Izaac has some balanced comments about the recent Engage Conference in NSW:
I must have missed the memo, but at some point, every KCC speaker must have got together and decided that the church i
s fundamentally ignorant in our application of our creation theology. The kind of ‘redeeming creation’ vibe. This weekend, it was about redeeming the good in our work, making sure we work for excellence, ensuring we do good. I’m hearing this more and more and more, which is all good. It’s probably prophetic to some degree. But I’m concerned when redeeming creation is starting to get equal billing with the gospel. The balance hasn’t tipped yet, but it ain’t too far away. At the moment its simply good critiquing of the church…
I think the emphasis of the conference against vocational ministry was sadly misdirected. Vocational ministry got mentioned positively once, during a throwaway line near the end of one of the talks, and negatively probably five times. …. But seriously, what’s with the anti-ministry vibe of the weekend? The call for all should be the call to the gospel, with the emphasis that this will mean some of us need to reconsider what we’re currently doing.
I think he’s spot on. The problem with ‘prophetic’ responses is that they tend to just swing the pendulum right back in the opposite direction. The solution to downplaying secular work is not to downplay ministry. It is to have a better, fully-integrated outlook. Gospel ministry is still the great need. Let’s just work out the details more carefully.
However, I’m not convinced that this comment is helpful either:
The temptation here is, in creating a conference for young workers, we simply find a way to justify what we’re already doing without the call to consider a change in direction based on gospel priorities. I don’t see too many ‘Big: changes’ coming from what I heard on the weekend I was there. There was more the vibe of ‘whatever you’re doing now, its the right thing to be doing’. That kind of level of comfort doesn’t sit well with me.
After all, sometimes reassurance is the right thing. Sometimes that frees us up to get on with gospel priorities.
BTW, I really feel uncomfortable about ‘redempetion’ language for our approach to culture.
