Church at Crossroads
Throughout history, men and women have been raised by God at critical moments in the life of God’s people. The 21st century church (corporate body of believers) has reached a crossroads faced with real challenges including waning influence in the eyes of wider society and in some cases blatant opposition.
Remaining Relevant and Impactful
Excellence, success and progress for believers and the influence they afford, are some of the means of impacting the marketplace and subsequently the world as the bible clearly documents for characters such as Joseph and Daniel.
Unfortunately, these can be easily rationalised as ‘secular’ and/or ‘worldly’, coupled with the view that work is a competing inconvenience to church ministry. This has resulted in believers disengaging from the ‘secular space’ instead of engaging and seeking to influence it. This supposed secular space is God’s mission field which is ripe for harvest no matter how hostile it seems. We can no longer be secluded in our ‘religious corner’ just singing “YOU TAKE THE WHOLE WORLD AND GIVE ME JESUS” and wonder why we constantly hear of scandals.
Standing Before Kings
Therefore, Solomon said, “Do you see a man skilled in his work? He will serve before kings; he will not serve before obscure men” (Proverbs 22:29).
Could the waning influence of the church be related to the fact that it has kept its best and brightest (or its most gifted and anointed?) only fulfilled when they’re involved in Sunday church activities and discouraged from excelling at the workplace, where they spend a significantly larger proportion of their time? Solomon again says in Proverbs 12:24, “Diligent hands will rule, but laziness ends in slave labour”. The Living bible puts it this way “Work hard and become a leader, be lazy and never succeed”.
Taking Action
Ambassadors in the Marketplace (AIM) takes the words “…equipping the saints for the work of the ministry…” in Ephesians 4:12, beyond the church walls and into the marketplaces of the world – where it can and should be most effective. One of my spiritual mentors, Rev Peter Vincent always taught us to “boldly make contact with the world, but without contamination” and I agree. Why? Because in one of Jesus’s famous kingdom principles, he described God’s kingdom as being like yeast influencing dough for making bread. The yeast is never afraid of the dough because it never turns into dough. It always maintains its DNA of just infecting (influencing) the dough.
We could say in simple terms, that the yeast is excellent at its ability to impact the dough and cause it to rise. I know Joseph and Daniel were tested to the limits, yet they never became their environment but were able to influence it. Will you be a 21st century Joseph or Daniel and like David serve our generation with kingdom inspired values? I believe God will help us.
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