Our Target is Too Small
In the interest of starting the conversation as suggested by Neal, I’ll throw in my two cents worth about what I’ve read so far in “An Emergent Manifesto of Hope.” Honestly, I was under-whelmed by Part 1 (People of Hope.) However, I have found Part 2 (Communities of Hope) to be a much more helpful and profitable read.
I want to focus my comments on the chapter “An Ever-Renewed Adventure of Faith,” because it gives me some wonderful vocabulary to assist me in my struggle to expand my thinking of salvation offered in Christ beyond the individual.
My favorite line so far in this book is “the individual soul is too small a target for God’s love and justice.” Think about that for a moment…if I limit salvation to just “me and Jesus” then I’m claiming that I am the most important thing in this world. More importantly, I’m belittling God and the work that God wants to do in this world.
The other day while listening to a CCM station, which we don’t do that often, my wife and I heard a song based on Micah 6:8. Interestingly, the translation the song offered was “but to act justly” rather than “but to do justice.” We both thought how ever so slightly the song changes the focus of that verse away from promoting the cause of justice in the world to focusing on personal piety. Here is a prime example of how easy it is to belittle God and minimize the scope of God’s concern.
This chapter challenges me to seriously reflect on the ways I have chosen to live in this world: the type of house and neighborhood I live in, the cars I drive, and the causes I support (or fail to support.) More than what I say, the choices I make about how I live speak volumes to others about about how large or how small I think the target of God’s salvation truly is.
Pingback by the church geek » Blog Archive » Our Target is Too Small on 17 April 2007:
[...] chapters in “An Emergent Manifesto Of Hope” over on the Presbymergent site. The title is “Our Target is Too Small” and is about how small we make the target of [...]
Comment by J Ted Voigt on 19 April 2007:
Wow! Thanks for those thoughts
I’m new to the “presbymergent” blog, and I’m excited to go back through and read up! I’m a youth pastor at a PC(USA) in Kansas City, and dealing with a lot of the same questions and struggles as others in this community.
Regarding your comments, I think widening “the target” from individuals to communities forces us to reevaluate our standards for “success.” For too long the Church has equated “success” with “numbers of people in attendance” and not more practical things like justice, peace, conflict, the decrease of poverty, the increase of JOY.