I’m snowed in. Visiting my son and his family near Reno, Nevada and we are experiencing the heaviest storm they have had in years. The area has been declared a state of emergency. It just keeps snowing and snowing. I tried to catch my flight out on Friday but it was cancelled… as were the next three that they booked me on.
No problem. More time to hang out, enjoy kids, and really have next to nothing that I can or need to do. Undoubtedly I needed it!
It’s a wonderful thing to completely unplug from everyday life and just be with others, play games, take a walk in the snow (if I’m up to it), and watching the kids create the largest snowman I’ve ever seen.
It has provided me with a bit of perspective…
I have many projects that I would be working on if I was home: upcoming house church conference, a couple of couples who are church planting, end-of-year bookkeeping that needs to be done, etc, etc.
But I don’t want to back to a life that is just about doing and projects. I desire that elusive kingdom/organic life. I don’t know all that it means, but I am aware that Kingdom life, God-at-work organic life is seeded by prayer. The soil in which God works is not prepared by my efforts, my planning, my going, my doing, my thinking, my flailing… it’s prepared for the activity of God through prayer. Just prayer. Period.
I’m not going to take the time to even elaborate more on this. I’m not in a "working mode" after all. I’m just leaving myself this note… I want to rest this year in the power of the Kingdom; I want to be working where the Kingdom is breaking forth; I want to operate in the life and strength of Kingdom life… I want to re-learn prayer… the simple conversations with the Father that draw me into HIS life.
Let it be!
Comments
One response to “Snowed In”
The Church is just one sphere of authority within the Kingdom of God. For too long it has been seen as the only one. As a result, work in the church has been seen as the only valid form of full-time Christian service. Many people who are called to work in other areas of the Kingdom of God work full-time in the church. As this is not their true calling and they do not have the appropriate gifts, they usually become very frustrated.
The church should be releasing them to the sphere of authority where they belong. They would be working to establish the Kingdom, so they would still be involved in full-time Christian work.
Most Christians are called to a ministry outside the church in the Kingdom of God. In Israel, the Levites who looked after the temple were only about ten percent of the population. This seems to be about the right proportion. Most Christians will exercise a ministry in the Kingdom of God. Many will serve in the business world.
The modern church has a tendency towards imperialism. Everything has to flow into it, or it is loses interest. The church always takes the best people. When a person becomes a Christian, the pastor immediately tries to find a place to use them in the church. Instead the church should send many of its better people out to work in the Kingdom of God.
A church with an apostolic vision will train people up (many useful skills can be learnt in the church), and send them out to work in the business world. For example, the church has some great musicians. The best of these should be sent out to work in the secular music industry. The direction of the flow should be reversed, so that the church is sending good people out to the business world. Elders should be training most of their disciples for ministry in the Kingdom of God.
From Being Church Where We Live