Monday, January 31, 2005

Origins thinking #3

Still ruminiating on some of the ideas from the conference. Two previous updates:
post dealing with the person that MUST and reading Scripture
- overall conference notes

A third thing that I have been thinking about lately is this idea that "God can pastor us." I've been thinking about that in the context of what it means in my own life as well as what it means for our faith community of students and the Church on a larger scale. Also related is the idea of "having a high capacity to hear God."

I left the conference with a new resolve to be more intentional about my time in the Word. I want to be a mystic, where God meets me, talks to me, gives me visions and direction, that God is truly pastoring me. That I have developed a high capacity to hear God. That his voice is clear, audible, and that I am obeying Him.

It has me thinking about ministry to students too. Most of us have been taught that we are the shepherd for our students. We lead them in small groups, take them on retreats, take them on mission trips. We model, teach, encourage, hang out. We are their pastors. But this changes every thing doesn't it?

If God is indeed pastoring people, then they aren't coming to church to just be fed. Instead, they are coming because they see a community of people moving with God affecting specific individuals, neighborhoods, communities, and history. Church is no longer a group of people sitting in the stands getting something, its about a group of people dynamically moving to reach a lost world. Even as I write this, I'm still perplexed. Is this in line with the Scriptures?

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