I want to pose a fundamental question about the way we (as Christians) look at the world around us: Is it helpful to think of the world as having parts that are sacred and parts that are secular? Some of you might be thinking I've gone off the deep end, but hear me out while I work through this in my own mind...
Random thoughts:
I do not believe in a compartmentalized life. I don't think it's Biblical to "think like a Christian" during church gatherings and "think like a businessman" at work. The whole of my existence is that I'm a Christ-follower. I'm a Christ-follower who manages a store. I'm a Christ follower who's married and has 6 children. I'm a Christ-follower who likes sports. Etc...
The same principle is true of our world. It's not just the "LORD's Day" on Sunday - every day is His. The church building is not the "LORD's House" - every house is the LORD's. Your local church's collected offerings are not the "LORD's money" - it's all His money.
So worship is not something I only do on Sundays. I worship the LORD at work, at play, at church gatherings, and (hopefully) anywhere else I might find myself.
I don't have a "secular" job any more than my pastor has a "sacred" job. We're both doing what the LORD wants us to do (at this moment).
I'm not "taking the LORD" (sacred) into my community (secular) as I engage in ministry and outreach - He's already there. I'm just looking to see where I can be useful as He works.
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Is this making sense to anyone?
Hatushili
Monday, January 29, 2007
Sacred or Secular?
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4 comments:
I'm glad to see you're finishing my book! Maybe we can throw environmentalism into the mix of the discussion, it is another thing most of us compartmentalise.
What your saying does make sense. It also fits well with the discussion on being missional. Living a life of uninterupted evangelism goes hand-in-hand with not seeing things as though you are seting aside certain times for doing God's work, which also implies you are setting aside times not to.
Jered said: I'm glad to see you're finishing my book!
He's talking about "Pollution and the Death of Man", by Francis Schaeffer. Apparently JB just noticed that I put my current reading list on the side of the front page.
Anyway, yes - I'll be glad to share some of my thoughts on both the book and environmental issues in general.
Later.
Hatushili
Jered said:...seting aside certain times for doing God's work...
Good point! I hadn't even thought in that way. The compartmentalization of modernity is so thorough that we even have a sacred/secular approach to our time! We should be always about the business of the LORD's work, whether at home or work or play or ... whatever.
LORD, forgive us for ever implicitly setting aside time to not do your work.
Hatushili
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