Living On Purpose

Yesterday Jessie and I had the priviledge of hosting a learning party, featuring Tom and Christine Sine from the MSA.  Tom’s latest book “The New Conspirators” is a MUST READ and I’ve had the priviledge of working with him just a little bit on some of the details that go into the post publishing process.  Anyhow…

A crowd of about 30 of diverse and divergent friends and followers of Jesus clustered into our great room area.  After a brief meditation Tom and Christine launched into a great set of 3 conversations.

1) The changing economics of the global economy: it’s effect on us as the middle class and it’s extreme effect on the world poor.

We live in a world that is working longer hours in order to make less money and people are finding new pressures to stay BUSY.  The 24/7 work week is in full swing with gadgets such as TWITTER, FACEBOOK, THE WEB, EMAIL, TEXT MESSAGES, iPhone…etc… Part of living in the new global mall is always working.  While our economy works very well for those who have assets, the plight of the poor is growing worse.  People who have been considered “on the edge” in years past are now tipping into starvation and outright poverty.  While our churches talk about mission, very few of our resources actually go to the global poor. At the end of this conversation we were asked to break into clusters of 2’s and 3’s to discuss this question: “What are the things in my life that might increase my availability to answering the needs created today?”

Various responses were:

*Slowing down our rhythms, decreasing unnecesary jaunts, not being a chauffer service as families, working less, and begin to see Rest as a theology or framing story.

*Coming up with a purpose statement which intentionally helps bring things to the ground.

This last response created a natural segway into the next conversation.

2) What is God “on about” in the world? What is God doing?

Western compartmentalized faith has learned that theology and God and relationship with the Divine is about meeting MY needs or conversely HIS needs…either are a compartmentalized transcendent way of viewing God’s heart.  Does God care about the world? How do we find a faith that impacts every element of our life? God’s desire is to see everything restored, renewed, and made whole again.  In God’s new world everything that has been fractured is mended.  Do we have a vision of a better world?  If not we will not live accordingly and enable others to do so.  The need for a vision where God’s good news is present is neccesary.  Often we have a limited view of how God wants to transform us.  The reality is that God wants to transforms us as whole parts, including our cultural values.  We must begin to ask, “what is the good life?” Fashion? Possessions?  We must radically reshape our lives to match our vision of the ‘good life’/

God’s kingdom goes beyond theology.  Tom quoted Shane Claiborne: “another world is possible. another world is necessary. another world is already here.” God desires us to be changed as whole people.  All things are to be made new.  Jesus’ own mission was to renew whole lives: to preach good news to the poor, to bind up the brokenhearted, to heal the blind, to touch the untouchable.  This is His calling and conversely it is our calling.  Discipleship means commiting to the life purpose of God.  To be a follower of Jesus we make God’s purposes ours.  How can we make a space to follow God in what he’s doing right now?

We were once again asked to split into 2’s and 3’s and answer this question:  “How would it change our life and that of our neighborhoods and communities if we each began to discover God’s purpose operating in our lives?

Responses were:

*If people would walk in their giftings we would live in a rich environment.  It would a body functioning.

*It would be easier to say no to things as there wouldn’t be a need for a few to take on the needs of everything.

*brokeness is a calling…we would connect how we’ve suffered with what God wishes to do in transfomring the world.

*We are only limited by our imagination.

This is where I’m going to leave it…The third conversation was about how to practically discover our callings in God.  If you wanna know more about this buy their book called: “Living On Purpose“…a truly amazing read!

Anyhow…thanks Tom and Christine.  What a life changing moment for so many.

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