ArticleBlog | The complexities of preaching on God’s call to justice and righteousness
The complexities of preaching on God’s call to justice and righteousness
Author: Andy PeckPost Date: 13.06.16
INTRODUCTION – MY JOURNEY
For the last ten years, I have served as the founding Chief Executive of International Justice Mission (IJM) UK. IJM is a global organisation that uses a collaborative casework model to rescue and restore victims of slavery and violence, prosecute perpetrators under national laws and build capacity in local law enforcement. Prior to that I worked in senior leadership in business and pastored two local churches as an accredited minister of the Baptist Union of Great Britain. As a preacher I understand the call to the missio dei: the great enterprise that we as Christ-followers have in our DNA to be people of mission. That mission has many facets: the evangelistic mission to engage spiritual seekers to know Christ, the call to reflect God’s mercy and relief to those in desperate need and to advocate for our persecuted brothers and sisters around the world, the responsibility to steward the planet, and the need to engage deep issues of economic and racial justice matters.
However, my call to lead IJM UK led me to engage with a mission that the local church could not engage in itself without an organisation like ours: the adventure of rescuing and restoring people from the violence of modern slavery and human trafficking and what I term ‘the firstorder priorities of God in common grace’ – the freedom to dwell
