discipling the nations, win in the courts of public opinion. In The Bahamas, talk radio (media) has become a huge phenomenon. Add that to letters to the editor and sinners can begin to shape public opinion. Your Christian communities must have skilled communicators on these shows and who can write to the papers, who can correct, teach and reframe the issues as they are.

We cannot let others frame the issues for public consumption through their distorted lens. The Church once set the worldview for the world. Now it is being set on by atheists and secular progressives. We must identify, pray for and build teams of persons who are prepared and resourced to tackle the social issues that hinder our discipleship of our nation.

A Final Word:

The Church is the largest, most organised network on the planet. By way of the Internet, we can mobilise our churches around the world to respond quicker than any government. Christ's love and resources can be immediately brought to bear in any given area of need.

To read the full paper presented by Pastor Lyall Bethel see http://www.caribbeanevangelical.org/conecar2007reports/plenarypapers.htm. Send feedback on Mind&Spirit to mark.dawes@gleanerjm.com.

Strategies to transform our communities - The Bahamian Experience

Talk shows, newspaper articles, TV programmes were used in conjunction. Every island community will be visited and in November the petition will be submitted to government. He has set a new paradigm!

Marriage works campaign: I am close to starting a campaign to address the problem of out-of-wedlock pregnancies, single parenting, and/or cohabitation. A national public relations campaign that shows the real statistics that plague children born to single-parent homes compared to the chances for success to the child born to a two-parent home. This would be complimented by national teaching on TV/radio on parenting skills.

Code of ethics for religious leaders: (We have lost our saltiness and have been trampled under foot by many over the years - perceived as good for-nothing).

I did this by calling them out at a press conference and they responded by doctoring the news stories to make me look like a homophobe. I responded by going on the radio and TV. Chastened, they have become more careful. It is important to befriend persons in the media and work with them. Even better to encourage our people to pursue a career in the media.

Put pressure on the licensing authority to act in the best interest of society; exposed their apathy; roused the surrounding neighbourhood; educated folk by way of the talk shows; worked with the police.

Debate on censorship: Coming out of a controversial decision last year to ban Brokeback Mountain, a homosexual themed movie about two gay cowboys and their doomed 'love affair', the new Bahamas Plays and Films Control Board decided to hold a debate on the value of censorship and was the board even necessary?

The event was held on our increasingly liberal college campus where many artists and homosexuals would be expected to be in attendance. As the only conservative on the panel, I think folks expected a slam dunk for the secular progressives.

But I invited the Church community to join me and God gave me a word. We won the debate hands down, and the Church folks' questions from the floor revealed the shallowness and selfishness of liberal thought. It was an eye-opening experience for the church members who saw for the first time how powerful and strategic their presence was.

Public policy team: I used this experience to start a public policy team to deal with the various social issues. Legal team to research what law says about broadcasting radio, TV and cable. Strategy put a mother of four, former Magistrate judge to head up the protest against pornography on cable. The Nehemiah principle: Putting people right where they are most inclined to defend what is near and dear to them.

By this, I am training the Church to fight smart not just hard. Will be comprised of persons from many different churches.

So we designed a questionnaire of 12 questions, united with other pastors and held a press release informing the public that we would put these to the candidates and publish the results. It was a new paradigm on our politicians and changed the hold tenor of the elections.