kingdom Archives

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The kingdom of God – in clay pots

On March 13, 2023

The weakness of the kingdom

In the past couple of blog posts, I have talked about the weakness of the kingdom of God. By this I mean, the kingdom that Jesus proclaimed and inaugurated was a kingdom that was not impressive or powerful. Jesus came to an inconsequential Jewish backwater province as an itinerant preacher, without status, money or military might. He saw the need of the people, and sought to address it, but his kingdom was sorely understaffed. To the disappointment of his little band of followers, the movement he started did not expel the Roman conquerors. Instead, this humble king was arrested and executed as a criminal by these Romans. His poor, uneducated and apparently unreliable disciples, were deemed incapable of carrying on the vision of this upstart king.

But Jesus’ kingdom proved to be remarkably resilient and defied all expectations. Crucifying the King did not destroy the kingdom. In fact, the King’s power to save his people was actually expressed in his moment of greatest weakness.

The cross is not contrary to this King and kingdom, but the center of it. This King has power, but it is a paradoxical power, one of suffering and weakness.
Patrick Schreiner, The Kingdom of God and the Glory of the Cross, p. 153.

But this principle of paradoxical power expressed through weakness is not only seen in Jesus. For many years, I have marveled at Paul’s characterization of his own ministry. On the one hand, he describes his apostolic calling and ministry in the most glorious terms. He compares what he is doing by the Spirit with what Moses did – and Moses comes in a distant second! See 2 Corinthians 3:6-11.

On the other hand, he describes himself as coming in weakness.

I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling.
1 Corinthians 2:3

In the same vein, Paul frequently and at some length talks about the trials and hardships of his ministry (2 Cor 4:8-11, 6:4-10, 11:23-29). They almost overwhelm him at times (2 Cor 1:8). His thorn in the flesh will not go away, despite his fervent prayers.

The Kingdom of God: the workers are few

By Ken Guenther

On February 13, 2023

In Christ, Church, Evangelism

Over the 35 years that I have been working in cross-cultural missions, I have seen mission organizations highlight many different needs, opportunities, and strategies. Countries open and close. New methods gain prominence while others are abandoned. Younger generations are motivated by different themes. But one characteristic of mission work never changes. We need many, many more workers to address the opportunities before us. “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few,” as Jesus said.

According to Joshua Project, 7,423 people groups with a total of 3.37 billion people remain unreached.¹ Missionaries and local Christian workers to these unreached people total about 32,200 people.² Therefore the ratio of UPG workers to the total unreached world is 1 Christian worker or missionary for every 105,000 unreached people.

The weakness of the kingdom

I have been thinking about the kingdom of God and particularly what Jesus called the “secret of the kingdom.” As I explained in my previous post, the secret of the kingdom is that it came in weakness despite it being the power of God. The majority of the Jewish people did not recognize Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah. This movement he started did not conform to their expectations of what God’s kingdom would look like.

Jesus did not have enough staff

One aspect of the Kingdom that highlighted its weakness was the scarcity of workers. The kingdom Jesus proclaimed did not have enough servants to meet the needs of the people who needed help. Note what Jesus says to his disciples in Matthew 9.

The Kingdom of God: what you see is what you get

By Ken Guenther

On January 30, 2023

In Christ, Gospel, Hardship, Missionary Roles

Gordon D. Fee | Faculty | Regent College (regent-college.edu)

A few months ago, I saw the news that one of my professors in graduate school, Dr. Gordon Fee, died at the age of 88. Dr. Fee taught with fervor and intensity, often slipping unconsciously into passionate preaching in the middle of a lecture. He was also an excellent biblical scholar. For many years, he served as the general editor for the acclaimed New International Commentary series. I am very grateful that I had the privilege to learn from him.

The absolutely crucial term for understanding Jesus

My favourite course with Fee was on the life and teachings of Jesus. I sat spellbound in one of the front rows of the lecture hall as he unpacked the message of Jesus from the four Gospels. When Dr. Fee came to Lecture #13, “The Proclamation of the Kingdom”, he announced that this was the most important lecture of the course. For Fee, the kingdom of God was “the absolutely crucial term for understanding Jesus.”

You cannot know anything about Jesus, anything, if you miss the kingdom of God. . . . You are zero on Jesus if you don’t understand this term. I’m sorry to say it that strongly, but this is the great failure of evangelical Christianity. We have had Jesus without the kingdom of God, and therefore have literally done Jesus in.
GORDON FEE, “JESUS: EARLY MINISTRY/KINGDOM OF GOD,” LECTURE (1993), REGENT COLLEGE, TAPE SERIES 2235E, PT. 1, REGENT COLLEGE, VANCOUVER, BC, CANADA.

Avoiding Mission Drift – part two

By Ken Guenther

On February 22, 2021

In Church Planting, Missiology

I have been looking at how a non-profit organization can avoid mission drift. You can find Part One of this series at this link. My mission organization, SEND International, says our mission is “to mobilize God’s people and engage the unreached in order to establish reproducing churches.” Recently, we have adopted the theme of “kingdom transformation.” We want to broaden our ministries to more than just spiritual needs. In so doing, we want to strengthen our evangelism and church planting among the unreached. We are not in any way changing our mission statement.

Historical examples of mission drift

Nevertheless, as I noted in my previous blog post, this new theme raises the danger of mission drift. This has happened many times in the past. Organizations that were focused on one thing gradually changed until their work in no way matched what they originally set out to do. For example, the Puritans of New English who founded Harvard University stated it’s purpose in this way:

Avoiding Mission Drift

By Ken Guenther

On February 15, 2021

In Church Planting, Missiology

It happens every day. I have a project or task in mind, put it on my schedule, get started on it, but then get distracted. My thoughts and then my actions drift off in another direction and I begin to work on another project instead. The same thing can happen to organizations. We call it “mission drift.” We have a stated purpose, but we are no longer doing what we said we are going to be doing.

Boundary markers

Over the years, I have adopted a few tools to get me back on track through the course of the workday. Keeping track of how I use my time on Toggl is one such tool. See also my blog post on “Deep Work.” I have also developed a few warning signs or boundary markers to prevent me from permanently drifting off course. My personal mission statement and my job description are two really important boundary markers. I review my alignment with these documents every quarter. My monthly goals prominently featured on my to-do list is another such boundary marker. What are the boundary markers for a non-profit organization to avoid mission drift?

The Kingdom of God paradigm and Insider Movements

By Gary Ridley

On October 3, 2017

In Bible, Contextualization, Insider Movements, Missiological Issues, Missiology, Theology

In our ongoing discussion of Insider Movements, we turn now to the question of what implications an understanding of the Kingdom of God might have for insider movements. In chapter 20 of Understanding Insider Movements, Anthony Taylor prefers the “Kingdom of God” paradigm over the “conflict of religions” paradigm. He writes:

An alternative to the ‘conflict of religions’ paradigm is the paradigm of the kingdom of God. This paradigm assumes that what is most important is the quality of one’s relationship to Christ and to a community of believers, and that such communities can have different practices and emphases, whether novel or traditional, foreign or indigenous, as long as they are compatible with the Bible. (UIM, kindle loc. 4293)

Reflections and resources for lifelong learning for missionaries

Tag: kingdom

The kingdom of God – in clay pots

The weakness of the kingdom

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