in my wanderings on the internet, i stumbled across at church whose vision statement read: "Releasing men, women, boys and girls into the marketplace as Kingdom entrepreneurs to reclaim it for Christ." this hits all the wrong notes in me, but i can't really explain why. kind of reminiscent of "the gospel according to starbucks" feeling. anyone else want to chime in?
for some reason i've been scheduled to work 6 days next week. i think i will keel over right now. i feel like i don't really get to have a life besides customer service. and my feet still hurt.
3 comments:
I think the word choice "releasing men, women, boys and girls" sounds like they are being let out of prison or a trap. And how can Christ want anyone to be a "Kingdom entrepreneur" let alone "reclaim" such a concept? The ahistorical nature of it bugs me. Not to mention the marketplace language. And then there's the implication of the world (and the souls therein) as a battleground, though that idea hardly seems unique in the Christian world. But I'm always turned off by the battle language.
yeah, these are some of the tired thoughts i had last night. release makes me thing of "being released into the wild" or "release the hounds!"
the church is also known as "churchprenuer". what the hell is that? that doesn't even make sense.
My first reaction to "Kingdom entrepreneurs" was to start up my usual left-leaning musings on Darwinian economics and social policy fun amuck. (Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of Darwin, but only as his work applies to natural selection.)
But then it occured to me that the real heresy and danger in this "mission statement" lies in the nature of the entreprenerial relationship. As Xians, we are called to live in community with others, and Xianity is a faith of relationships. A commercial relationship is, especially in our culture, a superficial and transient one.
This horde of Kingdom Entrepreneurs calls up images of zombie movies, the undead being released from the mother cell to do their mindless duty.
What I see, when I see X's ministry, is one feuled by deep and lasting relationships. If we're just ticking converts off our Rolodex, we're not really engaging in X's abundant life.
In N. America, we don't do community well at all. I think one reason the church has lasted this long is that it does community marginally better than other areas of N. American society. This sort of "mission" for the church may well be it's death knell.
People don't want to be Christianized. They don't want to be reclaimed. They want to be loved. And that is why this will ultimately prove fruitless. Because where's the love in seeing every person you come in contact with as fresh meat to be sold something.
(btw, nice thoughts)
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