Life on planet earth did not start when you or I were born, and it most likely will not end when you or I die. Rather, each of us is born into a historical context. Many people lived and events occurred before our arrival and this will be true after our departure. This reality should challenge us to think bigger about the context of life and how our existence fits into the larger story of history.
A few months ago, a group of SLA alumni gathered to consider this issue. (SLA alumni have attended the Strategic Life Alignment seminar, training designed to help people find and fulfill the purpose of God for their lives.) One of the participants in this event was Joe Kolinger, a longtime friend and SLA consultant. After the alumni gathering, Joe penned his reflections on thinking bigger and living more strategically in the context of the metanarrative. Here are his comments, written to those who want to reject narcissistic living and to align with God’s purpose for their lives.
It's not every day that you are given a shepherd who will relate to you according to God's agenda for your life. This is a rare occurrence, and when you find it you need to treasure it. I admonish everyone to faithfully steward the relationships God provides—commissioning agents, spiritual fathers, mentors, and godly advisors.
In my twenties (~40 years ago), on my first day as a programmer for a large utility company, my new boss (who was a tough old bird) told me that I would go nowhere without a sponsor. I learned this in the corporate world and I consider it to be a derivative of biblical truth. We go nowhere without commissioning agents—such as godly spiritual fathers—and advisors. Without them we will flounder and are probably guaranteed to fall short of running our race (Hebrews 12:1–2).
SLA is about comprehending God's purpose for our lives. It is not about narcissism or self-actualization. It is about gaining the proper perspective of who God is, his will on earth, and his purpose for our existence.
This level of thinking is contrary to popular Christianity today, which simply wants God to make life easy, pleasant, comfortable, and convenient. There seems to be little interest in becoming true disciples of Christ because that requires us to give up our will to do God’s will.
The SLA alumni gathering was a reminder of the cost of being a disciple of Jesus. It reminded me that I must think bigger than my agenda; rather, I must surrender my agenda and embrace God’s. Specifically, I was challenged in two ways:
- I must recognize God’s sovereign purpose in placing me in the context into which I was born.
- As I am faithful to serve God’s purpose, my faith and responsibilities before God will increase (see the story of the minas in Luke 19).
I have witnessed many changes during my life. In the sixties, there was the Jesus Movement. Unprecedented numbers of youth came to Christ perhaps, in part, due to a backlash against the emptiness of hands-off parenting (do as I say not as I do). But the youth were almost exclusively untrained “orphans” afflicted with a narcissistic paradigm of religion. It came with the rise of pop psychology. Everyone was looking for a way to be happy using various means such as transcendental meditation, drugs, sexual liberation, Jesus or religion (not true Christianity), money, and so forth.
My analysis is anecdotal and perhaps oversimplified, but I knew of no one who had a holistic, biblical kingdom of God perspective that recognized the charge given to mankind to rule God’s creation (Genesis 1:26–28). At least I could not find anyone with that perspective until the seventies when men such as Dennis Peacocke, Bob Mumford, Francis Schaeffer, Derek Prince, Greg Bahnsen, R. J. Rushdoony, and a few others emerged.
Bob Mumford's 15 Steps Out is a short, wonderful book that took me twenty years to fathom. It served as a road map out of the confusion of the sixties.
I was looking for the big picture, the holistic perspective, and a framework that would help put the metanarrative together. I love roots and I love the big picture. I'm lost without them.
Dennis Peacocke was certainly one of the most helpful men in my journey. He taught the biblical view of being a disciple of Christ. The culture at large, however, is progressively rejecting Christ and is turning against the true followers of Christ.
These cultural trends are driving men like Rod Dreher to write books such as The Benedict Option. This tome provides historical wisdom as to how to live as a Christian in a culture that rejects Christ.
To face what appears to be the inevitable persecution of true Christians, we must master defeating our innate narcissistic bias and embrace the role of holistic servants of Christ. The starting point for this transformation is self-denial. This is the way to a fruitful life. As the Master said,
Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. (John 12:24 ESV)
This truth is a crowd thinner. If church leaders start teaching this principle, their audiences will decrease quickly because the professing Christian church continues to concede to the culture. Narcissism and hedonism are driving the masses to spiritual, psychological, and intellectual suicide. And sadly, they are taking many professing Christians along for the ride.
Anecdotally, it appears that most local churches are moving with the culture. In time, there will be a false church and a true church. The former will choose conformity to the culture and will be prominent in the culture. The latter will choose obedience to Christ and be driven underground because of persecution.
The true church will need shepherds grounded in the truth of Christ—skilled equippers who can disciple others. It will take many sound shepherds to build a quality “ark” to get through the coming season. These shepherds must be experts at seeing what is in another person, drawing it out, and helping to develop it.
There are and will continue to be many people who need help. Building and managing the “ark” will be extremely challenging and it will require divine grace to serve God’s purpose for this coming season.
Joe’s words are challenging. The trends of the past half century are sobering as societies around the world reject biblical norms with increasing alacrity. Marriage is no longer regarded as a divine covenant between a man and a woman. Sexual relationships are no longer the sole domain of marriage. Aberrant sexual activity is now celebrated. The life of unborn children is no longer valued. Education has been disconnected from Scripture and is now being disconnected from parents. Public references to Christ, the Bible, and Christianity are being removed.
The list of deviations from biblical standards continues to grow. This means that defining right and wrong is increasingly difficult for the societies of the world. Hence, what is biblically wrong is being embraced as right and what is right is being regarded as wrong.
There is a clear biblical warning about this situation.
The task assigned to genuine Christians during this season is to counter these trends. This will require many godly people seeking to find and fulfill their divinely ordained assignments in the context of the metanarrative. Christians must think bigger; they must live beyond their personal agendas. Christians must learn to think and live aligned with God’s greater purpose. And his purpose includes his intent in creating each human being.
To think this way is both daunting and counter to our natural narcissistic instincts. More than ever, therefore, we must be grounded in Christ, we must embrace the Bible as normative for all life, and we must pass this heritage on by discipling others.
To live like this in a world that increasingly rejects Christ will require true Christians to be humble, submitted, and teachable. True Christians must be supported by healthy godly communities (“arks”) as bases of operations as they daily engage in their divinely ordained work assignments on earth. This is the way forward—the way to fruitful living for Christ. But to live this way requires us to think bigger.
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