The Dawning of a Messiah
one of the things i find interesting about Christ is his wariness about revealing his identity. but even as i write this, i have begun to think that he acted in the same way when he was in flesh on earth as he does today. Christ doesn't force his presence into anyone's life. he doesn't put a megaphone to his status. instead, he seems to be all about experiential acceptance. his invitations are constantly of joining him in the journey...and then, only after the travel has begun do you realize who you are accompanying...who is your guide. in matt 13-17 there's several different revelations by different people in different groups of who Christ really is. none of them involve him saying "this is me...duh!...now deal with it." instead, he lets his divinity spill over into his life. and, slowly, the disciples see and understand.
today i think is no different. presenting the Gospel is best done through the living. anyone can sit and theorize and quibble around a table at Starbucks. but it's difficult to disagree with the "genuity" of one's life. (i was made that word up the other day...it sounds better than "genuineness"). and so while i enjoy teaching and preaching, book study and theological training, i hope that my biggest efforts will be to carefully evaluate my every action, considered in the light a God who is "blazingly alive (15:31).
posted by joeldaniel @ 9:22 AM
4 Comments:
nice word creation. i'll have to put that into use.
i really liked the description of "experiential acceptance"
what a to-the-point way of describing "what would Jesus do?"
Genuity is a good one. Another one to add to the list is "visioneering." Put that one in your backpack :)
Yesterday I attended a conference for Young Life committee members and volunteers. So far, my YL experience has been tagnential at best and reaching back to when Abe was my youth leader (like whoa). One of my friends from Relevant is in YL in Statesville (just north of me) and is in need of some volunteers so I figured I'd give it a try.
The other thing that convinced me is that relational ministry is an area where I really need a lot of help. Teaching is fine, I feel like I can put together a lesson where the kids don't run away after 10 minutes. Activities, fun and faith-filled have gone fairly well when I haven't gotten lost on the way there. Administration isnt' too shakey either. But going out of my way to spend time with kids? Hardly. I suck at it. So, being in a new situation where I'm not in professional ministry, I figured that this would be a good time to really learn again. To start over and focus on the one area where I'm definitely weakest at. And that area is where YL excels the most! A perfect match.
And this is where it connects with your post, JD, thanks for following this far :) YL calls it "earning the right to be heard." It's not "prostelyzing" or stuffing tracts under a person's windshield wiper. And it's not standing on the Oval (or quad for you non-OSUers) screaming at students that they're going to hell for showing their bellybuttons. It's coming alongside a person, walking with them, learning about them, probing for more, praying for them, and then demonstrating that you love them for who he or she is, not for what he or she has done or who his or her parents were or where he or she livse.
It's an astounding concept really. Roger Nikisyodahdska (something like that) led a conference on youth culture that Ben and I attended a few months back and he really hit home the idea that today kids, and everyone else, have a value that is associated with something else: how much they make, how high their SAT score is, etc. It's a fundamentally different thing that Christ prescribes: loving someone just because he or she is a son or daughter of God. Simple as that. (Ben: do you remember the verse that Roger used to show this?)
Anyways, I had earned the right to be heard by simply being put into authority by the church over the kids and they kinda knew me and kinda trusted me. It's going to be a whole new experience for me to have to earn that right. And, frankly, I'm terrified in a lot of ways. I really am kinda shy with some serious introvert tendencies. Evangelism is just under going to the dentist on my list of favorite things to do. But what gives me hope is that, as you pointed out so well, Joel, this is what Christ did; we're ever striving for that model that he provides. It's just that easy, and just that hard at the same time. Thanks for providing that encouragement at just the right time without even knowing it :)
Man am I long-winded lately :)
Matt, it was either 1 Corinthians 3:5-9 or Romans 8
Excellent, thanks, B!
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