Christians Engage the World

One of my favorite things to do as a pastor is to encourage followers of Jesus to engage the world and be as involved as possible in many interests and activities outside of the church walls. The church is not a country club where Christians gather to separate from the world. We gather corporately so that we can worship the Lord and grow in order to be equipped to go back out into the world. Most of the life of the person who is following Jesus Christ whole-heartedly is spent giving themselves away to others for the sake of the advancement of the kingdom of God in the world. This is why I moved my family to the inner city... to be closer to the struggling people in this world who are desperately in need of God. I am hoping to model for my children, with my lifestyle, that being a Christians means that we are called to go into the world, not withdraw from the world. We should be concerned if our only friends and relationships are with Christians, because that means we are missing out on God's mission to redeem the world.

William Stringfellow wrote, "The image of Christian action in the world is that of the people of God living in dispersion in the world and in any corner of the world, finding trustworthy God's promise that He cares for all men and for each man. Moreover, Christians are free in their dispersion to intercede for the cause of any man - even one who is said by others to be unworthy - and thereby to represent in the world the intercession of Christ for all men - even though none be worthy. The image of Christian witness in the world is that of a people who have so completely divested themselves of their own individual self-interest that they may intercede - stand in the place of, represent, advocate - the cause of another, any other at all. And then, now and again, the people return from their extraordinarily versatile involvement in the life of the world, to gather as the Church to represent, before God, the world out of which they have come, in all its connectedness and conflict and change, and to celebrate as the Church the presence of the Word of God as they have known it in the world." - A Private and Public Faith

My goal in life as a follower of Jesus is to build relationships with as many "unworthy" people in the world as I possibly can, in as many difficult places as God would lead me to, for the sake of dying to my self and gaining Christ on a daily basis, so that God would be glorified by my sacrifice. Some day when I die and people gather to celebrate my life, I hope that the words used would go something along the lines of, "Bryan so completely divested himself of his own individual self-interest that he spent a lifetime interceding - standing in the place of, representing, advocating - the cause of another, any other at all." Now that would be a legacy!