BLOG 8/31/16. “FOLLOWING CHRIST – CHANGING THE WORLD”

BLOG 8/31/16. “FOLLOWING CHRIST—CHANGING THE WORLD”

One of the perennial challenges that any Christian community faces is: How to keep its weekly gatherings for worship from dissipating into predictable spiritual entertainment disconnected from anything to do with the mission for which Christ has called his church. Having been the pastor of several congregations over many years, it is not difficult to discern when folk attend with a desire for predictable religious observance that doesn’t make too many demands on them—from those congregations that come with anticipation. It is a challenge for me personally. After all, … our essence as the church is that God has sent his Son to reconcile the world to Himself by his blood, and to inaugurate a whole New Creation built up this work and mission of Jesus the Son of God. Got it? And then … that Jesus calls out a people to the mission of being the ongoing presence and incarnation of that New Creation in the world. By virtue of one’s baptismal vows, one vows to be a part of the discipleship that makes the church (as a Latin American brother so graphically describes it): … the missionary arm of the Holy Trinity, … which would mean that whenever the Christian community gathers, its ostensible ‘worship’ would somehow equip and encourage and refresh that vision and equip for that mission week-by-week.

How do we keep such from drifting into traditional observances, that may be helpful to a degree but do now call us again and again to be workers together with Christ? (I Corinthians 3:9)

Let me share an experience. About twenty years ago I was a participant in a gathering of graduate students and faculty folk from across the nation and from many parts of the world. They were gathered under the sponsorship of the large and effective campus ministry: Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship. There were about 1200 such folk together for several days in a large hotel in Chicago. It was skillfully planned to make the very most of that time to equip and motivate these men and women from many disciplines for their role on the campuses of scores of college and university campuses.

Still sealed in my mind is the banner that hung across the platform in that ballroom of the Hilton: “Following Christ – Changing the World”. Under such a statement of purpose the sponsors, knowledgeable of the gifted folk assembled there, had invited the paradigm New Testament scholar N. T. Wright to do the daily Bible exposition (note: awesome). Then they had regularly those Christian men and women who had distinguished themselves as excellent in their fields to give a witness about their engagement with their sense of calling into such fields as: scientific research, environmentalism, poetry, etc. Each afternoon there were more intensive break-out sessions into many different disciplines led by those who had distinguished themselves in a particular field.

But … it was always back to the motivation expressed on that banner: Following Christ, Changing the World, with its vision of those men and women being the very presence on God’s New Creation with excellence on their campus mission fields. It was intense. And it came to an unexpected conclusion when the last presenter had given her witness, as the lights dimmed in the ballroom, followed by silence, and then the worship leader softly began to sing: “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty …” and all joined in. A holy moment. When the hymn was concluded there was silence, and when I looked around, most of the assembly were on their knees in devotion, and many in tears, … but the motivation for their being there was not lost. They had been encouraged and equipped.

I came home and recorded that motto in my own personal weekly prayer notes, which I re-read every Sunday morning … Following Christ, Changing the World, so that when I gather with my own community of faith, no matter how its worship time unfolds, I have before me the vision that in my modest presence in this place and at this time, my sense of mission is clear.

I commend this to you as a model of what worship should provoke in each of us.

About rthenderson

Sixty years a pastor-teacher within the Presbyterian Church. Author of several books, the latest of which are a trilogy on missional ecclesiology: ENCHANTED COMMUNITY: JOURNEY INTO THE MYSTERY OF THE CHURCH, then, REFOUNDING THE CHURCH FROM THE UNDERSIDE, then THE CHURCH AND THE RELENTLESS DARKNESS. Previous to this trilogy was A DOOR OF HOPE: SPIRITUAL CONFLICT IN PASTORAL MINISTRY, and SUBVERSIVE JESUS, RADICAL FAITH. I am a native of West Palm Beach, Florida, a graduate of Davidson College, then of Columbia and Westminster Theological Seminaries.
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