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All followers of Jesus Christ need to see themselves in light of the overarching biblical narrative about God’s mission. This is the goal of realignment. If the Scriptures exist to convert readers to their perspective, then the sign of this conversion is the abiding of Christ followers in the Scriptural story.
Here is test. Ask yourselves these questions:

Are we cast in God’s story or are we part of some other story? With what great stories does your own soul resonate? What movies or fictional works have shaped the way that you live your life? What has more influence on my life: the story of Scripture or the stories popularized by the surrounding culture?

William Shakespeare penned his oft quoted lines for his comedy “As You Like It” (Act II Scene 7):

All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages.

These words are pregnant with meaning and invite us to think deeply about our own role in the unfolding drama of the 21st century. As Christ followers, we need to consider the trajectory of our own lives. What is our part? What role should we be playing?

Theologian Robert Jensen points to the Scriptures as the guide:
“Scripture’s story is not part of some larger narrative; it is itself the larger narrative of which all other true narratives are parts. Biblical exegesis is reading the sides and prop lists as so forth for the drama that God and his universe are now living together. And so do not when reading Scripture try to figure out how what you are reading fits into some larger story; for there is no larger story.”

A missional reading of the Scriptures is committed to helping women and men to understand and find their place in the grand narrative that God is writing from Creation to New Creation. Too often we can find ourselves shaped more by the stories of the World than by the story of Redemption as unfolded in the Scriptures

How well are we playing our part?

God is looking for women and men who are willing to step into the role for which they were created. These sorts of persons are the ones who are driving the future of the Christ following movement.

© 2009 Brian D. Russell

Tags: Biblical Studies, Community, Hermeneutics, Leadership, Mission, church, culture, ecclesiology, education, emerging church, ethos, metanarrative, missional church, missional hermeneutic, missional leadership, missional reading, world mission, worldview //