North Star: World

According to William Shakespeare, “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances, and one man in his time plays many parts.” As you envision yourself as a player on the world stage, who are you, and what parts do you play?

If the world consists of four aspects — location, vocation, restoration, and recreation:

What is the particular location in which you are staged?

What is the particular vocation in which you are employed?

What is the particular restoration in which you are engaged?

What is the particular recreation in which you are involved?

As used in Scripture, the “world” can refer to several things. The world is the physical space that God created out of nothing and then formed into a place that would be habitable for human beings. In this sense, the world is part of the created universe. In a second sense though, the world is the entirety of human beings. Throughout history, Christians have debated how to properly engage the created universe and the entirety of human beings:

Should we simply ignore the beauty of the created order? Should we remain aloof from involvement in causes that focus on human development and improvement? Or should we seek pleasure in the creation? Should we enjoy the world and become attached to something that is passing away? Should we invest our life in trying to improve a world that is here today and gone tomorrow? Or should we do both— enjoy beauty and respect temporality?

Christians line up on both sides of this tension, so the answer is not an easy one. We will and should wrestle with this conflict all our life—at least, that is the hope! As followers of Jesus however, we are the salt and the light of the world as we engage it concretely in terms of location, vocation, restoration, and recreation.

Location: Where We Live

Worshippers and Disciples in a Location

The rhythm of true worship extends beyond the walls of the church. Many religions demand their adherents to worship in a specific, “sacred” place. This is nothing new. Jesus exposed a woman’s adultery and she responded with a theology debate about worship locations. Jesus tells this woman, “neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.” (John 4:23) He’s telling her location does not matter anymore. Whether you’re in the temple of Jerusalem or on a holy mountain is of no consequence to God. “But the hour is...now here,” he continues, ”where true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.” (John 4:24). Our primary worship venue is the exact place we are right now. The church can worship in any location, but it always worships in a particular location. Our houses are worship venues. Our cars (even in traffic) can be holy sanctuaries of praise. Aspects of our location can foster or hinder worship, but our worship (and our discipleship) is never determined or confined to a specific place.

Family in a Location

The common denominator shared among all families is a familiar four letter word...home. Home carries with it memories of a specific house filled with the right smells, the right furniture, and the right people. It is the place where we learned to be who we are. Every member of God’s family has this kind of home to reconcile themselves to, but each of us also has our true home waiting for us. Our family is no longer bound by lines of geography or blood. This means that the family of God can be anywhere and is in fact everywhere — wherever people call upon the name of their Father! Our present home is with the family of God and we gather to remind ourselves and each other of the true home we are moving towards.

Servants and Witnesses in a Location

Service begins through small, everyday acts. Servants wake up early to make breakfast for their spouse. They leave work early to help a child with a school project. Perhaps you give up watching football on a Saturday to help your elderly neighbor clean his gutters. Each day, opportunities to serve our local community surround us. We can determine the next step can often by asking ourselves a few simple questions: How can I show that Jesus is beautiful today? What opportunities has God given me to serve someone today? How will I live as a servant today?”

In doing so, we effectively become witnesses of our Savior. We always become witnesses in a particular place and we are always sent to witness in a particular place. Paul writes, “I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings” (1 Corinthians 9:22-23). Paul offers a simple message to uneducated peasants in Lystra (Acts 14:8-18) and then brings out quotes from philosophers to the elite of Athens (Acts 17:16- 34). As we live, being a witness means making similar choices.

Vocation: Where We Work

Worshippers and Disciples in a Vocation

God has called all his people to culture make and civilization building. If you are an employee, you offer true worship when you “work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men.” (Colossians 3:22-25) If you are an employer, you offer true worship when you “treat your [employees] justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven” (Colossians 4:1). Every vocation transcends mere productivity for the true worshiper. Profit margins proclaim the glory of God. Meeting deadlines declare the Lord’s handiwork.

Generous benefits packages point to the outrageous grace of the Father. God gives every image bearer the responsibility to build civilization. Yet it is only citizens of the Kingdom that God has freed to use their vocation as a vehicle of true worship. Most Christians will spend 40 hours a week crunching numbers or performing heart surgery. They will pull shots of espresso or gum out of their daughter’s hair. From the beginning of the church, Christians made disciples as they went about their everyday work. Christians living like disciples at work is one of the greatest discipleship strategies the church has ever known. Working Christians fueled the discipleship movement in the early church and it can be the same for us today.

This does not mean work is all roses, though. If you’ve worked a day in your life, you have experienced the hair-pulling effects of sin on our work. Maybe the board forced you into early retirement or your first paycheck bounced. Either way, sin has broken our places of employment. Is it any wonder, then, that God sends transformed worshippers and disciples as employees into the world?

Family in a Vocation

Consider the role of our kingdom-family members in our work. If a family member is an inconsistent worker and they fall into a wasteful lifestyle, who carries out 2 Thessalonians 3? There, God tells us that if a man is not willing to work, he will not eat. Christians should not be idle but rather busy at work. Christians are to be models of hard work. God calls their fellow brothers and sisters who have committed to the same local body to encourage them to that end. The vision is for strong men and strong women to work together, each engaged in his or her own specific responsibility. We all come together to equip, confront, encourage, motivate, and help one another.

Servants and Witnesses in a Vocation

Many Christians think that ministry requires a paycheck from a church. Take a moment and ask yourself if God is happier with a pastor or a butcher. Whose work is more pleasing to the Lord? The reality is that there is no work that is more pleasing to God than any other. Philosopher Dorothy Sayers described the kind of work that pleases God when she wrote, “The only Christian work is good work well done.” Christians don’t serve because others are watching nor do they serve in hopes of being seen and garnering favor. Christians serve by doing excellent work and being good employees because Jesus is the one for whom we are working.

