Totaal Andere Kerk

Net begonnen met het boek Total Church van Tim Chester, kom ik meteen al wat leuke stukken tegen. Wat mij betreft vragen die leiden tot een Totaal Andere Kerk:

We ask, "Where does God fit into the story of our life?," where the real question is "Where does my little life fit into this great story of God's mission?"

We want to be driven by a purpose that is tailored just right for our own individual lifes, when we should be seeing the purpose of all life, including our own, wrapped up in the great mission of God for the whole of creation.

We talk about "applying the Bible to our lives." What would it mean to apply our lives to the Bible instead, assuming the Bible would be the reality - the real story - to which we are called to conform ourselves?
We wrestle with "making the Gospel relevant to the world." But in this story, God is about the business of transforming the world to fit the shape of the Gospel.

We argue about what can be legitimately be included in the mission that God expects from the church, when we should ask what kind of church God want for the whole range of his mission.

We may wonder what kind of mission God has for me, when I should be asking what kind of me God wants for his mission.

Maar misschien zitten we nog teveel vast in het oude, maar dat is wel heel erg 2009.

P.S. Lees ook deze interessante post, onderdeel van een serie over een boek van Michael Horton, The Gospel Driven Life.