“These voices are not enemies but allies. The church doesn’t need fewer voices, the church needs a unified voice that covers the full range of Christian witness. Prophets must keep speaking hard truths, evangelists must keep reaching the lost, and shepherds must keep tending the flock. But each must learn to appreciate the others. Each serves a different need, and the church suffers when one is elevated at the expense of the others.”
(Michael Clary – American Reformer) Christians need to have a strong voice in the public square, but different voices are needed for different moments. My aim here is to identify three different voices of Christian cultural engagement – prophet, evangelist, and shepherd–show the pitfalls and opportunities of each and conclude with a call for greater unity on the Christian right.
For my purposes here, I’m assuming a faithful, Bible believing, conservative Christian audience. In other words, this is a friendly word to faithful leaders within my own circles.
These voices can be pictures on a continuum. At one end is the evangelist, who focuses on conversion. At the other end is the prophet, who focuses on God’s holy standard. In the middle is the shepherd, who focuses on the process that guides people from one end to the other.
Most Christian leaders should be “tri-vocal,” able to use all three voices as needed. But every leader has a preferred voice, and the danger comes when we elevate our own preference as the standard for everyone else.
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