Catalyst Track: The Light is Winning // Day Three

This track comes from Zach Hoag’s new book; The Light is Winning.

The apocalypse that has visited Christian faith in America is challenging us to repent and reform without deconstructing ourselves to death (or undeath), without dismantling our faith to annihilation, leaving only a shell.

The necessary suffering that invites us to deconstruct our empire business is not a permanent condition. It is a temporary work meant to bring us into a second-half-of-life faith, into true flourishing.

In this 3-day track, Zach challenges church and organization leaders not to look at a post-Christian culture increasingly as a threat, but rather as a “revealing” – an opportunity to evaluate the way we do things and re-discover the life-giving power of Jesus.

What in your organizational context needs to be deconstructed, changed or made alive again in order to carry the light of Jesus to the world?

Whether you’ve been the unsuccessfully trying to champion change or you’re fearful of change,  take the next couple of days to answer the above questions.

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Day 3 – The Main Thing

 

All through my church planting years, I was progressing. I don’t mean I was becoming a card-carrying political progressive. I mean that I was discerning, in the context of the progressive city I loved, new perspectives in my theology, spirituality, and ministry.

 

Though this progression entailed some deconstruction, as the dust settled and the clouds cleared, it brought me to a new foundation to build on.

 

It brought me to the person of Jesus. Really, it brought me back to the bedrock, to the God who had been with me all along. But I was starting to see that God in a brand-new way, as revealed in Jesus. And it changed everything.

 

Finally, in all of life, we seek to make the person of Jesus the main thing, shaping our views of self, others, and the world with the mold that he gives us in the Gospels. This doesn’t mean we become passive hippies seeking to avoid the world’s pain, because Jesus didn’t do that.

 

Jesus confronted it all head-on, calling spades spades, and swords swords. His was a courageous peace, one that stood against the evil of the empire and the abuses of the religious establishment on behalf of all the oppressed and marginalized.

 

When it comes right down to it, there is only one antidote to our empire business. And that is Jesus.

 

CHALLENGE:

 

Maybe you’re the person leading the mission and vision of your whole organization. Or maybe you’re leading a small team, a department, or a few people. In whatever format you lead, take some time this week to pray and think about the following questions:

 

How will you pursue new perspectives in your theology, spirituality and ministry this week to best engage the questions of your cultural context?
In what ways in Jesus calling you to re-orient your ministry or organization around Him as the foundation? Maybe it’s doing away with some elements of a service that have become distracting, or maybe it’s adding elements to your mission statement.

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Taken from The Light is Winning by Zach Hoag. Copyright © 2017 by Zach Hoag. Used by permission of Zondervan. www.zondervan.com.