Empowering destitute people towards transforming communities

4.3Conversion should be an ongoing process

When has one been converted sufficiently? It would seem that there is no answer to a question like this, because conversion is an ongoing process. Every day we should be converted by experiences of change and transformation (whether for the first time regarding specific issues, or anew), as we grow to reflect the glory of God more and more.
As Gutierrez (1983:95) avers: “…conversion is not something that is done once and for all. It entails a development, even a painful one that is not without uncertainties, doubts, and temptations to turn back on the road that has been travelled…there is a growth in maturity.”
Every time we do missions with the destitute, there should be conversion, as we open ourselves up to learn from them and change together with them. Of course this operates vice versa. And this is a continual process. It is almost as if we continually arrive at places of conversion together with the destitute, where they change and we change to become what God enables people to be.

5Missions as discovering SHALOM

In doing missions with the destitute, the focus should very strongly fall on SHALOM as the broad aim of missions with the destitute, one that truly empowers them.
Why not “missions with the destitute bring about SHALOM” or a topic of that nature? Simply because, in doing missions with the destitute, we often discover God already at work bringing about SHALOM; it is literally as if we discover fingerprints of the SHALOM God intended people and His creation to experience everywhere. “The key then is to work harder at recognizing God’s fingerprints in daily life as part of our daily practice of Christian witness” (Meyers, 1999:217) We do not bring SHALOM to the destitute as if it is not there among them; rather, we “unveil” or reveal SHALOM by discovering ways in which SHALOM has manifested, is currently manifesting and should manifest past, present and future, together with the destitute, in our world – all this simply because God is ahead of us, already at work where we are going.
How then should we understand SHALOM? Is it to be seen as an unattainable future dream, especially in the lives of the destitute? Is it a reality that can be realized in people’s lives; if so, in an individual personal way, or in a corporate systemic way? The issue may become rather complex, as discussed below.

5.1Towards an understanding of SHALOM

SHALOM is a multi-faceted term, with rich meaning. Biblically, it is an Old Testament word, with strong New Testament implications. Theologically, it is a term clearly linked with God’s mission (Missio Dei) and purposes for humanity. In the words of Russell (1974:125): “The mission of God in handing over Jesus Christ demonstrates God’s SHALOMatic purposes to bring liberation and blessing to all humanity”.

Westermann (1970:361-375) identified liberation and blessing as two key concepts of salvation which converge in SHALOM. Liberation connotes deliverance from suffering, distress, death, sin, anxiety, pursuit and imprisonment, while blessing refers to the result of the work of God as the Creator and Sustainer of humanity: it is the power of life which creates wholeness and goodness in both creature and creation (Russell, 1974b:107-108). As such, Jesus embodies the meaning of SHALOM through His acts of healing (blessing), as well as His action of crucifixion and resurrection (liberation) (Russell, 1974b:108).

The Hebrew term SHALOM occurs some 250 times in the Hebrew Bible. It basically denotes “peace”. However, the type of peace which is expressed in the concept of SHALOM is far wider than might commonly be assumed.
The understanding of the word “peace” expressed in the Old Testament’s usage of the word contains a specific theological meaning and intention. The root meaning of the word SHALOM is “wholeness, completeness and wellbeing” It does, however, convey several secondary meanings, encompassing health, security, friendship, prosperity, justice, righteousness and salvation, all of which are necessary if wholeness, completeness and wellbeing are to come about (Swinton, 2000:57).
From another perspective, Wilkinson (1980:5) considers that “the meaning of SHALOM is therefore to express opposition to any disturbance in the well being of a person, society or nation”.
SHALOM is found to be a gift which God gives to His creation. As such it is a fundamentally holistic and relational concept (Swinton, 2000:58). Wolterstoff (1978:19-20) stresses this relational aspect:

To experience SHALOM is to flourish in all one’s relationships – with God, with ones fellow human beings, with the non human creation, with oneself. Such flourishing naturally presupposes peace in the usual sense, absence of hostility. But SHALOM goes beyond the absence of hostility, to fulfillment and joy.

Conn and Ortiz (2001:289-290) confirm this understanding and add that the SHALOM of God has to do with being in right relationships with God, our neighbour and our environment. It involves enjoying life with others and ourselves (Is. 11:6-8), a harmonious relationship with God (Is. 2:2-3) and harmonious relationships with nature (Is. 25:6). These relationships create a community of SHALOM, and where they are absent, they destroy SHALOM.
If SHALOM is a relational concept, it is also a concept that implies “right relationship”. Central to the concept of SHALOM in the Hebrew Bible is the concept of “righteousness”. As Wilkinson (1980:6-7) puts it:

…to be righteous in the Old Testament view is to conform to a norm, to be in right relationship. In the case of man, this norm is the character of God, and this relationship is to God and His will. Righteousness is fundamental in the Old Testament concept of health. A right relationship with God produces SHALOM (Isaiah 32:17). Righteousness and SHALOM flourishes together.

Right relationship with God enables humanity to experience SHALOM, which encompasses both the wholeness and holiness of human existence, and to live lives that faithfully image God (Swinton, 2000:58).
Freedman (1992:207) discusses how the creation narratives in Genesis inform the reader that the natural state of the created order is harmony and peace: SHALOM. However, although justice, righteousness and peace are all present in their original state, creation in its current state is found to be fragmented, scattered, disunited and without peace.
Jesus played an important role in connection with SHALOM in the Old Testament. For the Old Testament Prophets, the coming Messiah, the “Prince of Peace”, would be the one who would return God’s SHALOM to His people. As Hoekendijk (1967:19) puts it: “…the Messiah is the prince of SHALOM (Isa. 9:6), He will be the SHALOM (Micah 5:5), He shall speak SHALOM to the heathen (Zech. 9:10), He will realize the plans of SHALOM which the Lord has in mind for us to give us a future hope”.
In the New Testament, the messianic mission of Jesus is closely linked with the Old Testament’s understanding of God’s Messiah as the bringer of SHALOM. Jesus, understood as the long-awaited Messiah, was seen as the bearer and the sharer of God’s eschatological SHALOM (John 14:27, 16:33).
He is the chosen one whose primary mission is to restore the created order to its natural state, to turn the whole of creation from a state of bedlam to one of SHALOM (Swinton, 2000:59). SHALOM in the New Testament is a person, not some distant utopian ideal. SHALOM is intricately bound up with the nature and person of Jesus, with His work of restoration in its macro- and micro- dimensions (Swinton, 2000:59).
This demonstrates that SHALOM is not something that can be understood outside of its true context in Jesus. It is not a political or ideological possibility. It is not a vision that inspires humanity to try harder. In fact, the empirical reality of the fallen human condition would suggest that it is not even a sociological possibility. SHALOM is a personal gift from a relational God to His fallen creation. It is a re-creative process that has been put into motion by the resurrected Christ. It is through entering into a relationship with Christ that a person is enabled to experience SHALOM, and to begin to participate in the restoration of the imago Dei. It is in God’s redemptive movement towards the world that the whole of creation is being reconciled and guided towards its true state of SHALOM.