Notes from Week Three

a body of people shaped and sent by God
Session THREE :: PERSONAL Training

Reviewing our Mission
Last week we looked at what training for life in the Kingdom might look like in community. We said that when we come together what we do must be driven by the mission of the kingdom. For the purposes of simplicity we described the mission as Loving God and Loving Others. Remember when we talk about love we are not talking about feeling warmly towards that person – rather we are describing an act of the will. We are willing their good. So when we gather together we should have this mission of Loving God and Loving Others always in mind.

This week we are focusing on what training for the kingdom might mean for us personally. Think again about a symphony. A symphony has the mission of performing beautiful music. In order to perform the beautiful music the symphony must train. The training will involve times when the symphony will come together for rehearsals that will be focused on the goal of performing beautiful music. In the same way as a symphony trains with the goal in mind, we said that our corporate gatherings should be driven by our kingdom mission of Loving God and Loving Others.

Rehearsals, however, are not the only training members of the symphony will undertake. The members if they are to accomplish the goal of playing beautiful music must also train personally. This personal training will also be focused on accomplishing the goal of performing beautiful music. In the same way, if our faith communities are to become communities that are performing our mission of Loving God and Loving Others, then we also must train personally.

Many of us perhaps have mistaken the training for the mission. We have heard so often that we ought to pray and that we ought to read our Bibles (and we ought to) that we have begun to think that reading the Bible and praying are the mission. But the mission of a symphonic musician is not to play scales in private, rather the mission is to perform beautiful music. So too our mission is not Bible study for the sake of Bible study, but rather Loving God and Loving Others. Bible study is one means of training, just as practicing scales is a means of training for a musician. So when we begin to think about personal training we must have a clear vision of why we are training, and never mistake the training for the goal.


To Will the Good
Love is a word that we have become very unclear about. We say things like, “I love my new car,” and “I love chocolate cake.” What we really mean is that we ‘enjoy’ driving the new car, or that we ‘desire’ chocolate cake (i.e., we want to eat it). We run into difficulty, then, when such a word enters into our talk about God. What does it mean that God loves us, or more so, that God is love?

When the scriptures speak of love, it is always in the context of relationships, and it is always other-directed. Dallas Willard has provided a helpful description of this other-directedness by defining love as willing the good of someone else. Love, then, is both wanting the good for someone else and working for the good of someone else. It is not giving someone whatever they want. Many people want things that are harmful to them (either immediately or long-term). It would not be love for a parent to allow their child to touch the hot pan on the stove just because the child wanted to.

To will the good of someone else is to want what is good and right and best for them—even above yourself. I cannot love someone and at the same time envy their success, because I am desiring my success above theirs. I cannot love someone and at the same time ignore their need because I am more concerned with my ‘needs’ and ‘wants’ more than theirs. The other-directedness of love illuminates how much of what we call ‘love’ is mere sentiment and pretense—and that is a harsh reality to wake up to.

We believe, however, that it is possible for people to love others—to truly will the good for their enemies as well as their friends. We have seen examples of people who stand out in our minds because of their selfless concern for the good of others.

We long to see entire communities of Jesus’ disciples that are known primarily for their love rather than for their political views, apparent self-righteousness, and strange clothes. We long to see people who are sharing in God’s heart and work for the healing of the world rather than just hoping for the end of it. We long to see communities of people who are attractive, not because of their affluence or influence, but because of their consistent demonstrations of love for God and neighbor.

We believe that, although this is difficult, it is possible. We believe this is what we should expect to see among those who wear the name of Christ (John 13:35).

EXERCISE ONE: Examine challenges
A good first step for training personally for our mission is to evaluate where we need to grow. Of course we do not do this on our own. We surround ourselves with others who are living out the mission and make room for them to speak into our lives, and even more importantly the Holy Spirit leads us. Jesus assures us that the Holy Spirit is the one who will lead us into all truth. The Holy Spirit in the best sense of the word is our “Personal Trainer”. A good place to begin is by giving the Holy Spirit freedom to examine our lives and to show us where we have opportunities to better live out our mission of Loving God and Loving Others.

As an exercise, ask yourself the following question, and after some reflection write down your honest answer.