A healthy first step toward being a servant in your vocation is realizing that you are always witnessing to something. By understanding what our context most cherishes, we can learn to witness in light of that value. Most American cultures hold up money as the end all be all. Paul made it clear that everyone of our dollars can become little missionaries we send out into the world. Paul wonders, “Did you ever hear of a man serving in the army at his own expense? Or planting a vineyard without eating the fruit of it? Or tending a flock without using its milk?” (1 Corinthians. 9:7). The clear answer is no. He is telling us that our dollars become missionaries when we support the local church. When Christians are generous with their money, they transform their dollars into missionaries.

Restoration: Where There is Brokenness

Worshippers and Disciples in Restoration

God sends his worshipers into the brokenness of the world as agents of redemption. Kingdom citizens step into broken places and work to make that place more like God’s kingdom. Thus Trunk or Treat can be an act of worship. Tornado relief can be as pleasing as a praise chorus. Delivering a home cooked meal can be as honoring as a hymn. We sacrifice our time, our comfort, and our resources as an act of worship. As the author of Hebrews reminds us, “such sacrifices are pleasing to God.”

Disciples join Jesus as he works to make all things new by bringing our transforming lives to work, but it doesn’t stop there. Christians bring new life wherever they go. We take part in the restoration of creation by meeting the needs we see all around us. Renewal comes as a disciples teach the Bible but it also comes as they do laundry for a sick brother. Restoration happens as Christians grieve together at a grave site and as they paint over graffiti downtown.

Family in Restoration

God has linked the flourishing of the church and the renewal of the city to one another. As the family of God grows, God is bringing His lost and broken children even into His family. Thus, the church is an ever extending family. Everywhere we go throughout our day, we men and women living as orphans in the world surround us. We have the beautiful opportunity of inviting them into a true family. We do this as a normal routine of our days by asking God to lead us into those conversations. There are no coincidences in the family of God. Perhaps your desire for a mid-morning cappuccino is also God directing you to one of his children standing in line behind you. Christians take a posture of willingness wherever they are. We are willing to be used by our father in the day in, day out routines of our lives.

Servants and Witnesses in Restoration

Christians serve by giving for the support of their pastors (1 Timothy. 5:17-18; Galatians. 6:6; 1 Corinthians 9:6-18), for sending missionaries, for widows (1 Timothy. 5:3-16), for helping the poor (Galatians 2:10) and poor churches (2 Corinthians 8-9). God has designed our giving to support the local church and, from there, in works of restoration. It is often in these acts of restoration that the unbelieving world first sees the glory of God. Shortly after the birth of the church, we read that, “The apostles were performing many miraculous signs and wonders among the people. And all the believers were meeting regularly at the Temple in the area known as Solomon’s Colonnade. But no one else dared to join them, even though all the people had high regard for them.” (Acts 5:12-13) Even though the church frightened them, the city respected these early Christians. The catalyst for this high esteem was the Apostles’ caring for the poor and healing the sick. We serve Jesus through hard work and then we leverage the resources he gives us to serve the hurting and broken.

Witnesses also have the power to transform their money into agents of renewal. Our words, actions, and finances all have the opportunity to show the world who God is. The opportunity for this to happen is perhaps greatest where suffering is most severe. Witnesses form committed relationships to those who have been abandoned, offer tender care to those who have been hurt, provide nourishing meals for those who are hungry, and share a better story with those who feel defeated in hopes of showing them thebeauty of God. Witnesses lay down their work to enjoy the life God has given them as a way of proclaiming to tired, busy people that God is good. Witnesses cry while they watch their missionary-friends board planes to far away countries because they believe others need to experience relationship with God.

Recreation: Where We Rest

Worshippers and Disciples in Recreation

In his generous wisdom, God has made his world such that the acts of worship that please him also bring pleasure to his children. One of the primary ways worship is pleasing to the worshiper is through the gift of rest and recreation. The relationship between worship and rest stretches all the way back to the Ten Commandments. God demanded that his people devote an entire day to rest and pleasure...as an act of worship! We worship God by listening to him, and this includes listening to him when he says stop working and remember what I’ve done for you (Deuteronomy. 5:1-21).

This day became the skeleton for the entire Jewish calendar. In the book of Leviticus, God sets milestones for the year to help Israel remember their God (Lev. 23). Each one of these milestones were certainly days of rest, but they were much more than that. Of all the ways God could have organized the year for his people, he chose to do so through feasts. Seven feasts, sprinkled throughout the year, would be the primary way God’s people would mark their time.

Family in Recreation

Personal experiences before the world’s watching eyes is the rhythm of God’s family. They see our love for one another, our reconciliation with one another, our renewal-driven work, and they see God. This is also true in how we spend our free time. Christians don’t demand constant productivity through activity. We don’t see busyness as a virtue but rather as a true danger to the health of our souls. The family business has a generous vacation plan! By laying our work down and prioritizing our enjoyment of God, the world sees our family values. As a brother carries extra burdens for a time so his sister can rest, the church offers a better way of being human.

Servants and Witnesses in Recreation

Serving often entails long hours, hard work, and little thanks. This can be discouraging unless we keep our eyes fixed on the reality that our rest is growing closer day by day. Embracing this reality does not require us to refuse a day off until we die or Jesus comes back. Jesus is the model of our service and he went off to be alone for times of rest and refreshment. These realities do, however, move us to expect that our service will be grueling and often thankless. Understanding our identity as servants does not keep us from rest but it does in fact transform our rest. As servants, we do not take a break so we can recharge for the mission field. Instead, we rest as one way of tasting the rest that is to come. We receive Jesus’ service and rest to give ourselves a greater experience of the rest that God has prepared for all his servants.