Living on purpose

The hugely successful books of Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California have brought “purpose” into the vocabulary and lives of North Americans in a brand new way. Sandra Crux provides an overview of Warren’s The Purpose Driven Life and talks to some Mennonite Brethren who have used the study. Peter Dueck reviews the approach to purpose taken by futurists Tom and Christine Sine of Mustard Seed Associates.

Five principles

Sandra Crux

In The Purpose Driven Life (PDL), Rick Warren says the questions we all ask are timeless and cut across cultural, ethnic and faith boundaries. Who am I? What is my purpose in life? Why was I put on this earth? How will I know if I am following God’s will?

Warren asks his readers to make a commitment to embark on a 40-day faith journey with God and other believers. According to most who have completed the process, it will be a journey that is both biblical and deeply personal, culminating in a commitment to five principles Warren says will indirectly provide answers to all of life’s questions.

Those principles are: (1) we are to love God with our whole heart through worship; (2) we are to love our neighbours as ourselves through ministry; (3) we are to share God’s message through evangelism; (4) we are to baptize believers into His church through fellowship; and (5) we are to help believers grow to maturity through discipleship.

Those Mennonite Brethren churches and individuals who were interviewed or contributed information for this article appear to agree that the principles in the book are an excellent way of structuring our lives to live purposefully for Jesus Christ. However, there are differences of opinion as to how the book should be used.

Richard Martens, pastor of Evergreen Heights Church, Simcoe, Ont. is very optimistic about using PDL, either in small groups or as an outreach approach for whole-church evangelism. He says that no matter which way you are planning to use PDL, you have to think exponentially and make room for people to come because “the spin-off effect of PDL is that your church will grow.” During the Evergreen PDL campaign, Sunday attendance increased and the number of small groups doubled from seven to 15.

Sunwest Christian Fellowship, Calgary, has found that PDL gives a great overview of “having God as a part of your everyday living” and as “a manual for life.” They do not recommend it as an outreach tool, as they feel some of the topics could overwhelm new believers. They do, however, suggest using it in small group settings, particularly as a resource with start-up groups.

Everyone appears to agree that God can, and does, change lives through the purposeful study of the five principles. Moreover, there seems to be agreement that God speaks to each person in a different way according to His purposes.

George and Linda Wichert, Kevin Bayne, and Ed Heinrichs – all members at Cornerstone Community Church, Virgil, Ont. – used PDL as a personal study guide. The Wicherts liked the fact that the book focused on what the Christian life should be and how to give expression to that life in relation to our Christian brothers and sisters. Kevin Bayne was appreciative that the book allowed “the Sword of the Spirit do its transforming work.” Ed Heinrichs noted that the popularity of the book shows us that “people, not just followers of Christ, are longing to be reminded that they hold a more significant place in this universe than modern scientific explanations would suggest.”

The book is recommended because it systematically takes readers through the five principles of what it means to be a “purposeful” follower of Jesus Christ, but also involves a faith journey that feeds a spiritual hunger. This journey should be taken in a manner and pace that are comfortable for each believer – whether 40 days, 40 weeks or 40 years.

The book is sold widely. There is also a church and team planning kit available for purchase at purposedriven.com. Or, for more information on using PDL as whole-church renewal or outreach approach, Richard Martens of Evergreen Heights Church can be reached at 519-428-0960.

Sandra Crux, a retired educator and communications consultant, lives in Stevensville, Ontario. She and her husband attend Cornerstone Community Church, Virgil, Ont.

A stool with three legs

Peter Dueck

Speaking at the Mennonite Brethren convention in Abbotsford, B.C. in 2002, Tom and Christine Sine compared standard Christian discipleship to trying to milk using a two-legged stool. Christian life will be unbalanced, they argued, until spiritual transformation and moral transformation are joined with the essential third leg: cultural transformation.

Tom and Christine Sine are the founders of Mustard Seed Associates, a Seattle-based organization dedicated to unleashing the creative potential of ordinary people to make a difference in their community. “We are persuaded,” they say, “that the Bible calls us to incarnate God’s kingdom in every part of our lives in community, including doing what Jesus did and making God’s mission purposes our purposes too.” This whole life discipleship means recognizing that we cannot be disciples while clinging to status-driven values. God has a higher purpose for us.

The Sines believe that purpose is something innate in every Christian. It is not a spiritual gift given to some and not others. To return to the stool analogy, both the two-legged and the three-legged version have identical purposes: to support the weight of a person milking a cow. The stool that is missing one leg, however, does not fulfill the purpose for which it was created. Its creator would want something better for it.

In this understanding, purpose is not something to be discovered or manufactured, as if the two-legged stool might one day decide that its purpose was to be a pail. The problem, according to the Sines, is not that Christians lack purpose, it’s that they aren’t fulfilling the one they already have.

In Sacred Rhythms, Christine Sine, a medical doctor, diagnoses this problem as spiritual arrhythmia. The quiet beat of God’s Word and His ways are drowned out by the roar of individualism, materialism and consumerism. Making God’s purposes our purposes is easier when we restore natural and spiritual rhythms instead of denying them. Daily times of devotion and prayer, the weekly Sabbath, and the yearly festivals of Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost can help us regain a sense of God’s pattern for our lives.

Living on Purpose has a similar message. Considering that the actions of Christians are often indistinguishable from those of non-Christians, Tom and Christine Sine suggest that we evaluate whether our current path is leading us to Boom City, their name for the status-driven home of mainstream culture, or the City of Shalom. More than “peace,” shalom means wholeness and completeness. It is the presence of a God who wants to restore all things to the purposes for which they were created. The Sines suggest crafting a biblically-based mission statement to help make God’s purposes the guiding force in our lives.

If our purpose is reflected in how we spend our time, money and energy, the North American landscape is littered with precariously balanced two-legged stools. Tom and Christine Sine’s work offers practical and creative ways to add balance, simplicity, and solidity – a third leg – to our Christian lives.

More information and encouragement about “Christians Living on Purpose” is at the Mustard Seed website.

Peter Dueck worked as a researcher/writer on the recently launched website on Mennonite COs. He and his wife Christa attend Jubilee Mennonite Church, Winnipeg.