In his seminal book Issues Facing Christians Today, LICC’s founder, John Stott, called for Christians to engage in ‘just listening’ to the culture around them.

While he talked often about ‘double listening’ to the word and the world, in reality he practiced triple listening: hearing God’s voice through faithful engagement with the Scriptures and our cultural context, and also the witness of the church.

A lot has changed since Stott first penned Issues Facing Christians Today. While the word and our call to righteousness remain the same, our cultural context and people’s everyday lives have radically altered. We need to listen to the Spirit afresh as we seek wisdom to follow Christ as we face today’s challenges.

In this Wisdom Lab, our three expert speakers unpack the issues of racism, economic inequality, and climate change. They model ‘just listening’, empowering you to do the same. After each talk you’ll be invited to discuss what it might take to listen well in your own context, imagine a kingdom response, create change, and communicate the gospel as good news in your everyday life.

This Wisdom Lab creates space for a group to discuss, experiment, and discern ways forward on justice issues in this contested time and place.

Recorded on Zoom on 29 July 2021

Timings:

1. Rt Revd Lusa Nsenga-Ngoy on Racial Justice – 14:50
2. Dr Ruth Valerio on Economic Justice – 34:48
3. Revd Dr Dave Bookless on Ecological Justice – 53:48

Host a conversation

Helpful articles

Wisdom Lab Articles

As part of their contribution to this Wisdom Lab, each speaker wrote a blog article exploring their topic further:

• Part one: Dave Benson on biblical justice and ‘Just Listening’
• Part two: Ruth Valerio on ‘Simplicity, generosity, and contentment’
• Part three: Dave Bookless on ‘Caring for creation’
• Part four: Lusa Nsenga-Ngoy on ‘Celebrating ethnic diversity’

Word for the Week

Devotional pieces which explore what Scripture has to say about how we ‘just listen’ our everyday lives:

• A six-part series on pursuing the biblical call to justice, considering what this call might look like for us today.
• A three-part series on how, as Christians, our unity-in-diversity can witness to a divided world.

Connecting with Culture

Blog articles which engage with issues of justice in our culture, considering how we might respond in our everyday lives in a Christlike way:

• We Can’t Breathe
• On Panhandling, School Meals, and Smart Charity
• Living Out Hope in a Changing Climate
• Washing Dishes While the Planet Burns
• No Clean Lips with Dirty Hands

Continue the conversation

Check out other LICC event recordings with discussion questions that’ll help you dig deeper into this topic.