Friday, January 30, 2015
How To Serve
Jim Daly in the Christian Post:
We don't become leaders in "areas like..." just so we can proclaim Jesus, we become leaders in those fields because part of being a good Christian is to be good at whatever we do. Jesus came to redeem the world, that does not mean that finance proclaims the gospel, it means that the people that do finance are God's mean and women and that they redeem finance by being God's men and women when they do it.
Christianity is not a matter of intellectual ascent to a few carefully defined precepts. It is a matter of being people transformed by the Holy Spirit, which can transform us becasue of the graceful acts of Jesus Christ.
Sometimes I fear that no one truly understands that anymore.
Christianity genuine expression
As believers, we need to get past the mentality that the only way to serve God completely is to go into ministry.I have a problem with this in that it assumes "spreading the gospel" is the ultimate expression of Christianity, but it is half way right in that it understands that spreading the gospel requires going out, not calling in.
Serving God isn't a race where those in full-time ministry get a head start. It's about being faithful to shine our light wherever it is God's called us to be. It's about knowing that, whether God has planted us in a ministry or a "secular" environment, we can be faithful witnesses to Him.
We need people to work in churches and para-church organizations like Focus on the Family and the local soup kitchen.
But we also need faithful Christians to lead in areas like medicine, academics, finance, media, and the creative arts. God bless the bold believers who live out their faith intentionally in these areas! God can use them to forge relationships and reach people who otherwise wouldn't darken the door of a church.
We don't become leaders in "areas like..." just so we can proclaim Jesus, we become leaders in those fields because part of being a good Christian is to be good at whatever we do. Jesus came to redeem the world, that does not mean that finance proclaims the gospel, it means that the people that do finance are God's mean and women and that they redeem finance by being God's men and women when they do it.
Christianity is not a matter of intellectual ascent to a few carefully defined precepts. It is a matter of being people transformed by the Holy Spirit, which can transform us becasue of the graceful acts of Jesus Christ.
Sometimes I fear that no one truly understands that anymore.
Christianity genuine expression
