To Steve Hayner,
whose joy infectiously loved me into God’s call
InterVarsity Press
P.O. Box 1400, Downers Grove, IL 60515-1426
World Wide Web: www.ivpress.com
Email: email@ivpress.com
©2014 by Mark Labberton
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from InterVarsity Press.
InterVarsity Press® is the book-publishing division of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA®, a movement of students and faculty active on campus at hundreds of universities, colleges and schools of nursing in the United States of America, and a member movement of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. For information about local and regional activities, visit intervarsity.org.
Scripture quotations, unless otherwise noted, are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
While any stories in this book are true, some names and identifying information in this book may have been changed to protect the privacy of individuals.
Cover design: Cindy Kiple
Images: © Pupkis/iStockphoto
ISBN 978-0-8308-9694-3 (digital)
ISBN 978-0-8308-3683-3 (print)
Contents
2 A Lost Church in a Lost World
4 Relocating: Where Are We Called?
5 Reorienting: How Are We Called?
6 Refocusing: To Whom and to What Are We Called?
10 So, What Does God Call Me to Do?
Epilogue: First Things—Salt and Light
More Titles from InterVarsity Press
Prologue
A Life Abundant
When I was considering the possibility of embracing Christian faith as a young college student, what I feared most was that it would make my life smaller rather than larger—less love, less joy, less creativity, less wonder, less engagement. I had met enough Christians who were incarnational proof of this, so when I finally came to faith in Christ as a college student, it was because I discovered that Jesus saves people from the very smallness I feared. I saw that the very essence of the kingdom of God is a life bigger than I would ever find outside of it.
I understand how we have come to live in times where many reject the gospel for being too small, too parochial for the enormous challenges we face. I know very well how it is that the lives of Christians seem too constricted to have any relevance to the real world and its messy complexities, and how far removed the Christian life can appear from abundance, freedom and joy. As a study assistant to the Anglican pastor and writer John Stott during my early years as a believer, I witnessed John’s faithfulness in public and private, as a highly visible speaker and as a nearly invisible spiritual shepherd to many. What I saw served to cement my conviction about life ...
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About Called: The Crisis and Promise of Following Jesus TodayThe most urgent call upon God?s people is to live as followers of Jesus.The most indicting critique against the church is as simple: its failure to do so. As the leader of an evangelical theological seminary that trains men and women as leaders for the church and society, Mark Labberton writes: "People ask many questions about how their lives relate to the world. What are our lives in this world about? What are we to make of being human? Why are we here? Is there a reason we are alive, and, if so, how would we know what that is? These questions are brought on at times by beauty and joy, but also by the daunting facts of our own lives or of the world around us. We look around in doubt, in pain, in suffering. These are human questions asked throughout history by those inside and outside the church."We long to renew our hope for a world broken and hurting. And it is we, God?s people living in the power of the Holy Spirit, who are called to become this hope and flourish while in exile. Here is the crisis: we are made and redeemed for this calling, but it slides through our fingers. Here is the promise: living and practicing who and why we are is our Christian vocation whenever and wherever we may be.Will you answer the call? |
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