Where am I having difficulty living out God’s mission?

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Here are some suggestions to help you identify ‘trouble areas’:
1) Think through the different parts of your waking hours.
a. Where in the morning (also ask this of your midday and evening) do you have difficulty?
b. What might be a ‘trigger’ or tripping point?
2) Think through the places you go.
a. What places tend to be ‘danger zones’ for you?
b. Do you have more difficulty at home or at work/school?
c. Do you have more difficulty alone or with others?
3) Think about the people you spend time with.
a. Who do you have difficulty loving?
b. Who do you find yourself avoiding?
c. Why do you think those people are difficult to love?

Now, spend a few minutes in listening. Pray this prayer of listening: “Jesus, show me the people and places where I have difficulty loving.” Invite the Spirit to point out where and why you are having difficulty loving.


STOP TRYING. START TRAINING.
Many of us, frustrated and discouraged by a failure to love God and others, have been told (or have told ourselves) that we just need to try harder. This only creates more frustration and discouragement.

Imagine a woman who finds herself holding a violin for the first time in her life, and she is standing on a stage before hundreds of people who are waiting for her to play. It sounds like a bad dream, right? Now, can you imagine after a few notes (if you could call them notes!), someone yells out these words of encouragement, “You can do it! Just try harder!” Hopeless, right?

You don’t play the violin better by trying harder when you’re ‘on the spot’. You play the violin better by training to play the violin ‘off the spot’. This is the case with any kind of performance—including performance (not playacting, but enacting) of life in the Way of Jesus.

We do not believe it is helpful simply to urge people to ‘try harder.’ What is needed is to guide people into becoming the kind of people who easily and naturally do the things Jesus taught. The role of the Christian community, as we noted in the previous session, is to train people in the way of life Jesus taught and modeled. It is then the responsibility of the members of that community to engage in what we might call ‘personal training.’ Much of personal training will involve the practice of some form of spiritual disciplines or practices.

THE ROLE OF THE DISCIPLINES
Richard Foster, in his classic book, Celebration of Discipline, uses two metaphors to illustrate the purpose of disciplines: a field and a path.

A farmer is helpless to grow grain; all he can do is provide the right conditions for the growing of grain. He cultivates the ground, he plants the seed, he waters the plants, and then natural forces of the earth take over and up comes the grain. This is the way it is with the Spiritual Disciplines--they are a way of sowing to the Spirit.
The spiritual disciplines are, "a means of receiving God's grace. …[They] allow us to place ourselves before God so he can transform us." He goes on to say, that the spiritual disciplines are like a narrow ridge with a sheer drop-off on either side: there is the abyss of trust in works on one side and the abyss of faith without deeds on the other.


On the ridge there is a path, the disciplines of the spiritual life. …We must always remember that the path does not produce change; it only places us where the change can occur.
The task for us, then is to cultivate our daily lives into fertile ground in which God can bring growth and change. This is what the spiritual disciplines are all about.
Dallas Willard defines a discipline as, "any activity within our power that we engage in to enable us to do what we cannot do by direct effort."
The application to the spiritual life is not too difficult to understand. If your life-as-usual has not been fertile ground in which God can bring change, then, as Dallas Willard writes, "life-as-usual must go."Your practice of spiritual disciplines will require an alteration of life-as-usual. You will approach your life with these two questions:

1) What am I currently not doing that, if I were doing, would open myself up more to God's work of grace in my life?
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2) What am I currently doing that, if eliminated, would open myself up more to God's work of grace in my life?
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Freedom of the Disciplines
Jesus came to set us free from sin and death, and to bring us freedom for God. Spiritual Disciplines can be an integral part in helping us in this walk of freedom. This is just a brief synopsis of some of the freedoms associated with specific disciplines.

Meditation Freedom from ingrained patterns of wrong thinking,

Prayer Freedom from worry and trying to do things ourselves
and the peace and freedom of relying on GOD

Fasting Freedom from those things that control us. The freedom of recognizing who truly sustains us

Silence Freedom from control of others, freedom from controlling
Solitude others. Freedom from having to justify ourselves.
Freedom for hearing GOD.

Service Freedom from always wanting to have our own way.

