four
statements
We walk with one foot in the natural world and one foot in the supernatural world. Every follower of Jesus Christ is on four simultaneous journeys: upward, downward, inward, outward. The four statements on the following page capture the essence of those journeys and offer a starting point for each traveler.
We dedicate our lives to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.
Worship:: An Upward Journey::By living a life of worship we acknowledge the Sovereignty
and Supremacy of God in all things. That implies that there are no unimportant parts of our lives. Whether we’re studying, earning a living, hanging out with friends and family, playing a round of golf, reading the Bible, eating or whatever — it is all done for the glory of God.
We are apprenticed to Jesus Christ that we may become more like Him.
Discipleship:: A Downward Journey::Too often we make discipleship more about acquiring information or participating in a program rather than seeing Christ formed in us (see Galatians 4:19). According to the Bible we are IN Christ and Christ is IN us. We are apprenticed to Him to learn of Him and grow in His love. As that happens His love pours out of us and into others. Now that’s discipleship!
The Holy Spirit gathers us into the community of faith to love one another.
Community:: An Inward Journey::Just as God created us with a capacity for hunger so we would feed our physical bodies He created us with a capacity for aloneness so we would seek relationships to feed our relational needs. Community is knowing and being known; loving and being loved; serving and being served; celebrating and being celebrated. And we can’t do that leading consumer-driven lives of individualism.
We are gifted by the Holy Spirit and sent by Christ to the world that we may serve others.
Mission:: An Outward Journey::There is no difference between “mission” and “missions”. Which means all followers of Jesus are “missionaries”. The Church has only ever had one mission — to share the love of Jesus Christ wherever we are in whatever we are doing. Each follower of Jesus is gifted for service and sent to the world.
It helps me to make a rough distinction between “religion” and “spirituality”.
By religion I mean the efforts that we make to keep things together in somewhat orderly fashion, to maintain some sense of responsibility before God.
By spirituality I mean the work of the Holy Spirit in making Jesus alive in us, inciting us to acts of love and compassion, blessing us with gifts, bringing us to our knees in repentance and our feet in wonder.
Religion is mostly a matter of what we do; spirituality is mostly a matter of what God does. My own practice has been to keep my involvement in religion to a respectable minimum—my participation in spirituality (in the Spirit!) extravagantly maximal.
Eugene Peterson
The Wisdom of
Each Other