The Kingdom Quotient
Today, I’m taking some time to examine my Kingdom quotient. By
this, I mean I’m asking myself how frequently I think about the Kingdom
of God. I’m conducting a personal audit as to whether I live a life
devoted to advancing the scope of that Kingdom, as much as possible,
here on earth.
Perhaps you’d like to consider a self-audit along with me. See how you respond to these few questions.
1. Do I understand the theology of the Kingdom of God? What is it in Scripture and how does it function? 2. Is that Kingdom something in the past, in the future, or for the present? 3. Why was the Kingdom of God (sometimes called the Kingdom of Heaven) Christ’s major emphasis in His life here on earth? 4. Have I ever sat under preaching, or in a Bible study, that emphasized the concept of the Kingdom of God? 5. If so, do I think about being related to that Kingdom any way in any part of my average day? 6. If
Christ mentioned the Kingdom so frequently that it was one of His major
emphases, have I studied the Scriptures related to it? 7. Am I conforming my life, changing my behaviors or reconsidering my goals in any way in light of this biblical emphasis? 8. How does living in a democracy affect my understanding of kingship and kingdomship? 9. When
I repeat the Lord’s prayer, what do I feel when I say the words, “The
kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven”? 10. Are
there some things I need to do, or some things I need to change, to
create a vital and vibrant understanding of this frequently emphasized
scriptural concept?
Years ago, when David was pastoring in
inner-city Chicago, the average age of our congregation was 27 years.
We met in a Teamsters Union Hall on the city’s west side in a church we
planted mainly because of “white flight”—when white people move away
from areas becoming more racially or ethnically diverse—and
consequently, many churches stood abandoned. The Truck Drivers Union
Local 705 gave us an auditorium rent-free, where we worshiped for some
ten years. That in itself is an amazing story and was recorded in my
husband’s book Full Circle.
At
this time, in the history of evangelicalism, there were several
theological controversies with what conservatives considered to be the
more liberal branch of Christianity as represented in the World Council
of Churches. That group was accused by our “tribe” as having a liberal
interpretation of the Kingdom of God; they were accused of resting in
the position that if humans acted rightly, the Kingdom of God would
establish itself on earth. (This is a very truncated explanation of a
much more complicated ecclesiastical dilemma; forgiveness is begged.)
Somewhere,
in the throes of this controversy, evangelicals stopped emphasizing the
concept of the Kingdom—or perhaps it had never been much of an emphasis
in their understanding of Scripture. (Does it sound like I’m not much
of a church historian? Yep, that would be an accurate assumption.)
David,
during those early days of pastoring, began to seriously study this
theological concept, resulting in a series of sermons titled “The
Christian, the Church and Society.” In it, he explicated and presented
the biblical concept of the Kingdom of God. First of all, that
spiritual Kingdom does not have geographical boundaries; it is any
setting where Christ is recognized as King, His will is obeyed and
obedient subjects reap the benefit of His rule, with resulting great
good coming to the person and/or to the community or society in which
they function. This spiritual Kingdom could be experienced in an
individual sense, in a familial sense, and in any corporate setting
with evidences of improvement in attitudes, in well-being, in physical
health, and in advancement of the common good. It is a place beyond the
restrictions of time where Christ’s (the King’s) will is obeyed and
where love for God, oneself and others is the highest goal.
Believe
me, in that moment, I was radicalized by this concept. I have never
seen the arc of Christianity the same way as when I began to live with
this reality of the Kingdom of God. It has informed my thinking and
radicalized my living.
So much so, in fact, that David and I
took the theological concepts of the Kingdom of God and wove them into
our three illustrated books for children (of all ages): Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance and Tales of the Restoration. We hoped parents might discover these truths as they read the stories, some 36 in all, to their kids.
These
books have been in the marketplace for over 35 years. This is because
we’ve maintained the rights to them, raise the money time and again to
print and publish them (we need to scrape together another $5000 as the
next advance for the Hong Kong printer) and often store boxes of them
in our home. We feel we have been good stewards of the Kingdom concept,
done everything within our power to advance this crucial theological
understanding, and are now praying daily for God to do with them what is
beyond our human power to do.