Secrecy Freedom from having to be noticed and recognized.
Freedom to love and value others without expecting
reciprocity.

Study Knowledge of the truth to set us free. Frees our mind to
move in specific and proper ways. Frees us to control our minds.

Confession Freedom from putting on false fronts. Freedom for r
receiving healing.

Guidance Freedom from being a lone Ranger. Freedom that comes
from hearing the voice of God through others.

Worship Freedom from idolatry. Freedom to be truly human - we
were created for worship.
Celebration Freedom from taking ourselves to seriously. Freedom from
heaviness. Freedom for enjoying the Presence of GOD.
Freedom to be ourselves before GOD and our sisters and
brothers

Exercise TWO: CENTERING PRAYER & Meditation
One discipline that is effective in bringing our focus and attention into its proper place is centering prayer. This has taken many forms throughout the history of the church, but for our exercise, we will suggest two primary means for this exercise.

The first is what we call, “Palms up. Palms down.” We begin by asking the Spirit to call our attention to the things we are holding on to which are preventing us from ‘taking hold’ of God. As we identify these things, we place our hands out, palms down—as if we were placing them into God’s hands. We then turn our hands, palms up—as if we were to receive from God. For each thing that we identify, we repeat the process.

The second, is a variation we call, “Breathe in. Breathe out.” We begin by asking the Spirit to call attention to the things we have going on within us that are preventing us from loving God and loving others (i.e., fear, anger, lust, greed, envy, etc.). We then imagine ourselves breathing those things out of our hearts as we exhale a breath. As we inhale, then, we invite God to replace those things with the fruit of his Spirit (i.e., love, joy, peace, patience, etc.).

Take a few minutes and practice one of these exercises. You may make notes of your reflections along the right margin of this page.


Now, we are ready to meditate upon the scriptures. In contrast to much of Buddhist and Hindu meditation, which seek to empty the mind of thought and desire (i.e., to disengage from the world), Christian meditation is an exercise in listening, engagement, and attention upon what God has to teach us. We seek to engage our minds with God’s revelation in order to be challenged and changed.

In our meditation exercise tonight, slowly read through a passage of scripture. As you read, ask God to guide you and direct your attention. Imagine yourself as one of the characters in the story. Think about how you would react. Think about how you would feel.

Pay attention to words or phrases that seem to echo or ‘stick’. Ask the Lord to explain why that word or phrase or action is important. Then identify what response, if any, would be appropriate for you in light of what the Spirit points out. You may make notes of your reflections along the right margin of this page.



Exercise THREE: Personal Training Plan
The place where the Spirit is leading me to grow in my ability to accomplish the goal of Loving God and Loving Others is:




One mistake we often make is to “try on the spot” to carry out the mission instead of training “off the spot.” Ask Jesus to show you how you can to “train off the spot” to better carry out your mission. Write down what the Spirit is showing you.





Now think carefully about where the Spirit is leading you to grow in your ability to carry out the mission of the Kingdom. What are some ways you can think of for training of the spot. Write them down.




Now consider sharing with others who are seeking to live out the kingdom mission, where you sense the Spirit leading you to grow in your ability to carry out the Mission. Ask them how you might train off the spot to grow in your ability to perform on the spot.

Notes from Week Two

What is the role of the redemptive community?
The role of the redemptive community (the church), in relation to the individuals within it, is to fit and maintain each other for life. We are asking the question as people who are part of the redemptive community and who want the church to be faithful and effective, but who have the nagging suspicion that things are not oriented toward one of the primary tasks we have been given; namely, training people in the life of Jesus.

We believe the role of the church needs to involve, among others, three key dimensions. The redemptive community must function as:

An Incarnational Community: to make you a student of Jesus, embodying kingdom life, living your life as Jesus would if he were you.

An Orienting Community: to surround you in the Trinitarian reality, re-presenting God’s story and our role in it.

A Formational Community: to teach you how to do the ‘all things’ that Jesus commanded. If we take Jesus’ example (i.e., Luke 10), the pattern we see is: teaching, followed by sending out to do (practice), and then a time to ‘debrief.’




