Whole-Life Service
(The following is the text of the video, “Whole-Life Service” found HERE.)
Why is this fish so happy? Because it’s off the hook. For a fish, that means no frypan. For people, though, the idiom, “off the hook,” means being freed from some kind of responsibility.
So why is this Christian man, Bob, so happy? Because he is off the hook in that sense. How? Although a follower of Jesus, he sees little need to seek God’s Kingdom first in every area of his life.
You see, in Bob’s church, he seldom if ever hears about the here-and-now form of God’s Kingdom. The main emphasis is on the Sunday meeting. What matters most happens upfront on that platform. From his place midway back and to the left of the aisle, Bob is “off the hook.” During the meeting, he is free from any responsibility.
The songs performed onstage by the worship band do give Bob a real emotional lift. The sermon correctly reminds him he is forgiven and in right relationship with God. So what’s missing? There’s no chance for actual participation. All Bob has to do is to show up and find a seat. He plays no meaningful part.
Yes, I Corinthians 14 says, “When you gather for worship, each one of you be prepared with something that will be useful for all.” But that does not happen in Bob’s church meetings. Only those on the platform holding microphones have any substantial input. So Bob’s off the hook. He is free from any obligation in those meetings to use his gifts to benefit others.
Bob’s “off-the-hookness,” his lack of awareness of Kingdom responsibility, does not end with Sunday. It continues through Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Weekdays bring Bob into contact with three primary groups.
There’s his family. Bob is married and has two children. So his God-given responsibility begins with his role as a husband and father. There’s his neighborhood. Bob’s home is in a cul-de-sac. This puts him in fairly frequent contact over extended periods of time with the people in nine other households. And there’s his workplace. Bob serves as a sales manager in an office supply chain. There, he constantly relates to coworkers, his management, and customers.
These three areas—family, neighborhood, and work—lie outside church programs. Yet as Abraham Kuyper has said, “There is not a square inch in the whole of creation of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: ‘Mine!’” So Jesus’s Kingdom rule extends over family, neighborhood, and workplace.
When Bob exits the church building after each Sunday meeting, he does not stop being a member of the body of Christ. And he remains one as he enters those three main fields into which God has sent him to bear fruit: family, neighborhood, and workplace. But because he remains unchallenged to take up his Kingdom-of-God responsibility in each area—and feels unqualified to do so—Bob remains “off the hook.”
Not that he is trying to shirk any of his roles. Instead, church traditions have blindfolded Bob, leaving him unable to see himself as an agent of God’s kingdom at home, in his neighborhood, and at work.
In various ways, Bob gets the signal that he is at best an amateur in spiritual matters. For example, the Sunday sermons he hears week after week are all given by clergy. This regularly reminds him that when it comes to the things of God, he is just a “layperson.” Even if his pastor does not wear a clerical collar, that “reverend” title reminds Bob of his own “lay” status. In Bob’s mind, then, his lack of clergy credentials takes him off the hook when it comes to serving as a Kingdom agent.
The unconscious assumption in Bob’s church setting is that his daily work is “secular.” His dictionary defines “secular” as referring to things that have no religious or spiritual basis. This suggests to him that his work relates only to this world. It has nothing to do with the current form of God’s Kingdom. And since what he does every day as a sales manager has no spiritual foundation, he is off the hook.
The idea that so-called “secular work” doesn’t count spiritually gets reinforced again and again. How? All the speakers in his church serve in so-called “full-time Christian service.” They include pastors, missionaries, parachurch ministry leaders, denominational executives, and so on. In 15 years in his church, Bob has heard no Christians from the workplace tell how God is using them there. Same for parenting and neighboring. So his weekday activities seem off the hook in terms of God’s Kingdom.
How can Bob escape being “off the hook”? How can his church help him take up his rightful place as God’s Kingdom agent, bearing fruit in all three main fields of his responsibility—family, neighborhood, and work?
What if Bob were reminded regularly in Sunday church meetings of the many biblical metaphors picturing his true identity in Christ? Instead of being mislabeled a “layperson,” Bob is light for the world. . . . He is salt. . . . His body is a temple where God’s Spirit lives. . . . He is a seed of God’s Kingdom. . . . He is a branch for bearing fruit. . . . He is a member of the body of Christ.
What if, on Sundays, Bob heard other parents, neighbors, and working people regularly tell how God is using them as salt, light, seed, and so on in these roles? How are they serving as Kingdom agents at home, on their streets, and in their workplaces?
What if Bob’s church leadership took pains to apprentice him in self-giving service to others, in how to seek God’s Kingdom first as he carries out his roles as a husband, father, neighbor, and employee?
What if Bob’s church were to commission him publicly to serve as husband, father, neighbor, and coworker?
And what if—occasionally—he had the opportunity to bring the congregation up to date on how he is doing in those spheres and how they may pray for him?
Jesus never meant for any Christian to be “off the hook.” As Paul explains, “God has created us in King Jesus for the good works that he prepared, ahead of time, as the road we must travel.”
What resource has Jesus provided for getting Bob ready to carry out his Kingdom purposes at home, in his neighborhood, and in his workplace? Jesus expects Bob’s church leaders to prepare him for doing those good works. As Paul explains: “Some were to be apostles, others prophets, others evangelists, and others pastors and teachers. Their job is to give God’s people the equipment they need for their work of service. . . .”
Bob’s good works and his work of service are one and the same—at home, on his street, and in the work world. Suppose Bob’s church leaders were consistently prepping him in such ways. How long do you think it might take for him to get hooked on serving Christ and his Kingdom in his main life spheres: home, neighborhood, and workplace?
Off the hook, Bob was merely happy to have little or no Kingdom responsibilities. But in seeking first the Kingdom of God, he will experience a far deeper joy—the joy of partnering with God to fulfill the purpose for his life.
WHY DOES GOD LOVE YOUR WORK?
Whatever it is, your work is an important part of your whole-life service in the present form of God’s Kingdom.
