What are we inviting people to? What really is the “good news” we want people to accept? When I was a kid, my favorite book of the bible was Joshua. It was a grand adventure and story to be entered into. In time the childish things were put away and the adventure was lost. Replaced by a more mature reading of scripture. Many days my heart still aches for those days of simple adventure.
Then I get to the gospel stories and wonder if Jesus’ isn’t trying to reawaken an adventure long lost in centuries of rules and system. Jesus didn’t invite people to become objects to be used by the church for its purposes. He invited them into the adventure of God’s story. Alan Roxburgh, in his book, Missional, convictingly and powerfully reminds me of the power of Jesus’ story:
There was this freedom in Jesus’s stories. I can’t believe those who heard them felt that Jesus had some other agenda going on underneath, that he was only interested in how they could fit into his plan. In Jesus’s hands, stories opened worlds for people whose imaginations had collapsed down narrow tunnels with little light. Often Jesus’s stories became landmines. At first, they seemed innocent enough, but once a person got inside the story or parable, it would explode unexpectedly, crack open little worlds, disorient a taken-for-granted life, disrupt practiced scenarios, and overturn assumptions so that the brightness of God’s future could be seen.
Be honest, are we inviting people to an adventure or to another job?
Stephen
Source:
Roxburgh, Alan J. Missional : joining God in the neighborhood. Grand Rapids, Mich: Baker Books, 2011. pg 82.