Our time together is shaping us, but how?
What you see is what you get from the way things are. As someone said, “Your system is perfectly designed to produce the result you are getting.” Our time shared together—what we do when we gather as Jesus’ disciples—has shaped us in a particular way. One question we might want to ask ourselves is, “In what way are we being shaped?’ Another question to follow that might be, “Are our practices and programs producing the results we expect?”

Just asking that question might bring out the fact that many of us take for granted that we are doing what we’re supposed to be doing. It might, therefore, bring out the sense that we’re either not very good at doing it and we just need to try harder, or that we’re satisfied with the way things are.

We hope that such questions will lead us, instead, to evaluate what practices are being overemphasized, what practices are being ignored, and what practices might actually be blocking our formation into Christlikeness. We hope that such questions will lead us to consider fresh ways of ordering our life together as we better understand the role of the redemptive community in our lives.


Critical evaluation of common mindsets
If we were brutally honest, we would acknowledge that to one degree or another, we assume ourselves to be consumers of religious goods and services. In many people’s minds, and in many practices of local congregations, the church is supposed to function as the vendor of those goods and services.

One indicator of how this consumer mentality operates is our language and our expectations about our meetings. We speak variously of “entering in” or “getting fed” or “fellowship” as if the reason we gather is to ‘get’, or consume, some kind of experience from songs and sermons.

We are not suggesting that we are absolutely, totally, and utterly wrapped up in ourselves and only interested in what we ‘get out of it.’ We are suggesting that we live in a culture that appears to be so, and we have not gone unaffected. We are suggesting that our mindsets toward our shared life need to be examined and, where necessary, renovated.

The redemptive community is meant to help us incarnate a life of love, orient us to a life of love, and form us so that we live out Kingdom lives of love by teaching, practicing and debriefing. The question we must ask is: Are our communities succeeding? Or do we and the people we know look more like Will (from the movie, “About a Boy”)? Most of us probably see traces of ourselves (and if not ourselves – well certainly others) in Will. Instead of being people of love who are very much other directed and focused, we may well be like Will starring in our own shows with occasional guest stars coming and going as it suits the need of the show.

Could it be that the church has been more shaped by the goals and mission of culture and the gods of the age than it has been by the mission given to her by Christ?

The prevailing gods of this day may well be the belief that the Individual is supreme and that the Individual is a Consumer with Choice. We must look with loving care at the Bride of Christ. In love we must be willing to say perhaps we often heed the siren call of the gods of this world rather than the voice of the Lover of our Souls.

When we simply think about some of the phrases that are used with the word Church we may discern where we have been shaped my the gods of the age.

Where do you go to Church? Here Church is something we attend not who we are. Paul describes the Church as the family of God. Imagine saying to someone, Where do you go to family? Or What time is family?

I’m Church shopping. Here Church is a product I consume not who I am. Scriptures describe a battle existing between Christ and his enemies and we are admonished to be soldiers in the army of the King. Imagine an enlisted soldier saying, "I’m army shopping."

I didn’t really get too much from Church today. First, this mindset assumes the Church is a time when we get together not who we are. Second, it assumes the church is about meeting my needs – it is something other than me.

(A question a Pastor is frequently asked) How big is your church? Church is something that is mine and is open to comparison, and size is what matters not the quality of the people.

These commonly used phrases indicate that it is likely that church in America is conceived of more as a place, a time an event – in short a product. More than it is conceived of as a called out people - sent on a mission from God. If church is a product than our goal rightly should be to produce that best product that we can possibly produce. Our gathering times then should be geared towards producing really good events.

Scripture indicates that Church is something more than a product to be consumed. It is a body of people shaped by God and sent by God into the world he loves to join in his healing work. If we are to be faithful, we need to orient ourselves toward that mission—an orientation that may likely transform our goals and expectations for our life together.



Goals for our LIFE TOGETHER
For the purposes of this class we are summarizing our mission as "Love God, Love others." This in a nutshell is the "everything" Jesus means when he says "teach them to obey everything I have commanded you."

I can not love someone- look out for there best interest- and at the same time be envying their house. I can not be loving someone and at the same time manipulating them. I can not love someone and at the same time view them with contempt. In short, Love – being oriented towards God and others is the mission of Church.

