BB1.10 ..unique calling and role in His Plan Home - Slider
BB1.10 ..unique calling and role in His Plan
Posted by thePLAN diePLAN on May 23, 2017 at 2:05 PM
BB1.10 - God wants his people to know, understand, accept and live according to their unique calling and role in his Plan
Last week we attended a seminar named “Business as Missions” and it basically corrupted my mind again. Why do I say “again?” Because I am supposed to know these principals! I actually train the same principals myself. The question that needs to be asked is: “Why - if we know these fundamental truths - are we struggling to implement them in everyday life?
I loved geometry at school - the way you had to reason to get to a conclusion. “Because-of-this-you-can-say-that” type of thing. I am going to use some of that sort of reasoning in this article.
During our mentioned seminar, the speaker placed much emphasis on the fact that one should think of your business as your mission, not as something to finance your mission or as something you use as an excuse to do your mission. This very same principle probably should apply to every job a Christian occupies and every business a believer owns in everyday life. This is, after all, where most of us spend most of our time each day.
One of my friends who is involved in Sport ministry probably something about this, because he keeps reminding us that the soccer fields are his cathedrals. This thought jumped at me as we were discussing the seminar and all the discussions that seemed to erupt after it on our way back home. This is also probably where my geometry started to kick in. I told my wife that if it is true that the soccer fields were their cathedrals, then our business should be our cathedral. I pondered on this for a while and then said that if that is the truth, then we will have to strategically plan how we are going to reach the people we meet through our business with the Gospel. In other words, if this is indeed a truth we intend to live by, and if it is one of the results we aim for in our business (as well as one of the elements by which we measure the success of our business), then we need to plan how this outcome is going to become a reality.
I was thinking about this truth some more when it hit me that this is exactly what church was intended to be. At this point, some of you might want to stone me saying that for most of your life you wanted people to understand that churches are not businesses, but please follow my geometry for only a short while longer. The Church or the Body of Christ consists of many people or parts. We can read 1 Cor 12:12 where Paul is feverously trying to make this point, saying: “Just as a body, though one, has many parts, so it is with Christ.” Some of these parts are doctors, some are mechanics and some are teachers, et cetera. The Bible says that Christ gave gifts to the different parts or people of the Body in Ephesians 4:11-13: So Christ himself gave the ability to the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and our knowledge of the Son of God become mature; attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
So, what is the function of the Body? We read in 2 Cor 5:20 that:” We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.” I like to bring it back to a basic question: What if our main or even only function is to show Jesus to the world? Like a small child very enthusiastically telling his friend, “Come home with me and meet my daddy,” or a boy cutting his hair in a specific style because he wants to be just like his daddy. I understand something of this when Paul says to the Corinthians in 1 Cor 2:2:” For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.”
If the parts of the Body - being doctors and mechanics and teachers, etc. - realise this truth, the whole Body would actually realise this truth and start functioning according to this truth. If this happens, what will the outcome be? Maybe congregations will start to strategically plan how we as Body can use our different parts best to show Jesus to the world. The doctor is not really a doctor anymore but a missionary and he is no longer just an individual but part of the body. Our mission fields become the hospital, the classroom the board meeting. It is also the ends of the world, and we as Body might want to start a business in Dubai or send a doctor to Sudan.
All this is possible because the Body functions as one, being led and empowered by the Holy Spirit. So, the Church and individual congregations are reborn to become what we were originally intended to be.
Verlede week het ons ‘n seminar bygewoon genaamd “Besigheid as Sending” en dit het basies weer my gedagtes gekorrupteer. Hoekom sê ek “weer?” Omdat ek veronderstel is om hierdie beginsels te ken! Ek gee opleiding oor hierdie beginsels. Die vraag wat gevra moet word, is: “Hoekom – as ons hierdie fundamentele waarhede ken – sukkel ons om dit in ons alledaagse lewens te implementeer?”
Op skool was ek mal oor meetkunde – die manier hoe ek moes redeneer om by ‘n gevolgtrekking uit te kom. Die “as-gevolg-van dit-kan-jy-dat-aflei” tipe ding. Ek gaan daardie soort redenasie gebruik in hierdie artikel.
Gedurende die bogenoemde seminaar is daar baie klem gelê op die feit dat ‘n mens jou besigheid moet beskou as jou sendingveld, nie as iets wat jou sending moet finansier of iets wat jy as ‘n dekmantel gebruik om jou sending te beoefen nie. Hierdie selfde beginsel moet waarskynlik toegepas word in die beroep van elke Christen en in elke besigheid van ‘n gelowige in die alledaagse lewe. Dit is immers waar die meeste van ons die meeste van ons tyd deurbring elke dag.
