Inside & Outside (JustJeff

Inside & Outside

Acts 17:17
Therefore he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshipers, and in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there.

So much of my life centers around God's assignment for my life. Pastoring is not a 9-5 job. Neither is pastoring a description of my job as much as a description of who I am. But there is a side of me that can get a little frustrated when the church isn't growing numerically, or finds iteself in a bit of an ordinary place because it feels like I'm not doing something right. So the question remains - how do I be what God has made me to be and how can it impact the assignment He has given me to do? That's whay this scripture describing Paul's activitivies in Athens is encouraging.

Paul gave himself to the task of communicating the truth of the scripture to those who believed. This is like my own preparation for the opprtunities I have to teach our congregation on Sundays and in small groups. Yet Paul also gave himself to the "marketplace" - initiating conversations and relationships with those he encountered in the course of his day. The context for teaching believers as a pastor is an automatic one (although not one I take for granted). But to get interacting with people outside the church and in the community requires some intentionality and availability.

It's so easy to hide in my office to take care of the responsibilities of leading our church. But are those things really "leading?" Or are some of the tasks things that should be secondary to initiating and maintaining relationships both in and outside of New Horizons? I think the answer to that question for me is an obvious "yes." There is an automatic context for that withing the church family (although I still could priortize relationships with our church family a lot more). The question is am I making myself available in the "marketplace" and being intentional about it? Encouragingly, the answer seems to be "yes." Coaching Justin's baseball team and the relationships that have developped over these 2 years have been awesome. Our family's friendships with the other "Ya Ya" families (Jayme's girlfriends that she met through my son's school) are really rewarding. Although we haven't "harvested" anything from these relationships yet, Jayme and I feel that these are major relational priorities for us. And they are personally filling as well.

So I want to do more. Stuff with the DCP staff. Be more intentional with my neighbors (especialy the new couple that moved in around the corner). I want to make sure I'm doing my job, both in the synogogue and in the marketplace. And in doing, really be who I have been made to be. So I'm turning the computer off now...there looks like there's some neighbors down at the pool. After all, I'm still on vacation.

Posted by Jeff on June 23, 2003 12:00 AM | Permalink

Inside & Outside

Comments (35)

Post a comment

About