Bob Roberts: Witness in a pluralistic world by loving

Christians who want to offer a public witness in a pluralistic world must learn how to love people the way God loves them, Texas Baptist pastor Bob Roberts told a Baptist World Congress seminar audience.

A “Bible-believing Baptist Christian should be the most loving, service-oriented person on the face of the earth,” said Roberts, senior pastor of Northwood Church in Keller and co-founder of Multi-faith Neighbors Network.

In Acts 19, when the Apostle Paul presented the gospel in Ephesus, the town clerk identified him as one who was neither sacrilegious nor a blasphemer of the goddess who was worshipped there, Roberts noted.

“In Paul’s message, he didn’t spend time trashing the goddess Diana. He spent time lifting up Jesus,” he told the online audience.

In counseling young ministers, Roberts said, he often tells them, “Never, never, never vilify another religion.”

“If the strength of your faith is merely that you tear down somebody else’s religion, do you really have much of a faith? A faith must have the ability to stand on its own feet because of the truth that it believes and the character that it exudes,” he said.

Roberts offered 10 recommendations for ministry in the public square:

• “Be honest about who you are.” Rather than run away from being identified as a minister or as a Baptist, “be the best example of what we really are,” he suggested.
• “We have to bring value beyond our faith.” For two and a half decades, Northwood Church has worked in Southeast Asia, helping develop educational curriculum and improve the lives of people there. Roberts has told leaders in the area: “We’re here to serve you. We’re not here to tell you what government you should have or what politics or policies. We’re here in the name of Jesus to be a blessing to your people.”
• “We serve not to convert, but we serve because we are converted.” Jesus healed people who did not follow him and fed people who rejected him, Roberts noted. “If people feel like we’re trying to use the gospel or use human needs and suffering in order to convert people, they have a right to be suspicious,” he said.
• “We have to learn to speak with one conversation.” Don’t speak one way around other Christians and another way when with non-Christians—including on social media. “Many of us speak one way when we’re with our tribe and another way when we’re outside our tribe. … You have an electronic digital footprint that you cannot escape from. You better realize the whole world is listening,” Roberts said.
• “There has to be collaboration, working together for the good of the public good, not syncretism.” Multi-faith witness does not mean compromising theological convictions. It means working together in the public square for the good of all and loving each other.
• “Practice public discourse with civility.” Disagreements are inevitable, but Christians don’t have to be mean and hateful. “A lot of times we think the public square is a place to take our placards and hit people over the head with our positions. It’s not,” Roberts said. “The public square is the place where we live and we speak for the benefit of all humanity. We do that in kind, gracious ways.”
• “You have to be a learner.” Faith is strengthened when it is challenged, and growth occurs when people are open to learning. “I think it’s critical to understand that interacting in the public, we’re going to grow. We’re going to learn and experience things we wouldn’t otherwise,” Roberts said.
• “We have to shift from tribalism to being global citizens.” Christians need to develop a “core global theology” that deeply draws from “the core essence of what it means to follow Jesus,” rather than majoring on speculative and secondary issues. When Christians focus on following Jesus and living as citizens of God’s kingdom, love becomes more expansive.
• “You have to protect your minority.” Baptists at their best have been champions of religious liberty for all people, including religious minorities. “Every majority is a minority somewhere,” Roberts said.
• “Love all of them. Love everybody.” Every individual is made in the image of God and is loved by God. “When it’s all said and done in the public square, you know what they need to say about us when we leave? ‘Ah, those are people that love. They love everybody,’” Roberts concluded.