Work the day, a long commute
Take-away instead of fruit
Tesco rush, put on the pot
Lidl needs a drive-through slot.
Visit Auntie, cat to vet
Dentist calling, baby’s wet
Pay the lecky, homework due
Neighbour lonely, tea to do
Mammy needs the garden done
Saturday a wedding’s on
Why I am a rotten Christian,
Never time for Jesus’ mission?
This poem describes life for just about everyone I know. We go through life at a blistering pace between work, home and family responsibilities. We collapse exhausted at the end of a day or week and take solace from our Christian guilt in whatever little pleasures our consciences allow. All the while, we wonder if we’ll ever have the time or motivation to do real ministry.
So here’s some good news…..God has made our lives to revolve around work, home and family! It is more important and is potentially more fruitful than anything else we do.
Our faith is meant to be real in the context of normal life. That is where it comes alive - in serving and loving those God has placed around us.
Instead, the church tends to create an alternative to reality disconnected from normal life. Sincere believers suffer from the angst of trying to live between two worlds: the world of church ministry and the world of living life.
Of course, we are ‘not of this world’. But that simply means that our centre, our focus and hope is on Jesus (not man) and that our values are His.
The real ministry of the church must be DECENTRALISED otherwise it marginalizes and devalues the importance of the majority of the hours and days of our lives. (Centralised ministry activities actually seem to take people away from the places and people God has put in our lives).
If you believe that your ordinary life is the most important place of ministry, you will be able to hear Father tell you how to do it with great effect. Think about this: the early church thrived and grew as they connected with people over meals and in homes and over back fences. At the end of a day of cooking and working and fetching and living they were tired too. But here’s the difference-there was no other plan.
JOIN THE CONVERSATION…
How can our faith be real in the context of normal life? Do you believe the ministry of the church needs to be ‘decentralised’? Do ‘centralised’ church events take people away from those they should be reaching out to?
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Enjoyed this post and agree wholeheartedly. Some churches do try to equip believers to live out their faith in the ordinary stuff of life, but I think it's hard to do this in isolation. For me, I think it would be more effective and encouraging for believers in an area (not necessarily in the same church) to find ways to "do life" together.
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