Commitment to the Way of The Cross

What is the way of the cross? When we say “Doing a Jesus driven ministry” or “to minister like Christ” or “in following Christ’s example of ministry”, what does it mean? Is it just a Christian jargon, something to validate our activities, categorizing our life as godly? Is it just a validation of our lifestyle as a Christian?

John White wrote about this as such:

“The way of the cross is a magnificent obsession with a heavenly pearl, beside which everything else in life has no value. If it were a case of buying it, we would gladly sell all we had to do so.”


In a sense, this is what commitment is – a determination to orient our lives in such a way that pursues a magnificent obsession. A commitment to follow Christ is just a manifestation of our orientation of life centered on Christ and His purpose. This is hard, requires a lot of sacrifice, risk, etc. But commitment also implies that the pursuit must be done with the same passion, intensity and rigor throughout – hence the “magnificent obsession”. It is easy to have a burning zeal during the beginning phase of our commitment, but then it usually tends to fizzles out. Is it then possible to maintain the zeal, rigor, passion throughout? It is indeed possible – only if we are obsessed throughout.

Click here for full paper.

Commissioning

What is commissioning?

1. Commission means a group mission. In Christianity, we sometime refer to Matthew 28: 19-20.

2. Commissioning is an act of commission.

Last time, I propose that we intentionally commission our ICF-ers to go to a particular battlefield. By being intentional, we start to think strategically about the battlefield and on how to call, equip, and send our people. The battlefield in ICF could be an unbelieving mind, a hardened heart, or a particular mindset that bore sinful culture. This understanding about a particular battlefield will force us to call the right people, equip them with the right skills and send them with the right character and attitude toward God.

Leonard