The goals of our gathering then must be driven by our mission. Since our mission is "Love God, Love others," then the goal of our gathering times ought to be Training in Loving God and in Loving Others.

These goals mean that other things can not be the goals – even good things like: "entering in, being fed, having our needs met or fellowship." (What is interesting is that when the goals are kept straight and followed these other things follow).

When these goals are kept in mind we can expect groups that form around these goals to have a certain distinctive flavor. Here are a few of the distinct flavorings that such a group would have.

God – Centered – when the group gathers worship and praise will be given freely as a gift to God

Challenge –in such a group we will be challenged by how much we love ourselves. We will admit that we have a problem and that we need the help of god and others.

Confession- We will admit where our lives are not what they ought to be.

Conversation – Our conversations will ask about how we can obey Jesus in particular areas of our lives. There will be dialogue between each other and there will be times of listening to the Spirit.

Accountability – After our conversations we will ask each other how we are doing in following Christ.

Sharing Ourselves – We will share our lives in authentic ways. This means that we will seek each others input in our lives and we will be willing to submit our decisions to each other.

Sharing Our Stuff- We will share our time resources and talents with each other.

Restructuring – People following Christ and restructuring their lives according to the Goals of Loving God and Loving Others.


Such a group would need:

Commitment – a group of people captured by the beauty of the Kingdom and committed to loving God and loving each other

Time – it takes time to shape a life in the way of Jesus. We need to think long-term in our expectations for both discipleship and transformation of the world around us.





GROUP DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

How does a group like that described strike you?



Groups like this are possible. They have existed in the past and they exist today. The Kingdom produces groups of people who love God and love others. But these groups aren’t everywhere. What keeps groups like this from forming?



What are some baby steps towards being in a group like this?


New Ways of Thinking about Christian Community
-Thinking beyond the local ‘congregation’, what other (presently existing) communities might we identify and acknowledge/utilize as redemptive communities?

-How do we incorporate training in community into the normal patterns of life? What is already present that could be given more attention? What is in the way and needs to be replaced?


Questions for Clarity

One communal practice that we would do well to put into practice is to form situational ‘Clarity Committees’ or ‘Discernment Groups’ to learn how to discern God’s direction in specific situations. We are going to model a semi-hypothetical discernment group so that we can see one way this might be practiced among a group of people. The following is a list of some important questions that may be involved in such a gathering.

Why do you want to do this?

What is the motivation?

Is there any clear obvious scriptural teaching to support this decision?

Have you talked to the people this will impact?

Is your mind made up?

If we discern the Spirit leading in another direction will you take that direction?

What affirmation have you had from the Spirit?

How long have you been weighing this decision?

Notes from Week One

On a Mission from God
a body of people shaped and sent by God
Session one :: Have we been shaped to undermine the mission?


We have a mission from God
Why are we here?
What is the purpose of our lives?
What is the good life?
What is the best way to live?
How can we make the most of our lives?

With your group read through these scriptures that in one way or another address the big questions of life. As a group, talk about the scriptures; asking questions like those above. Then as a group, write a sentence or paragraph that captures how scripture suggests we are meant to live. Include both our mission and our attitude as we go about our mission.

Matthew 6:25-35
So if you decide for God, living a life of God-worship, it follows that you don't fuss about what's on the table at mealtimes or whether the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far more to your life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body. Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God. And you count far more to him than birds.
"Has anyone by fussing in front of the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch?
All this time and money wasted on fashion— do you think it makes that much difference? Instead of looking at the fashions, walk out into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They never primp or shop, but have you ever seen color and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them.
"If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers— most of which are never even seen— don't you think he'll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you?
What I'm trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God's giving. People who don't know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works.
Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don't worry about missing out. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.

Romans 1:2
Here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life— your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life— and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

Philippians 2:3-7
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.
Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.
Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant….

Jesus in Matthew 10:39, Matthew 16:25, Mark 8:35, Luke 9:24, Luke 17:33, & John 12:25
If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give it up for me you will find it.

Are we following another MISSION?
What is our mission according to USAmerican popular culture? Based on advertisements, television programming, song lyrics, films, and other expressions of pop-culture, what emerges as an outline of the purpose of human life? As a group, talk about the advertisements; asking questions like those below. Then as a group, write a sentence or paragraph that captures how USAmerican pop-culture suggests we are meant to live.

