Category Archives: Personal

Introducing, Sign of The Kingdom, Part Two

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Why the name change and what exactly does the cryptic sounding phrase sign of the kingdom mean? These are two frequently asked questions since I’ve revamped the blog. My last post attempted to answer the why question from a personal perspective and the next two posts will offer a theological rationale and explanation of the phrase sign of the kingdom. First, let’s look at the biblical concept of kingdom.

Even a cursory reading of the Gospels reveals that the kingdom of God is a central (if not the central) focus of Jesus’ teachings. We are told to pray for the kingdom of God to come (Matthew 6), that it is all around us (Luke 17), that it is not of this world (John 18) and many other things that puzzle and perplex us just as they would have the original hearers. The original Jewish hearers expected a triumphal and warlike Messiah (King) to come and rescue them from the oppression they were enduring under the empire of Rome, to bring the rule of God to earth through a new creation that was often hoped for and described in the Old Testament as a society of justice, peace, love, and holiness (For example see Psalm 89 and Isaiah 54-55). Jesus did come to establish just such a society, yet not as a violent, earthly conqueror. What exactly then was the nature of this mysterious Kingdom if it was not a worldly empire like Rome?

If Jesus’ cryptic sounding statements don’t create dissonance when trying to understand the nature of the Kingdom of God, the proliferation of scholarly opinion will press the issue to dizzying heights of confusion. Most major New Testament scholars have weighed in on the meaning and nature of the Kingdom of God and their detailed explanations are far from synonymous. Among the various options are:

1. The Kingdom exists in the heart of believers

2. The Kingdom is correlated completely (or almost completely) with the church

3. The Kingdom is the entire world where God is at work

4. The church is part of the Kingdom in a specific way, while the entire world is part of the Kingdom of God in a different way

Which of these brief descriptions do you take to be the most accurate in describing the Kingdom of God? Is their a univocal definition of the Kingdom in Scripture? What is the relation between the church and Kingdom? 

I’ll weigh in on these questions in my next post which will continue to discuss the Kingdom of God and prepare for the last in this series which will give an explicit answer as to the meaning of the phrase sign of the kingdom.

Introducing, Sign of The Kingdom, Part One

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Photo of Aiden by Hoskins Gallery

The first part of this post is personal and the second theological and found within is the rationale for the name change to the blog. Katie, Aiden and I have been on quite the journey in the last few months and I’d like to share a little bit about that with everyone and to also use this as a jumping off point for a major paradigm shift in my blogging.

In August 2011 Katie and I moved to “bonnie” Aberdeen so I could embark on PhD studies with Professor John Webster at the University of Aberdeen. Excitement and expectation abounded as we entered into a strange new world. The honeymoon period didn’t last long enough or really long at all. Without rehearsing all the gory details I had some sinus issues that developed and Katie’s pregnancy was awful for around six of the eight and a half months she carried Aiden. At the same time I was dealing with an existential crisis in regards to hell and the character of God (which was my thesis topic) that consumed too much of my emotional, spiritual, and mental energy. Ultimately with the guidance of John, I decided to shift my topic to something related to the doctrine of God (the doctrine of divine simplicity) and step away from my struggle with eternal punishment.

That move was life saving and at the same time life draining; I immediately began to sense a positive emotional and spiritual change, but at the same time became disenchanted with my academic work. I had a deep period of soul searching through prayer, meditation, recollection, and conversations with those who have been and are intimately involved in my life. I ultimately came to the conclusion that the malaise I’d been experiencing was because I was focusing my entire life towards a trajectory that was not entirely commiserate with my giftings and my heart’s deepest desires. Having been involved heavily in local church ministry my entire life, I realized that I wanted to again focus more of my energy there while at the same time focusing less energy on my academic work.

All of this (and an assortment of other issues, mostly that I wanted to make a major shift in topic to ecclesiology half way through my program!) meant that it was best for us to relocate back to the Atlanta, GA area. The initial plan was to live here temporarily while I sought a ministry job and continued working on my PhD, but as I began to search the job boards and make contact with people I realized that none of the jobs were really exciting me. At the same time one of my mentors (Dane Burk) asked a very pointed question of me: are you a sustainer or builder? Not that these ministry roles are mutually exclusive, but as that question continued to roll over and over in my mind, I realized that I was most passionate about building and developing and growing and that was why I was sensing a dis-ease with the jobs I was checking out.

The answer to that question should have been no surprise to me: Katie and I have been involved in three church plants during our married life and at the fourth church we attended (and I worked at) we helped start separate college and young adults ministries. In the past Katie and I had prayed and had some loose, initial conversations about starting a church in New England or staying in Atlanta and continuing to learn from the ministry of Renovation Church with the desire to one day be sent out to plant. That was all before the brief detour to Scotland. I call it a detour because now that we have returned, we are praying about how God would use us to plant a missional community in Buford or Woodstock, Georgia (trying to sort that one out soon!), that would be a sign of the Kingdom of God (more on that in the Part Two).

At this point we are in the process of seeking the best direction for moving forward with the desires we feel like God has planted in our hearts. This means much prayer and Scripture, many conversations, and making important connections are our primary foci for now. Please pray with us as we determine how to proceed. The next two months will be key for us as I’m attending the Missio Alliance gathering centered around the topic The Future of the Gospel: Renewing Evangelical Imagination for Mission and then the next month, I’ll be attending a week long church planters’ training event entitled Genesis: A Theological and Practical Trajectory for Missional Church Planting  which is the training experience of the Ecclesia church planting network. (Disclaimer: This doesn’t mean there is any type of formal relationship between myself and Ecclesia; I am hoping to establish relationships with network members and through prayerful discernment and assessment on everyone’s part see if there is a fit.)