Een van my vriende wat betrokke is in sportbediening verstaan iets hiervan, want hy herinner ons gereeld dat die sokkerveld sy katedraal is. Hierdie gedagte het weer by my opgekom terwyl ons by die seminaar was, en ook tydens al die gesprekke wat ontstaan het daarna oppad terug huistoe. Dis ook waar die meetkunde ingeskop het. Ek het vir my vrou gesê dat indien die sokkerveld my vriend se katedraal is, dan moet ons besigheid ons katedraal wees. Ek het hieroor nagedink vir ‘n rukkie en toe gesê dat, as dit waar is, ons strategies sal moet planne beraam hoe ons die mense wat ons ontmoet in ons besigheid, die Goeie Nuus kan bring. Met ander woorde, as dit inderdaad ‘n waarheid is waarvolgens ons wil leef, en as dit een van die resultate is waarvoor ons mik in ons besigheid (en ook een van die elemente waaraan ons die sukses van ons besigheid meet), dan moet ons planne maak om hierdie resultaat ‘n werklikheid te maak.
Ek het nog nagedink oor hierdie waarheid toe dit my tref dat dit presies is wat kerkwees nog altyd bedoel was om te wees. Sommige van julle mag dalk lus wees om my te stenig, omdat julle nog altyd vir mense wou laat verstaan dat kerke nie besighede is nie, maar volg asseblief my meetkunde net nog so ‘n klein rukkie. Die Kerk of die Liggaam van Christus bestaan uit baie mense of lede. Ons kan 1 Kor 12:12 lees waar Paulus koorsagtig probeer om hierdie punt te maak deur te sê: “Want net soos die liggaam een is en baie lede het, … so ook Christus.”Sommige van hierdie lede is dokters, sommiges werktuigkundiges en sommiges is onderwysers, ensovoorts. Die Bybel sê in Efesiërs 4:11-13 dat Christus gawes aan die verskillende dele van die Liggaam gegee het: “En Hy het gegee sommige as apostels, ander as profete, ander as evangeliste, ander as herders en leraars, om die heiliges toe te rus vir hulle dienswerk, tot opbouing van die liggaam van Christus, totdat ons almal kom tot die eenheid van die geloof en van die kennis van die Seun van God, tot ‘n volwasse man, tot die mate van die volle grootte van Christus…” So wat is die funksie van die Liggaam? Ons lees in 2 Korinthiërs 5:20, “Ons tree dan op as gesante om Christus wil, asof God deur ons vermaan.”
Ek wil dit graag terugbring na ‘n basiese vraag: Wat as ons hoof- of enigste funksie is om Jesus aan die wêreld te toon? Soos ‘n klein kindjie wat sy maatjie baie entoesiasties uitnooi, “Kom saam met my huistoe en ontmoet my pappa,” of ‘n seuntjie wat sy hare ‘n sekere styl sny omdat hy net soos sy pappa wil wees? Ek verstaan iets hiervan wanneer Paulus in 1 Korinthiërs 2:2 die volgende sê: “… want ek het my voorgeneem om niks anders onder julle te weet nie as Jesus Christus, en Hom as gekruisigde.”
Indien die lede van die Liggaam – met ander woorde dokters en werktuigkundiges en onderwysers, ensovoorts – hierdie waarheid besef, sal die hele Liggaam hierdie waarheid besef en begin funksioneer op grond van hierdie waarheid. Wanneer dit gebeur, wat sal die resultaat daarvan wees? Miskien sal gemeentes begin om strategies te beplan hoe ons as Liggaam ons verskillende lede op die beste manier kan aanwend om Jesus aan die wêreld te wys. Die dokter is nie werklik net meer ‘n dokter nie en hy is nie meer net ‘n individu nie, maar deel van die Liggaam. Ons sendingveld word nou die hospitaal, die klaskamer, die raadsvergadering. Dit is ook die eindes van die aarde, en ons as die Liggaam mag dalk ‘n besigheid in Doebai begin of ‘n dokter Soedan toe stuur.
All hierdie dinge is moontlik omdat die Liggaam in eenheid funksioneer, gelei en bemagtig deur die Heilige Gees. So, word die Kerk en individuele gemeentes nuutgebore om te word wat ons oorspronklik bedoel was om te wees.