Why are we here?
What is the purpose of our lives?
What is the good life?
What is the best way to live?
How can we make the most of our lives?




After your group writes up the ‘mission’ according to popular culture, spend a few minutes reflecting on which agenda you find yourself pursuing?



Where do you see American Christianity reflecting the mission of God? Where do you see it reflecting the mission of popular culture?




We have been shaped
Whether you know it or not, you have been shaped. Your character, your dreams, your motivations, your opinions, and your perception of the world around you have all been molded by a complex and wide-reaching set of influences throughout your life (including your own choices and responses to these influences). Our challenge is to discern the nature of our ‘shaping’ thus far to see if it has been enabling or undermining our ability to live in the kingdom of God. The following questions will help us understand how we have been shaped.

React to the following questions at a ‘gut level.’.
What do you feel/think is the worst thing that could happen to you?




What do you feel/think is the best thing that could happen to you?





Consider how you answered the two questions above. Do you think these answers are consistent with what the scriptures suggest as the worst and best things that could happen to a person? Where are they consistent? Where are they not consistent?


Practice a prayer of listening. Ask the Spirit to point out the things that have shaped you (are shaping you?) in opposition to the kingdom. Ask the Spirit to point out the things that have shaped and are shaping you in cooperation with the kingdom.






We can be re-shaped
How do we allow Jesus to re-train us?






How do we open ourselves up to be re-shaped by the Spirit (see Rom 12:1-2, Col 3:5-10)?







The Nature of our Mission
More important than having a mission statement is having the sense that you are on a mission—that you are participating in something bigger than yourself and working for a purpose that is good and right and lasting. Mission statements can be very helpful in bringing clarity about our quest—our assignment, our mission—but without a sense that we are actually on a mission (God’s mission in particular), statements are about that mission are meaningless.

So our real challenge is to start seeing ourselves as a people on a mission--and that is to say that we are "a body of people sent". That mission begins by God’s initiative, and therefore it is God’s mission and we are invited to join up with it. We do not have the prerogative of making one up for ourselves. We can certainly talk about the specific ways we will live in and from that mission, but the mission has already been given. We have already been sent.

Being on this mission involves three primary actions. First, it involves representation—simply living as a faithful people. We are sent to ‘colonize’ (see Phil 3:20-21) our neighborhoods and workplaces and schools by simply being ‘heaven-ized people’ together in those places. We are to be the present representatives of what life-with-God-as-king looks like.

Kingdom Colony: A body of people who demonstrate what life together with God as king looks like. Colonization is not isolation, but dynamic engagement with surrounding culture in order to subvert the present order. It is what Rome did with Philippi (among others), and what Paul used to describe the task of the believing communities there.

Second, being on this mission involves participation—active cooperation with what God is doing in the world. We are not just to talk about what should be; we are to be actively engaging in what God wants done. We look where there is injustice, violence, destruction, and suffering, and we work to bring justice, peace, healing, and wholeness. Being on this mission means that we are pulled forward by God’s desire for the healing of our broken world.

Kingdom Agents: A body of people who see their activity as subversive action. Our good deeds have a larger agenda than benign social action. We want to see God's rule and reign become a reality where we are. This includes everywhere from home to work to nation to planet. It is where we work for justice and peace grounded in and springing from kingdom theology.

Third, being on this mission involves invitation—calling people to receive and enter into the rule and reign of God. We are not calling people to make travel plans for the afterlife—we are calling people to align themselves with God’s kingdom, and thereby enter into the life that is truly life. We do this as our lives together (representation) and our engagement with the world around us in the reality of the kingdom of God (participation) present a tangible and attractive option to the people around us.

Kingdom Heralds: (There must be a better word than 'herald') Here, I think of the servant/messenger in Jesus' parable of the king who threw a great banquet. We invite people to the party--into the life that is truly life. This is not conversionism, but evangelism in its original sense of 'heralding' good news about a new King. Today, in the ruins of Christendom, this invitation only has weight insofar as it is demonstrated by the Colony and its Agents.