Passion After All
No. Not the movie. Mine. For Jesus and being part of a Jesus-following community. I found that the passion is still there. No, I wasn't exactly surprised, but I was caught unawares by it. Here's a brief version of what happened.
I got into a discussion with a friend this evening about where the church has been going in the last 20 years or so and how the world around us has changed so drastically. I started to talk about what the church can do to begin to reach whole new generations of the unchurched- something that hasn't been as imperative in our western world for a long time.
I found myself talking about the future where infant baptisms (the children of present believers being brought into the community) are surpassed by adult baptisms of unchurched. Perhaps even bringing their children for "children's" baptism and celebrating as Family Baptisms. Even sounded Biblical. Then we talked about who would do communion in small house church/small group settings if there isn't an ordained person present. The answer was, of course, whoever wanted to. (Yes- I know. I am stepping outside the clergy-centered boundaries. I think it has something to do with the priesthood of all believers or whatever it was that the Protestant Reformation didn't finish the first time.)
I realized that I was passionate about what I was saying. It is important to me that the church find ways to reach the culture and the unchurched. Not to convert the culture, but to bring the hope and grace of Jesus to those who don't yet know him. Not to turn the church into an apologist for post-modernism, but to bring the Gospel into the post-modern debate as an alternative that brings truth and hope.
I discovered that I am still deeply passionate about what Jesus is doing in the world and what Jesus wants me to do as a disciple of His. For the moment, I have been called out of the church to live my vocation in the world beyond the church. For the moment- and perhaps for more than even just the moment- my gifts and vocation are to be in the world living out what I have preached for years. That may include helping develop small group or house churches. It may be in bi-vocational church planting. It may include being a lay-based clergy, finding ways to empower others to be part of that priesthood of all believers.
In any case, it was actually refreshing to discover that the passion is still within and waiting for the time for it to become part of my ongoing vocation in whatever ways God is calling.
Now, as for the movie.... no thoughts at the moment.
Passion and Prayer 24-7
Justin at Radical Congruency has started reading a book on the 24-7 Prayer Movement called Red Moon Rising. He has some interesting things to say about what he has discovered so far. His closing paragraphs are a good statement of why he is reading the book- and what we all may be able to learn from the movement.
It seems that this book will describe the emphasis on 24-7 prayer and the resulting missional success that has been seen. People have been coming to Christ through this movement. Lots of them. Some of it is probably hype, but some of it is most surely God working through people who are earnestly seeking him. I want to see what this movement and this practice of 24-7 prayer can mean for us.
I find myself currently longing for more worship, more heart-devotion, more prayer, than I am doing personally. I feel a strong need to approach God together with others in this way. I'm done being cynical about worship service, and I'm ready to move into the next phase of authentically biblical, intellectually serious, and radically devoted ways of worshipping together. Prayer is and must be at the heart of this.
