To School and a Showcase
My Humanity, Christ, Salvation class huddled around Dr. Sung. It was inspiring to be with this group of missionaries serving on four continents.
Every person who follows Jesus has been given a kingdom that is meant to be linked to the kingdom of God—it is where we get to grow human flourishing and to invite people into the larger kingdom of God. –Dr. Dan Allender
Jesus gives each of us a kingdom within His larger Kingdom to creatively partner with Him in cultivating truth, goodness, and beauty in this world. This is one of those mind-blowing theological realities of being God’s image bearer. Our God is unbelievably inclusive, and His attentiveness toward our flourishing overwhelms me. One of the sweetest gifts of working with Cru is that I get to partner with ministry partners in growing human flourishing.
Another gift of serving with Cru is its commitment to its missionaries developing strong theological foundations so that we are thought-filled and theologically grounded spiritual guides. Cru requires us to take 24 hours of graduate coursework through its Institute of Biblical Studies. Over the past several weeks, I was privileged to engage in a two-week intensive course titled Humanity, Christ, Salvation—completing my second to last course!
As we delved deeply into the systematic theology of these topics, my highlight of the course occurred as I sat at my desk writing my final paper and read this quote from my textbook, “To be united to Christ means being united to Him in the whole sweep of his redemptive mission (Phil. 2:5-11). The Christian has died with Christ, has been resurrected with Christ, has ascended with Christ to share now his reign in the heavenly places, and is destined to share Christ’s coming glory with him. The work of the Spirit in regenerating the believer is therefore a work in which the Spirit unites us to Christ.” The months of reading preparation as well as sitting under Dr. Sung’s teaching suddenly dropped to my heart—as tears flowed down my cheeks I joined Jesus in worshiping our generous Father. The wonder of God and His very goodness never grows old on me.
Arts Fellowship Orlando’s Showcase July 9
The Arts Fellowship Orlando (AFO) Showcase is Sunday, July 9! Our artists have worked diligently to complete their projects and have grown significantly. The Heart of the City Foundation—AFO’s largest donor—just published this article featuring Karina. It captures her growth vividly and was written by Madison Brockman Vulkanblomst (my daughter).
…As we wait for the Not Yet, creativity is a mechanism for “seeing” this coming kingdom and the way it breaks into the here and now. It is a bridge between these two worlds, ushering the transcendent into our ordinary, everyday lives while turning our ordinary everyday lives into something transcendent. It takes us into a world we can only imagine (from the opening narration I wrote for the Now and Not Yet Showcase).