I just finished reading Knowing Christ Today by Dallas Willard. The last chapter is called Pastors as Teachers to the Nations. He builds the case that the Great Commission is first to Judea, and then others are sent elsewhere … but the first “mission field” is our own homes and communities. Pastors are to be the ones that help us develop of knowledge of Christ in the fullest sense of “knowledge.” In doing so, they become the teachers of the nations.
Below are some excerpts from the last four pages of the book. Regular readers of the Kruse Kroncile will quickly understand why I highlight them.
Therefore the focus of discipleship to Christ is not the church, but the world. If it is focused on the church, it will stagnate and leave most people at dead end, for their life is not the church. Discipleship is for the sake of the world, not for the sake of the church. It is carried out in those situations where people spend their life. Above all, the “world” is work, the realm of creativity for which human beings were created according to Genesis 1:26. Unfortunately, “discipleship” as Christian groups now teach and practice it, where they do so at all, consists mainly of “special” activities of various kinds, religiously characterized, motivated, and organized. But we recall Peter Berger’s lifesaving words: “The revelation of God in Jesus Christ … is something very different from religion.” In concerns our work in life. It is this that God redeems, and with it our life, and with it our souls. (209)
The next to last paragraph in the book …
The sad reality is that while people in the “helping professions” (ex., nurses, teachers, social workers) are sometimes lifted up in church, the vast majority of businesspeople (like managers, business owners, accountants, sales workers, etc.) report never having heard a sermon that speaks of the work they do as service to Christ. Those who report that they have heard sermons affirm their work report that the affirmation is usually backhanded … as in the idea that God has placed them there so they can work against greed or exploitation of workers. Or maybe their work is useful because it provides resources to fund the church’s programming and facilities.
Most businesspeople know that, to some degree, they are additives, not detractors, to societal well-being. They transform matter, energy, and data from less useful forms to more useful forms. They generate income for others. They organize human systems where people cooperate and compete to produce goods for endless win-win transactions in the marketplace. Many sense that their work has intrinsic value … that it is somehow deeply expressive of who they are at their core. Unfortunately, based on what they hear at church, God disagrees.
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