The Prophetic Role

Most often it is the prophet's role to speak the truth at the very moment it is least welcomed. It is the prophet who provides the corporate corrective and brings "the word of the Lord" to bear upon the community's misdirection. It is the prophetic role to read the dominant culture in the light of the faith tradition and to describe the discord and disconnect between them. The prophetic voice is not employed to announce revisions in the current reality but to announce a new reality altogether. In his book The Prophetic Imagination, Walter Brueggemann states, "The task of prophetic ministry is to nurture, nourish, and evoke a consciousness and perception alternative to the consciousness and perception of the dominant culture around us."² It is out of this alternative consciousness that the faith community finds its identity and defines its purpose.

The prophetic role is played out in the space between the faith community and the dominant culture where the battle for the soul of the faith community is waged. Ever wooed by the conveniences and contrivances of the dominant culture, the faith community is easily distracted and quickly diluted. It is the prophet who rehearses the promise and hope that is at the center of the faith community's identity and simultaneously challenges the values and injustices of the dominant culture. The further along the road to its own destruction the faith community has traveled, the more likely it will be to reject the prophet's message and alienate the prophet.

Illustrating this is one pastor's story of being appointed to a congregation situated in a racially transitional community. Perhaps half the members of the congregation had already moved out of the neighborhood in "white flight" by the time this pastor arrived, while the members remaining in the community had adopted a fortress mentality. As the pastor began to work with this congregation and raise questions such as, "Where will this congregation's new members come from in the future?" the congregational leaders became more anxious and reactive. The pastor, realizing that the congregation had avoided the issue for too long, felt that there was precious little time for a process of renewal. The church board grudgingly approved a request by the pastor to establish a study task force. The work of the task force resulted in a report with recommendations for a plan of revitalization, which placed a strong emphasis on reaching out to the local community. The congregational meeting at which the report was presented drew a packed house, including long inactive members who had been organized to defeat the proposal. Not only was the plan soundly defeated, but the pastor, in this case the messenger, was subjected to the harshest of treatments and directed to cease and desist on the matter. It was of little consequence that the pastor diagnosed the situation correctly. The congregation was well beyond the point of looking objectively at the issues. A few short years later the congregation turned its building over to a local Hispanic ministry.

By its very nature the prophetic role requires the prophet to be fully immersed in the life of the community and fully immersed in the tradition. It is this complete identification with both the community and the tradition that subjects the prophet to the grief and anguish of a faith community distanced from God and at the same time qualifies him or her as the authentic voice of hope. It is the prophet who must balance high tension simultaneously on two fronts: first with the dominant culture, which often demonstrates predisposition to a hostile response, and secondly with the faith community, which is often ambivalent at best about the requirements of faithfulness. The intensity and often attendant isolation of this role can result in a painful and bitter retreat from the prophetic task altogether.

The prophetic task, it should be noted, is carried out both individually and corporately. It is the faith community that is called to counter the prevailing culture and serve as the transformational element in a larger universal plan of redemption. In the midst of a culture some would describe as driven by the undercurrents of greed, nihilism, and exclusion, it is the faith community that stands for an alternative reality of hope, healing, and freedom from cultural and spiritual tyrannies. In this sense the faith community is subversive in every respect in its relationship with the dominant culture and is not beguiled by the culture's claims of affinity with the faith community, illustrated by the words "In God We Trust" imprinted on the coin of the realm.

Against these challenges, the prophetic function must rely on a deep sense of tradition and history. It must find its story in God's story and rehearse God's consistent faithfulness in the midst of the people's despair. In doing so it uses what Brueggemann calls "the language of hope . . . the language of amazement,"³ which reestablishes God's radical vision of a new social reality.

The prophetic role finds expression when the faith community engages the larger culture on matters that concern the common good, when it lifts up the vision of a new social reality. It is not enough in performing the prophetic role that the faith community addresses only itself, its beliefs, and its behavior. The larger culture must also hear the word of the Lord. In his book Doing Justice, Dennis Jacobsen observes, "The church enters the public arena in order to be the church, in order to be true to itself, in order to be faithful to its Lord, in order to heed the summons of the Holy Spirit."⁴ Engaging in public ministry means addressing the moral and social issues affecting the local, national, and global community. It means making common cause with partners who also have a vision for healing and wholeness in the larger context. It means assuming the role of public advocate, creating dialogue that is public and inclusive, and representing an alternative vision to that of the dominant culture. We are propelled into the public arena because God is there, because our faith is not compartmentalized and does not confine itself to the sanctuary.

There should be no idealistic illusions about the demands of this role. Alienation can be a high cost to pay when one carries out the prophetic role. The prophet can easily feel betrayed by the One who sent him or her. In his book Under the Unpredictable Plant, Eugene Petersen observes, "We repeatedly find ourselves angry with God, disappointed and quarrelsome that our procedures result in something quite different from what we had expected."⁵ While it is human nature to seek validation for our work in ministry, ultimately the prophetic task is not about validating the messenger. Rather it is about justice being done, a greater vision being set forth, a new identity being forged. It is about the destiny God has for us and not the destiny we imagine for ourselves.

2. Walter Brueggemann, The Prophetic Imagination, (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1978), 13.


3. Brueggemann, The Prophetic Imagination, 69.


4. Dennis Jacobsen, Doing Justice: Congregations and Community Organizing, (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2001), 15.


5. Eugene Petersen, Under the Unpredictable Plant: An Exploration in Vocational Holiness (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1992), 161.