For several years, I have been exploring the concept of how believers in the marketplace are uniquely positioned to be salt and light exaclty where they are so that they may bring God glory and spread His salvation to the ends of the earth. As we move to a post-Christian era in the West, we find that the influence of the church, and especially those in the full time ministry, is declining. God is raising up a new force to carry His gospel into the 21st Century. Each of us are called, anointed, and equipped by God to worship and witness through our work. Martin Luther, during the Refromation, helped us understandt the ideas of the priesthood of the believers, calling, and vocation. We are all called to give glory to God through everything we do and to be a witness to His saving grace. We do this through our work, gifts, talents, and abilities. Whether you are in the fields of healthcare, media, education, government, sports, business, the military, science & technology, the arts, the home, or the church, we are called to disciple the nations. Nations are the ethnos, or people groups.
From Genesis 1:26-28, we see that we are made in God's image, and we are called to be fruitful and multiply, to rule the earth, and subdue it. Some have called this the Cultural Mandate. Nancy Pearcey, in Total Truth, defines the Cultural Mandate this way:
In Genesis, God gives what we might call the first job description: "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it." The first phrase, "be fruitful and multiply" means to develop the social world: build families, churches, schools, cities, governments, laws. The second phrase, "subdue the earth," means to harness the natural world: plant crops, build bridges, design computers, compose music. This passage is sometimes called the Cultural Mandate because it tells us that our original purpose was to create cultures, build civilizations-nothing less.
In this passage, we are also called to rule over the world. This sounds kind of scary, like we are going to control the world, or something. But, in reality, it means that we are to govern, to serve, and to care for the world. We are to benevolently administer God's justice and righteousness, and we are to exert Kingdom Influence everywhere we go. We are to walk by faith and bring the Kingdom, the reign and rule of God with us, since we have a relationship with the Father and God is within us. We can live out this relationship and Kingdom authority in our workplaces, neighborhoods, families, and friendships.
We believe that God has uniquely positioned us in our callings and vocations to carry out this mandate across the earth. As we share the gospel, we also help build society to reflect God's glory. Since all of life is to be lived for God, and there is no biblical warrant for the sacred/secular split that we see in modern life, we believe that God actually wants us to live our lives for His glory, and as we are going, to share the gospel through word and deed to bring reconciliation to individuals, families, cities, nations, and the planet. Of course, none of this will be completed until Jesus returns, but we are to be busy doing the Father's work, and praying for His Kingdom to come (Matt. 6:9-10).
This weekend, September 22-24, we will be having a conference to this end, called: From the Ordained to the Ordinary: How God is Using Ordinary People to Disciple the Nations. Sessions will be held Friday night, 6:30-9pm and Saturday AM, 8:30-12noon. We will have multiple presenters from many different fields, and our keynote speaker will be Dr. Thom Wolf. I could go on and on about Thom, but he is incredible and is really able to make complex concepts simple. Read Andrew Jones' (TallSkinnyKiwi) tribute and comments about Bro. Thom HERE.
We will also have a roundtable discussion Saturday night called, Globalization, The War on Terror, and Global Christianity. We will have several experts in these fields from Air University (Maxwell Air Force Base), Troy University, Dr. Thom Wolf, and an Arab pastor from Jordan. We will look at these issues from a Christian perspective and will discuss things like the global economy, Islamic Fundamentalism, nuclear proliferation among rogue nation states, the global church and the spread of the gospel, etc. It should be amazing. All of our participants are experts in their field and are believers in Jesus Christ as well. We hope to help our folks learn how to engage in the global conversation and how we should see the events of our day from a Christian worldview. Cool, eh?
One other thing: We will also have a children's conference to coincide called What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up? We want to help kids think through these principles as well. How awesome would it be for our children to think about their future in a way that they can engage in professional vocations to give God glory and spread His fame? Instead of just falling into a job or just getting a paycheck, our kids can learn to serve the Lord through their professions. Ministry is more than just being a pastor or missionary, but they can serve the Lord all over the world through medicine, business, education, etc. We will be having special speakers, a weekend long art project, a soccer clinic with a professional soccer player, bible studies, and videos. It should be an incredible time! The conference for children is for ages 4-11, and childcare is provided for birth through age 3.
So, if you're in the area, email me and I'll give you directions. Sunday will be pretty cool too. By the way, did I mention that we have 6 smaller churches, including ours, partnering together for this conference? I don't know what our attendance will be, but I'm praying that we can disciple people to see all of their life as sacred to the Lord. I am also setting up a bunch of meetings for Bro. Thom both before and after the conference. I might write some about that later this week. So, track along, ask questions, and I'll try and get some pertinent stuff from the conference on the blog so we have a record and can get others thinking along these lines! I think it's called being missional, or something, but I would hate to use that word, lest I use it wrong. :)
Comments