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From: easy2believe@aol.com
Date: 4/28/01
Time: 4:10:44 AM
Remote Name: 152.163.197.58
I find isolating from the world to be the most tempting alternative to incarnational ministry. Shortly after conversion I came to a Christian University to study for the ministry. So now after four years of being in the "bubble," which has helped me grow in many areas, I'm feeling the tension of being "between two worlds," as Stott says it.
I absolutely love next-wave.org. This site certainly gives a sense of community to those seeking to engage our postmodern culture for Christ. I want to live between the mountain and the multitude, communing with God in order to engage the lost. But I, like so many Christians I know, struggle with mingling with the lost while remaining 'separate' from the world. Any comments or suggestions?
While I pose this question, part of an answer floats in my mind. Modernism crowns reason as king over the sciences, thus postmodernism seeks to fill the void in the other dimensions of human wellness. Modernism has separated soul and body to avoid the 'spiritual' from being tainted by the emotions or physical pleasure. Thus, today's society is looking for a feel-good, physical demonstration of Christ in non-rational, non-propositional terms.
The Hebrews had a right picture of human nature. They saw the soul as a combination of the spirit/breath of God combined with the body (Gen 2:7). When a person died, the spirit/breath of life returned to God who gave it, and the body returns to the dust (Ecc 12:7). Thus when a person dies, the soul dies. When someone's mental digital self-projection (spirit) dies in the Matrix, the body dies in the 'real world.' Anyway, my point is this: I think a dualistic understanding of human nature has prevented us from embracing a wholistic ministry. Jesus came to give us life in all of its fullness. Jesus' death and resurrection offers spiritual, mental, emotional, physical and social restoration.
When Jesus was here on earth, he did not simply minister to the minds or souls of individuals, he used whatever dimension of human wellness was hurting as a point of impact that reverberated to all the others. In John, Jesus turned water to wine to restore social life, taught the new birth to Nicodemus to restore spiritual life, offered the waters of life to emotionally heal a woman dry with humiliation and guilt, and gave physical restoration to the man at the pool of Bethesda. Jesus preached a wholistic gospel that encountered the world's culture at their point of need.
Maybe we should develop wellness ministries that identify and touch our aching world. Then, as the lost see God's love, they will find peace in the Biblical worldview that centers on the saving work of Jesus.
comments and feedback? -billy