Recently I attended a gathering of Christian men and women who are in the scrum of lives and missions that Jesus has called into being.  What the Lord is doing across the US, and across the world, in micro and macro efforts, inspired me. It seems perhaps trite to say that He is a huge God with a deep love for people and the world, but those thoughts came to mind again and again as I heard brothers and sisters tell their stories of Jesus’ call on their lives. I’ve not felt real spurs digging into me, but figuratively I felt spurs stimulating me to think more about Jesus, to love Him more, to love my neighbors more, and to be more focused in doing the work to which He has called me. These young servant-leaders whose stories I heard at the gathering—these men and women are laying their lives on the line. As one organizer said, “These people are all in.”

How are they all in? 

One works in publishing, not only reading broadly and deeply himself, but also seeking to find and nourish Christians who can write great stuff across market niches. As in, write such great content that it transcends the Christian book ghetto.

Another lives among people who are outstanding in their screwed-up-ness. To say that another way, the people that Chris lives among stand out for being such colossal screw-ups. Don’t get me wrong—I am a colossal screw-up, as well, but I work hard to hide it. Chris lives among, so that he can love among, those who are way, way past hiding what wretched people they are.

To hear of Chris’s love for HIV/AIDS patients, for desperately poor (including those whom some of us would be tempted to call the “undeserving poor”), for prostitutes, for rejects and shipwrecks—I found myself wondering what it would be like to be loved so persistently and so well. My friends and I, in our prudent, wisely-constructed worlds, don’t show our screwed-up-ness so blatantly, but I wonder if we receive, let alone give, the kind of love that Chris does. Of course Chris doesn’t love so fiercely in his own strength, and so his love for Jesus and neighbor reminded me that 1) I am loved this way by God and 2) I am called to love this way.  

One helps mobilize resources to concentrate attacks on blood and water, two primary sources for disease afflicting parts of Africa. Her presentation of self, her intellect, her communication ability—she could be using these to build an empire for her ego. Instead she’s a citizen of Christ’s Kingdom, following Jesus into places of disease and despair with the light of the Gospel. I should have to add this qualifier but I do: her Gospel is Jesus’ Gospel, which means it’s not merely forgiveness of sins for dead souls, but also the social and material aspects of the Kingdom that together make the Gospel truly Good News.

Another is pastoring a church plant in a challenging part of Manhattan. I forgot that what God has wrought through Redeemer Pres in Manhattan required “all in” labor from thousands of people over the past fifteen years, so hearing Jon talk about his being “all in” (as in selling his home and giving the money to the people where he is planting) reminded me that while God does the work, He recruits us to work with Him in planting churches. Jon's church is a year or so old, and he is not merely all in with his money, as startling as that was to me. His heart and mind are awake and alive and pulsing with a love for God and neighbor.

Over and over I heard stories of real lives lived as though the Gospel is about more than the Four Spiritual Laws; it is the heralding of the coming of the Kingdom of God. Their evangelism, apologetics, discipleship, service and worship—inextricably linked—blur in the context of lives lived for the love and of Christ.

As a sociologist of culture and religion, I regularly see the empirical data from numerous well-conceived projects. I know the data—much of them signal bad news about the Church in the
United States.  Meeting a couple dozen servant-leaders and hearing their stories doesn’t change the data, but I came away with hope that God, through these men and women and countless others like them, is at work purifying His Bride and renewing all things.

© 2007, Glenn Lucke.