Saturday, February 6, 2010

i'm little.

I'm reading Total Church by Tim Chester and Steve Timmis right now. (Recommended to us by Tony Hall of Cornerstone Church in Columbus. Thanks Tony.) In a chapter titled 'Why Gospel?', they discuss how the church must be gospel-centered, which implies that:
  1. the gospel is a word; so
    the church must be word-centered
  2. the gospel is a missionary word; so
    the church must be mission-centered
Those are 2 solid statements. They go on to discuss implications of being mission-centered (cited from Christopher J.H. Wright's The Mission of God):
  • We ask, 'Where does God fit into the story of my life?,' when the real question is 'Where does my little life fit into this great story of God's mission?'
  • We want to be driven by a purpose that has been tailored just right for our own individual lives, when we should be seeing the purpose of all life, including our own, wrapped up in the great mission of God for the whole of creation.
  • We talk about 'applying the Bible to our lives.' What would it mean to apply our lives to the Bible instead, assuming the Bible to be the reality-the real story-to which we are called to conform ourselves?
  • We wrestle with 'making the gospel relevant to the world.' But...God is about the business of transforming the world to fit the shape of the gospel.
  • We argue about what can legitimately be included in the mission that God expects from the church, when we should ask what kind of church God wants for the whole range of his mission.
  • I may wonder what kind of mission God has for me, when I should be asking what kind of me God wants for his mission.
These statements are incredibly humbling. They indicate a total shift in perspective. No longer can I think the world revolves around me. To think this way indicates that I understand that all things were created through him and for him (Col 1.16), that the Lord acts primary for the sake of His glory (Ezek. 36.22), that God is LORD and I am not (Joel 2.27). It becomes increasingly evident that I am oh so small, and God is, well, huge.

Even as I reread those statements, I believe them in with my mind. But it is so hard to live it. To daily think, act, make decisions, speak like I really believe that it's not all about me.

That's what I want though. I want to be transformed by the renewing of my mind (Rom 12.2)

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posted by sarah @ 3:55 PM

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