There are ancillary products
waiting to be developed—a long list that fills a whole page—but one is
a participatory children’s-theatre production that keeps waking me up
in the middle of the nights, demanding its life in the sun!
All
this to say, if your Kingdom quotient is not very high, maybe a
mid-winter look at the New Testament Scriptures on the topic will start
something blazing in your soul that will enlighten your spiritual
understanding.
You see, after all this, when I pray the Lord’s prayer and come to that phrase, Your Kingdom come, Your will be done … my heart quickens.
Thanks
to a husband who is the theologian in the family, and who has this gift
of going to the essence of complicated ideas and discovering the basic
meaning often hidden from others, we are a couple who live with this
heart-cry: “To the King! To the Restoration!”
Karen Mains
NOTICESTeleconference Memoir-Writing Class Registrants Must Sign Up by January 31
The
memoir classes introduce writers (or wannabe writers) to this
autobiographical form of writing. The memoir can be used simply as a
legacy to pass along to other generation. It can be sections of larger
writing projects or simply personal anecdotes to illustrate a point. It
is always a means to achieve a clearer understanding of our own lives,
whether anyone else reads our work, or not.
The class starts
the first week of February, will meet twice a month, every other week,
on Tuesdays at 9 a.m. CST and on Thursday evenings at 7 p.m. CST. This
will continue through June, five months in all, and costs $500.
Karen
Mains often uses the memoir form in her published writing, has kept a
prayer journal for over forty years, takes notes on all her travels and
has plenty of the MEAD COMPOSITION black-and-white journals for various
enterprises—the last one was labeled "Global Bag Project: Novel."
This
is a class that encourages the memoir-writing process; we do not
conduct critical reviews but simply ask questions if we don’t
understand and try to emphasize the “Hurrah!!” factor.
At this last minute, you can register by going to: https://wwwlifelaunchme.com/memoirs. Registration is at the bottom of the page. If you have any problems with the site, email me at karen@hungrysouls.org. "Tales of the Kingdom" Trilogy Sets Available
The Tales of the Kingdom trilogy can be purchased through Mainstay Ministries for $89.85. To purchase online, go to http://kingdomtales.com/book/the-kingdom-tales-trilogy-30th-anniversary-edition and click Purchase With PayPal.
The books can also be purchased from Amazon.com, though Amazon charges
us an 18% fee to store and mail the books to buyers. Due to the
financial realities of self-publishing these expensive-to-print books,
David and I have not taken regular royalties (actually next-to-NO
royalties) from these sales. If you still need assistance (or would
prefer to order by phone), call 800-224-2735 and select option 2.
We
are dedicated Kingdomers (praying for a generous foundation to cover
our up-front printer’s cost) and believe these books create an
understanding and even an appetite for a high Kingdom quotient. Reminder!
The Soulish Food e-mails are
being
posted biweekly on the Hungry Souls Web
site. Newcomers can look that over and decide if they want to
register on the Web site to receive the biweekly newsletter. You might
want to recommend this to friends also. They can go to www.HungrySouls.org.
Hungry Souls Contact InformationADDRESS: 29W377 Hawthorne Lane West Chicago, IL 60185 PHONE: 630-293-4500 EMAIL: karen@hungrysouls.org
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Karen Mains
If your Kingdom
quotient is not very high, maybe a mid-winter look at the New Testament
Scriptures on the topic will start something blazing in your soul that
will enlighten your spiritual understanding.
BOOK CORNER The Kingdom Comes by David R. Mains
Is
Jesus' message about the Kingdom of God sometimes confusing to you? If
you believe your knowledge of Christ's Kingdom—or your understanding of
its importance—is limited, take heart. This book was not written for
theologians, but for the average church person to understand and relate
to. In this companion book to David and Karen Mains's popular Kingdom Tales
trilogy, you are provided with all the information you need to
understand and appreciate this key biblical topic. In 30
short-but-powerful chapters, you will discover, in layman's language,
how this exciting message captured the crowds when our Lord was here,
and why it continues to do so all across the world even today. Buy The Kingdom Comes from Mainstay Ministries
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