In re-reading Tom Wright's The Challenge of Jesus, I am re-challenged to think differently about Jesus, the Kingdom and what it's all about.
For my lifetime I've attempted to think about the Kingdom as God's movement in the earth. When I first read E. Stanley Jones' The Unshakable Kingdom and the Unchanging Person back in the '70's, I began using the Kingdom of God as my grid to interpret Scripture, live my life and experience my ministry. But re-reading Wright causes me to see how easily - especially being back here in the USA Church World - wrong thinking creeps in. It's so easy to float back into the spectator world, where some are experts in white shirts and most are just spectators waiting for the bus...
Tom says:
"When Jesus announced the kingdom, the stories functioned like dramatic plays in search of actors. The hearers were invited to audition for parts in the kingdom. They had been eager for God's drama to be staged and were waiting to find out what they would have to do when he did so. Now they were to discover. They were to become kingdom-people themselves. Jesus, following John the Baptist, was calling into being what he believed would be the true, renewed people of God..."
We are the renewed people of God. Like it or not and we're looking for our 
Tomorrow night we begin the Globe Institute for Global Ministry (IGM). This is the third year. And it will be filled with folks looking for their roles in the Kingdom-drama; looking for their next step in knowing, loving and serving Jesus! And my role is to announce the Kingdom and God's mission in the earth!
Pray for me!
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