Chris Nye om hur han upptäckte att det vanliga livet - inte kyrkan - är fokus för Guds verk.
As a pastor it’s easy to believe that everyone cares about spiritual
formation as much as I do. In a community group years ago, I remember
rambling on about something our church was beginning and something I, as
a pastor at the church, really wanted everyone to understand. I was
very excited about it and shared with this group how important all of
this was going to be for them. Afterward, as my wife and I recapped the
night, she gently said to me, “Chris, you need to remember that you care
more about the church than anyone else.”
She was right. I care about the word “missional,” and how often a
person interacts with his coworkers about faith. I care about church
attendance, reactions to sermon series, and how a person defines “the
gospel.” But most people don’t. They care about their kids, their
families, their jobs, and their bills. They care about life. And this realization is how Dallas Willard saved my ministry.
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He wrote: “Life, our actual existence, is not included in what is now presented as
the heart of the Christian message, or it is included on marginally.
This is where we find ourselves today…Transformation of life and
character is no part of the [current] redemptive message” (The Divine Conspiracy, page 41).
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Willard helped me see that the questions my people were asking had more to do with their lives than my church: How
does life with God change my relationship with my family? How does
discipleship under Jesus reorient my future plans? Does my faith have
anything to do with the people I dislike? How do I say “no” to the guys
at work? And why should I? These questions have nothing to do with
church teaching campaigns or theological minutia—they have higher
stakes; they matter to people who live in the real world, not a church
subculture. They are, as Willard would put it, issues of discipleship or
non-discipleship.
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