Throughout this year we will be exploring the idea that God is faithfully present in this world and calls us to be faithfully present to him in this world. “Faithful Presence” names the reality of God being in and present to the world and that he uses a people who are faithful to his presence to make himself known, real, and concrete amidst the world’s struggles and pains. Will we be a people who are faithful to God’s presence in this world?
From the first pages of scripture to the final scenes of Revelation, we see God making himself known to his creation through faithfully being present. God is faithfully present in a whole new way through Jesus Christ (Colossians 1:15) and again in a whole new way through the giving of the Holy Spirit (John 14:16; Acts 2:38). When the church gathers, the presence of Christ is especially made known with us around his table. In the coming weeks we will dive deeper into how a community of believers is changed when the table is made central in their lives together.
We are faithfully present when we join with God in the work he is doing in the world. This is not a lone decision we make in a moment when we see things happening around us. Being faithfully present to what God is doing in the world comes from a life shaped by habits of being mindful of God’s presence in every area of your life. This does not come naturally but is developed through practice. Throughout the year we will look at seven practices of being faithfully present:
The Lord’s Table
Reconciliation
Proclaiming the Gospel
The Fivefold Gifting
Being with the Least of These
Being with Children
Kingdom Prayer
The question I want us to wrestle with this year is one of mission. How is it that the church is supposed to change the world? There are two major strategies that encompass the approach of a lot of churches in our culture. The first is a kind of triumphalism where the church tried to take over the culture and impose a moralistic rule over how the culture is shaped. The other is a kind of pietistic escapism where the church exists in the margins of society, never interacting, as a counter-cultural group that largely leaves the culture to rot. Throughout this year I want to advocate for a different approach of Christian engagement with the world, “faithful presence.” This “faithful presence” plays out in all our relationships and in every sphere of our social lives.
We will evaluate this faithful presence through three circles: Close Circle, Dotted Circle, and Half Circle. The “Close Circle” of Christian fellowship is where we gather in God’s presence where Christ is host at the Lord’s Table. The Table, where Christ is host, should reorient who we are as God’s people. How we view one another changes as our individual stories are baptized into God’s story of reconciliation. The “Dotted Circle” is where we host God’s presence at our tables for our neighbors to come and experience Christian community. This is where Christian community is on display for the world to see. The “Half Circle” is the scattered Church carrying God’s presence to the wider culture where they host us in their homes, at work, in the YMCA, at our kid’s sporting events, etc.
Christian Mission is a balance of life around these three circles. When Churches focus too much on the “Close Circle” they turn inward and enter maintenance mode. In this unhealthy balance, the church fights to protect a certain way of life for itself both within its assembly and in the society around it. These churches believe the world serves them and therefore the church becomes irrelevant to the world.
By contrast, churches who focus too much on the “Half Circle” turn outward and enter exhaustion mode. When every act of the church is focused on being in the world, the church becomes disconnected from the source of life found at the Lord’s Table. People become exhausted because they are not returning to the place where life is given freely.
As we prepare for Sunday, reflect on these questions and feel free to share your reflections with me:
How would your time of worship on Sunday be different if you knew that God was present?
How would your view of people change, in the church and in the culture around us, if you could see God perfectly loving people where they were?
What group of people would make you uncomfortable with Jesus if you saw him having dinner with them and treating them as equals?