"He has a Japan-shaped space in his heart. He is just waiting for God to call him to Japan." said a loving missionary mum of her son recently.
It's time for him to stop waiting, and get going!
We surround the idea of God's call with such murky myth and mystery sometimes that God's call becomes a vehicle for:
1. Changing our mind. "I said I'd never ..., but God had different ideas ..."
2. Inaction. "I would love my neighbour, but God hasn't called me to yet ..."
3. Doing our own thing: "I really hate latte, but God has called me to coffee drinkers."
Let's face it, most of our calling is pretty clear. To live as an authentic disciple of all that Jesus commanded fills your life up pretty completely. The stuff we get hung up about like geographical location is pretty minor by comparison. On top of that God has gifted us all with lots of intellectual capacity as well as our comunity to help work things out. Plus the gifting of each person is a pretty clear pointer to the way ahead.
Which is not to say that there is no subjective edge to God's call. One wise leader described it as, "what you feel you have to do." - a sense of inner compulsion - a restlessness that won't go away and won't be satisfied by lesser things.
A think the other thing that worries my about God's call is that it divides Christians into those that have it and those that don't (or are waiting for it). There is no such division, we all have a vocation, a calling. We should all have a sense that we are doing what God has called us to, whether it is labelled as Christian job or not.
Come on people, God is out there and active already and wants you to be too. No need to wait for a call!
2008/08/25
2008/08/16
Wholistic Transformation
Why mission must be more than just words:
1. This is the model of God, who sent us a person rather than an email. Jesus communicateds, not only by words (which had a critical place) but by experiencing life on earth (Heb 4:15), by including the excluded (Mat 8;20), and responding to very practical needs (Mar 5:34).
2. We are asking people to make a whole of life and rest of life commitment. They hae every right to ask for a demonstation of what the Christian life is, not just a theorethical outline.
3. Word only communication makes discipleships look like a merely intellectual exercise - assent to a set of propositions. This kind of discipleship will not change the world.
4. That actions were critical to the proclamation of the gospel was never an issue for the early church (Jam 1:27).
5. Even in the era of Christendom, the church was a major social support provider.
6. The enlightenment started Western society on a very analytical track. Everything was divided into its parts. On top of this was the idea that human technology and achievement was growing at a rate that would soon solve all the problems of humanity. Some theologians suggested this might be the vehicle of God bringing in the new age. There was an extreme reaction to this extreme view = fundamentalism. So for the last 100 years we have forced everyone to be a fundamentalist or a liberal. We need to reclaim the both/and ground.
7. The world isnow changing - people realised that everthing is connected to everything else. The physical, social and spiritual parts of our being are not easily divided. So we need to be wholistic to be relevant.
1. This is the model of God, who sent us a person rather than an email. Jesus communicateds, not only by words (which had a critical place) but by experiencing life on earth (Heb 4:15), by including the excluded (Mat 8;20), and responding to very practical needs (Mar 5:34).
2. We are asking people to make a whole of life and rest of life commitment. They hae every right to ask for a demonstation of what the Christian life is, not just a theorethical outline.
3. Word only communication makes discipleships look like a merely intellectual exercise - assent to a set of propositions. This kind of discipleship will not change the world.
4. That actions were critical to the proclamation of the gospel was never an issue for the early church (Jam 1:27).
5. Even in the era of Christendom, the church was a major social support provider.
6. The enlightenment started Western society on a very analytical track. Everything was divided into its parts. On top of this was the idea that human technology and achievement was growing at a rate that would soon solve all the problems of humanity. Some theologians suggested this might be the vehicle of God bringing in the new age. There was an extreme reaction to this extreme view = fundamentalism. So for the last 100 years we have forced everyone to be a fundamentalist or a liberal. We need to reclaim the both/and ground.
7. The world isnow changing - people realised that everthing is connected to everything else. The physical, social and spiritual parts of our being are not easily divided. So we need to be wholistic to be relevant.
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