Sociologists decry the weaknesses of single-parent families, but how many of them speak out against the socially-acceptable sins that made them common? Historically, repentance and conversion, not social programs, have been the only effective solution for a myriad of problems such as child abuse, child exploitation, poor working conditions, low incomes, high unemployment, alcohol and drug abuse and teen pregnancy. God helps a father to stop drinking and start working, God helps the father’s employer to provide job training and increase wages, God helps the employer’s teenaged daughter to seek love from himself instead of boys. Social scientists have even coined a term for the phenomenon: “redemption and lift.”
Please elaborate on your final sentence. Which social scientists, and
when? I have the phrase as early as 1970, but not from a social scientist.
Thank you.
True, Donald McGavran, who coined the term “redemption and lift,” was not trained as a social scientist, but as an educator. But his work as a leader of the Church Growth Movement was largely applied sociology, based on his original field research.
Has there ever been any empirical evidence that “redemption and lift” is a reality. There are many examples of poor sectors of countries that have had genuine revivals but no lift. The redemption and lift philosophy has been used to reject the idea of getting involved in holistic ministry.
Redemption and Lift is a principle that may refer to a person who undergoes a true Spiritual Recognition of the fact that He needs Jesus Christ in his life no matter how talented, how acomplished this person is. When this person is saved his whole mind-set is changed for the better.If he was a former drunk, then when he turns to Jesus Christ, he doesn’t indulge in the drink because he has believed that there is nothing in his life that ever necessitates a mad rush or dependency for alcohol.It is not that it is forbidden to drink but that the habit of getting a kick out of becoming drunk has been replaced with astonished wonder of Jesus Christ.Lift in this sense should not be misappropriated to reformation of the outward, but of the inward tendencies of the person.
I am not a Sociologist so I stay away from the vagaries of their jargon.I speak from personal experience of the Grace of God that has caused very visible and Realistic changes in my life ever since I accepted Jesus Christ for all He is Worth in my Life.I have been born-again(Moral comparability/(Redemption) and the renunciation of drunkenness as one of the chief visible result(Lift).
I like the coment of mr macapagal. He is not basing on social scientist but on personal experi3nce. A redeemed person who has accepted Jesus to live in his heart cannot help but be transformed inside out which causes an inevitable lift to himself, his family, workplace or community. Becomes a salt n light
I always thought “redemption and lift” referred to what happens when a person becomes a Christian, they are “lifted” out of effective contact with “the world” of unbelievers and surround their “Christian life” with other Christians and “ministry”. They also no longer can struggle with the reality of their continued sin nature in this sanctified culture even though “I sin every day” – our doctrinal agreement. It becomes much more difficult now to expose and deal with any one of those particular daily sins… or God forbid you might continue to struggle with an addiction or character disorder – after you have been saved/redeemed. Redemption and lift – bottom line is one gets “saved” but is lifted out of effective influence on their personal mission field .