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From: eric
Date: Thu Dec 6 12:42:12 EST 2007 Subject: Question 1

Ryan Moore Asks Eric Questions . . .

How do we engage the world around us?

Engaging the world around us requires that we each have a strong grasp on who we are and what our identity is in Christ. From our study of 1 Peter, we see that we are strangers & exiles. We engage the world as foreigners. Likewise, our identity in Christ makes us priests and, corporately, a living temple to God.

We accept these identities, and other aspects of them, to be true because God declares them true. So we act on that belief.

Therefore, at every point of engagement with the world:

School, Work, Friendship, Children’s friends, People we play ultimate Frisbee with, People whose cars we fix, Our neighbors, Cashiers we see at the store, Homeless guy in the parking lot

--All become points of action as a priest. So we take seriously the words of Jesus to the apostles & specifically to Peter that what we bind on earth is bound in heaven: we become links between humans who are not in the Kingdom and God Himself. In practical terms, what a priest does is assess the felt & real needs of the different people with whom he/she engages and then begins to (individually & collectively) develop strategies for addressing those needs through relationship, prayer, and service. This is our human reality. However, there’s also the spiritual reality that if we are the temple of God, we bring His Holy Spirit into the places we go. So as we move into all the spaces of our lives, we need to be intentional about verbally & in prayer declaring these spaces God’s kingdom as we enter them and asking God to exercise his authority in actual geographic places.

--At the Village, this plays itself out in a variety of ways. First, there’s an expectation from the leadership that individuals in the community take their identity as priest seriously and practice that identity. That you would live into it in all the different arenas of your life, talk about it with the other priests around you & pray together about these things. Also at the village, we see all of what happens on Sunday & in the different meetings of the Village (pilgrim groups, mentoring, counseling, Bible studies, men’s group, captivating group, etc.) as pointing toward health & connection with God for those involved so that you can more effectively serve as priest in your world.

--For the Village as a whole, we have a hope of inhabiting our own space which will not be primarily for serving the needs of the existing community (although that will happen), but in order to have a greater ability to enter into dialogue with the larger community of Tucson. This may express itself in a unique coffee shop setting where people can find a safe place to talk about life. It may unfold in an art gallery which hosts both Village & local artists, is open to the public, facilitates connections, and allows a dialogue about story, creativity, and how God views expression in the world. It may be a space where musicians (both those who follow Jesus and artists in the secular community) can enter into the dialogue about God’s take on music, including the healing aspects of musical and lyrical expression. Perhaps a community garden will provide for conversation about God’s care for the earth and his creativity in nature.

We are called to create places where we can talk about God & connect the common human experience with life the way God intends it to be.

One of the main ways that we believe in engaging people, regardless of the space or the type of gifting or the skill, whether alone or together, is by hospitality. That may happen in grocery stores or our houses, it hopefully happens at Sunday night Vespers, it will happen in whatever space we inhabit together and hopefully in whatever relationships we enter as individuals in the world. We extend to others the hospitality that God, through Christ, has extended to us.

Pastor Eric

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