October 1, 2019
Category: Regenerative Faith
Well, it has been awhile since I wrote anything. I have been in the mood to start writing again. With most things, I go in spurts when the inspiration finds me!
Steve and I are taking a new journey with “church”. We have been thinking a lot about what it means to follow Jesus during this time in history. We’ve been thinking a ton about what church looks like (or should look like). Some of the principles that we have been thinking about, studying and questioning are:
- The Kingdom of Heaven is here now, what does that mean?
- How do we share hope and peace in this life, not just in eternity?
- How do we lessen the divide between people and treat others as God’s creation?
- How do we redeem the world both physically and spiritually?
- What does running a business with integrity look like?
- What does “full-time ministry” in the marketplace look like?
- What should our daily lives look like?
- What would Jesus’ ministry look like if he lived today?
Steve and I have decided to take a sabbatical from traditional church and seek ways to create a church that will answer some of the above questions. We have figured out that our ministry is to people who may be interested in spiritual things but would not step inside a traditional church. This may be people who have been hurt by the church, who are not accepted by the church or who have views of the church that may be very hard to overcome.
marketplace = the realm of business, education and government
We have seen a widespread teaching, either consciously or unconsciously, that there is a large divide between full-time ministry and secular pursuits. We feel that there shouldn’t be a divide. The ultimate in following God is “full-time ministry” but that does not exclude full-time ministry in the workplace rather than the church. The trends over the past few decades have created a (maybe unintentional) hierarchy in the church that puts clergy ahead of those who work in the marketplace. We have heard things like, “When are you going to really follow God and go into full-time ministry?”. We have struggled with this for a long time feeling like owning a business was “less than” in the spiritual world. After a lot of researching, I have come to disagree with this and am sad at what it is doing to our “Christian Culture”.
I have been learning some about the early Church and how all of the new disciples were all full-time ministers in the marketplace. They had full-time jobs and those jobs gave them access to minister within the communities that they were part of rather than keeping them separate from those communities. Today, it seems that there is a movement towards completely separating ourselves from the “world” and culture. If we do this (and even put it on a pedestal), how can we ever bring hope and transformation to the world?
I have so many thoughts that I would love to share with you! I am no philosopher or theologian but I understand the world and the brokenness in the world. I am on a mission to create healing in people’s lives with true transformation of the heart and mind NOT to push the rules of religion. That kind of religion makes people feel like they are doing what they should but they often end up feeling empty and unfulfilled in their walk with God. The gospel is still about hope, love and transformation and that is what I am going to study and pursue. I know God has great things to teach me, even greater than I can imagine. Thanks for taking this journey with me.