A Call to Kingdom Values

The ministry of the pastor is derived from the ministry of Jesus Christ. That ministry/mission of Jesus Christ centered around the Kingdom of God. He preached the Kingdom as the only Good News (Mark 1:15). He taught his disciples to live out the prayer, "Thy Kingdom come" (Luke 11:2). His parabolic teachings centered around the Kingdom (Matthew 13). He predicted that the indication of the end of time will be when "the gospel of the Kingdom will be preached in the whole world...to all nations" (Matthew 24:14). After His resurrection, He taught His disciples the centrality of the Kingdom of God over the 40 day period which He appeared to them (Acts 1:3).

The apostles carried the message forward by preaching "the things concerning the Kingdom of God and the Name of Jesus Christ" (Acts 8:12 and Acts 28:31). Jesus Christ of Nazareth was the only one who lived out the will of God at all times, under all circumstances on earth. In Him the Kingdom was made visible. The church held the King and the Kingdom together in her life because Jesus was the name and face of the Kingdom of God. In this holding together, the church celebrated the material and the spiritual in a responsible whole. The spiritual defined and gave direction to the material and the economic. The personal/private and the social/public became inseparable. The devotional could no longer be isolated or removed from the realities of human existence.

If "the unchanging Person" (Hebrews 13:8) and the "unshakeable Kingdom" (Hebrews 12:28) are not held together, the resultant ministry moves away from the holistic mission of the New Testament church. An emphasis on the Kingdom that neglects the centrality of the King is a temptation to define the Kingdom by our own centralities. Further, it is the "blood of the everlasting covenant" that enables persons to be restored into the fellowship of the reign of God. Similarly, when the King is emphasized to the neglect of the compelling reality of the Kingdom of God, the emergence of the irreplaceable transforming communities of the Kingdom celebrating the common mission with plan and purpose around the world, is forever lost. The pastor and the congregation center themselves on the present reality of the King and the Kingdom within the environment where God has placed them.

This releases them to bring into reality the insights that God gives them. These insights are the present reality of the Kingdom of God, the person and ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ, the possibility of new birth within this birth, the power of the Holy Spirit within persons and communities enabling the realization of these three realities, the fellowship of believers wherein the yielding of autonomy mutually to one another releases enormous energy of synergy, and the servanthood style of living and binding the wounds of the society. This servanthood style of living provides for the community an uncontested leadership.

But the pastor and the congregation do live by the following values:

naming the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth contextually and relevantly,
being reconcilers within the communities where God has placed them,
owning linear accountability of skills,
talents that are tied to the task fulfillment,
emphasizing that the spiritual is foundational to the material/physical/economic,
knowing in their actions that if God is for us, then systems and structures will not be able to obstruct the hope that He gives us,
living out the knowledge that persons are more important than institutions,
and identifying themselves with the poor by celebrating solidarity with them.

Sam Kamaleson, India (residing in U.S.A.)
Chairman, AD 2000 Cities Track
Vice President at Large, World Vision