November
2011 - Vol. 54
New
Shoulders, New Shapes
.
by PM Graham
The taking of new ground. Abundance. An influx of people into our outreaches,
and an outpouring of blessing in our life together. This has consistently
been the Lord’s promise to the Kairos generation.
In his series of talks at Adelante, John Keating drew parallels between
this generation and several sets of characters from Scripture: Daniel,
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, young men of God living in exile, who obeyed
the Lord’s call to take root in a foreign land even while remaining faithful
to his law, and so maintained a strong identity in him in the face of a
society hungry for their assimilation; Queen Esther, who boldly refused
to stand quietly by while her people are persecuted, and realised the Lord
had put her in the position she is in “for such a time as this”; and Joshua,
who God commissioned with the daunting task of following Moses as the leader
of his people, but whose mission looked very different from Moses’.
At a glance, this seems like a confusing mishmash of disparate anecdotes.
But these analogies perfectly captured the developing and diversifying
of the Sword of the Spirit’s mission, through Kairos, in these days. Not
of this world, but called to love it stubbornly and mercifully, to be the
instruments of its redemption, to change it at its very core, like Daniel
and his friends in Babylon. Blessed with positions of influence but challenged
to risk these, to risk credibility, popularity, worldly standards, with
the spirit of martyrdom, like Esther daring to make demands of a king who
fancied himself a god. Heirs to a call and to a people, but charged to
lead them into battle against giants in an alien environment, rather than
stagnate in a spirit of nervous sustainment, a Joshua generation, advancing
across the Jordan and on to something new.
At Adelante, Martin Steinbereithner, who has overseen and inspired kingdom-building
in the Sword of the Spirit for years, spoke of the Kairos generation inheriting
the mantle of prophetic, radical discipleship from the previous, trailblazing
generation of the Sword of the Spirit; a reference to Elisha taking on
Elijah’s cloak in 1 Kings 19, a symbolic acceptance of the mentor’s mission.
It struck me that the same mantle, on new shoulders, takes on a different
shape. At Adelante, 800 new shoulders were invited to take on mantles.
Be prepared for new shapes.
[Paul Michael (PM) Graham
is currently serving as a missionary with Koinonia,
the Kairos-affiliated university outreach in London, England.] |
Special
Kairos Report on Adelante Conference –
August 2011
|
Adelante:
The Vision
1.
Calling young people to deeper conversion. Inviting us to meet the
Lord in prayer and surrender our lives more fully with all we have.
2.
Equiping for daily discipleship.
Offering
concrete and practical ways in which we can live the full Christian life
to which they are called.
3.
Building relationships across nations and cultures. Providing an environment
where we can deepen existing friendships and build new ones to support
us in our faith.
4.
Stiring vision for our life. Seeking and sharing what we believe the
Lord is calling us to and how we live this out as Kairos.
5.
Sending out for mission. Inspiring and empowering each other to do
mission in our local situations and home outreaches.
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Who We Are
Kairos
is a Greek word meaning the right or opportune moment. In the Bible it
is the time when God acts and we are invited to respond.
Kairos
is founded on the Christian belief that God has a history with each of
us, he has created us with gifts and talents, and he has a purpose for
each of our lives. Through our programmes, trainings and environments,
Kairos
aims to form the kind of Christian character in young men and women that
will help them discover that purpose and step into it with confidence.
Most of the different Kairos works throughout Europe are associated with
a particular university campus.
Kairos
is the organisation that links and resources these works, helps train their
leaders and provides programmes where students can serve together on mission
trips and service projects. Kairos is the youth and university movement
of the Sword of the Spirit: an international, ecumenical association of
charismatic, covenant communities.
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