Thoughts Along The Journey

Number❶ take-away: Preach, proclaim, and share the Gospel fearlessly. 

Number❷ take-away: Recognize that we are living in the 21^st century. 

So then, my number ❸ take-away would be: Live out our identity.  The biggest challenge for Christians, for the global body of Christ, is to live what we say we believe and hold to.  When those who are not part of the community of believers accuse the church of hypocrisy, there is a large element of truth in that criticism.  Jesus called us out to be “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession that we might proclaim the excellencies of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light.” (1 Peter 2:9)

That should mean that Jesus, and our being united to Him, changes not only the way we lead our spiritual lives, but the way we live out our everyday life in this world whether in the marketplace, the school, the home, the neighborhood or the community.  If we say that “God transforms lives”, then how does our life demonstrate that transformation?  And how does the church bear witness to that transformation in the ministries it is involved in?

Watch this video presentation from Day 2 of the Lausanne Congress: http://conversation.lausanne.org/en/conversations/detail/11415

As I said in a previous post, I am not saying that we should shift all of our focus from establishing communities of believers to issues of social justice, but the communities we establish must engage the world around them.  The Gospel, by its very nature, seeks to transform lives in all aspects of what it means to be human, created in God’s image.

It starts from a daily remembering of who we are in Christ because of what He has done on the cross. 

What has God been teaching you today about your sin and His great love?  And how has that “transformed” your life today?

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The third Lausanne conference is about once again asking deeper questions of how we will work together to see the church established around the world.  The theme verse describes this vision: “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them.  And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.”  (2 Corinthians 5:18-19).  However, the desire is not simply to go deeper in discussion of theological and missiological issues, but to share deeply with one another as brothers and sisters in the global Church so as to better partner together.

To this end, the entire conference delegation (4500 participants) has been broken down into small table groups of six people.  I am one of the many table group facilitators.  Today during the training that was provided, we walked through the questions each table group member will consider as they share a part of their story with the rest of us. Certain questions are straightforward such as telling us your name or something about your country and your work.  But then the focus changes with subsequent questions:

1. What is one hope for your experience at Cape Town 2010 this week?
2. What is one strength (natural ability or gift) God has given you?
3. What is one limit, weakness or hardship that is in your life?
4. What is one prayer request you have for this week?

As we “practiced” sharing our stories in response to these questions with other table group leaders, I realized my (our) great need for God’s grace again today.  How can one demonstrate such vulnerability if he/she is not secure in who he/she is in Christ?  And isn’t that the thrust of that beginning chapter of Ephesians? 

What a day.  I am amazed by the people I have already met and their stories.  May our relationships be characterized by deep missiological reflection together, but also by deep sharing of our stories with each other.

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