In times of cultural moldability, the Church can seize Kingdom opportunities by breaking down the status quo. To take steps forward we can re-embrace the calling to live a power-filled, invitational “Kingdom Normal.” This won’t happen without humble prayer, confession, and conversation. Are you willing? Consider the differences between Status Quo and Kingdom Normal.
Reconciliation is essential in the Kingdom of God. If it doesn’t register on our priorities or find its way into our prayer lives then we are subject to the status quo. If we choose the path of least resistance in our community of faith we fail to show the community of lost ones the way of flourishing. The status quo has no place for ambassadors of reconciliation.
Division is the strategy of the enemy. We are maintaining the status quo if church communities resemble fragmented, competing, angry social groups. This is a missed opportunity for the hurting world around us to see a united yet diverse community of Jesus followers where love endures and prevails.
The status quo is a place of global connectedness but isolated, individual self-focus. This can apply both to congregations and leaders. Haggai chapter one speaks of God’s people being in a bad place when they perpetuated the status quo by making their interests more important than the Kingdom values of God. Too often we look more like the world in the way we fail to consider the interests/needs of others as more important than our own.
Kingdom Normal is a small seed easily missed by worldly standards. It often escapes measurement, rarely includes big titles, and often appears small at first. But it always has purpose, and there is always an invitation.
This seed grows into a tree not for the purpose of growth but rather to put out branches strong enough for nests. When on mission the people of God put out branches and provide context for a freeing life. Kingdom Normal looks like life and shelter for the unwanted, the unexpected, the outsiders.
A banquet scene is foundational to Kingdom Normal. This is a table where people from every unique background find welcoming fellowship and joint worship of God. It’s absurd to think we will show up at the banquet scene and suddenly be ready to fellowship with Christians we judged, battled against, and ignored in the here and now.
Are we getting feast ready today?
What would it look like to live in close relation with other churches today who will sit next to you at The Table tomorrow?
Every tribe, every people, and every tongue stand before the throne worshipping God (Rev. 7, Rev.19). Jesus’ only recorded prayer for 21st century Christians was that “we would be one so that the world would know the love of the Father (John 17). “Love endures all things” is more than a memory verse. Jesus showed what this could look like when he brought together a Jewish zealot and a Roman employed tax collector into one team. Jesus broke down the dividing wall of hostility. It wasn’t just any wall, it was a physical wall in the temple but also one of the greatest social divides in human history: Jew vs. Gentile (Eph 2). His death and resurrection united two hostile ethnic groups and made it possible for us to break a divisive status quo and bring reconciliation to the world.
-Milan Homola
Art by Tyler Friesen
