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Review: · The church is the “dream of God” (Genesis 1 and Acts 2: Creation and New Creation). “Community”- being with God and being with others in a manner that allows for the free exchange of life… the life of God in me touching the life of God in you! (relationship). · As we dream God’s dream, we find our vision expanded; we, too, now long to see God’s dream enacted in our own life, but to become a means through which that dream is promoted toward others. · Jesus describes this kind of life into which he has called us as the “blessed” life (one definition of “blessed” being ‘advantaged’ (the ‘advantaged’ life to our advantage). Described in Micah 6:8 this way… “To act justly (set things right through our actions), love mercy (make allowances for all the ways that we fail to fulfill the dream) and walk humbly with your God” (with an authenticity that demands honest evaluation of ourselves and our God) (Micah 6:8) · My concern?: Many of the methods we’ve chosen to help promote this sense of community and see God’s dream fulfilled have proven to be anything but “relational” (our presentations more often resembling a bad “Kirby” demonstration; only to be agitated with the customer’s refusal: we labeled them ‘godless’ or ‘hardened’). ► We need to be seen with lost people. JESUS WAS ALWAYS LOVING ALL THE WRONG PEOPLE (“those people”) FOR ALL THE RIGHT REASONS! “Conversion” (result of repentance) was not a “prerequisite” for having dinner with Jesus; instead, conversion was often the consequence of having spent time with Jesus! * Jesus was not only modeling the “radical welcome” of the kingdom, but inaugurating the kingdom itself. * “Those people” often become an enemy to be eliminated rather than a treasure to be recovered. (i.e. the ones that took the Ten Commandments out of the capitol building, those homosexuals who are defiling the sacred institution of marriage, or those people who took prayer out of school!) * I think it’s interesting throughout the story of God that he never blamed the Egyptians or the Babylonians for the decay in the moral landscape of the day. Instead, he alluded to the fact that it was their own “anonymity”; their failure to maintain a strong sense of identity and distinctiveness as the people of God. ► We need to stay long enough to hear their story. - Eventually, we hope to become part of their story. - We don’t remember laws/principles, we memorize them. But, we remember stories. It’s easy to tell when you haven’t lived the story, but you’ve simply memorized someone else’s! ► Be available for the people God chooses to love through you. Consider that God is at work in everyone around you! ► Honor their quest. - I’m amazed at the level of commitment that we demand with so little exposure and so little experience. * Conversion involves more than a mere mental assent to a list of laws or facts concerning Jesus. Jesus never demanded that we make a confession with our mouths that our hearts were not able to support. * In evangelism, our approach has most often been to elicit a response (close the deal)… i.e. get them to “pray the prayer”!. But, that approach has not been complete; it has failed to encompass all that the message entails. It can’t be just about a decision which may affect their eternal destiny, but have no recognizable impact on the way they live their lives (i.e. getting their “ticket for the train to glory”). * Our culture is desperate for the message of hope and life contained in the gospel: belonging (acceptance and welcome), being (who God created you uniquely to be), becoming (reshaping of who you can be in God), believing (in one another, mutually-supportive environment). * When salvation gets reduced to such an approach (purely a ‘decision’), we become frustrated when the individual fails to demonstrate a lifestyle consistent with repentance (“I don’t know what happened… they prayed the prayer?!”). Don’t be so quick to label their hesitancy as “resistance”, but a desire to make the best choice possible. ► Invite them to explore the mysteries of God with you. - Don’t concentrate on answering all of their questions (you don’t have all the answers anyway), but on providing a safe context for asking them. * Our culture “knows” truth as they ‘experience’ it; not as they observe it or are convinced through argument. People come to embrace our message as it is portrayed in our lifestyle. * We have reduced life with Jesus to a decision; an event. Although I would affirm that there are decisive- moments, they are best viewed as part of a process. * As we engage our culture with its conflicting worldviews and convictions, we need to understand that the most formidable strategy we have is “persuasion”. (peitho in the Greek- ‘to have confidence; to have influence; having made their friend; to win over; to listen to; bringing about a change of mind by influence’) * Within the context of Jesus’ dying prayer (John 17:13b), we find (3) anticipated responses of Christ-followers to our culture: John 17 “not that you take them out of the world…” IN, BUT OUT OF THE WORLD (disengaged) It’s where we segregate ourselves to ensure we won’t be tainted; breeds self-righteousness. If you convince yourself that you are not “one of them”, it will prevent you from ‘being with’ them! It absolutely negates relationship. IN, BUT OF THE WORLD (distinctiveness) This is the opposite end of the spectrum. Here we become so anxious to fit in that instead of identifying with our culture, we become identified by our culture. Our loss of distinctiveness leads to our inability to persuade others. IN, BUT NOT OF THE WORLD (disarming) This is where we are fully engaged; our faith becomes fully functional and fully relational. Although it may not be desired by all, it is certainly definable.
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