Observation

The national leadership of the denomination I am a part of met recently and when I reviewed their report I noticed something interesting to me. I noticed how it lacked balance. Here is the cliff notes of what they talked about:

Social Statement on Genetics
Social Statement on Criminal Justice
Social Statement on Justice for Women
Message on Persons Living with Disabilities
Message on Mental Health Issues
Malaria Campaign
Budget Restructuring
Joint Mission Statement with the AME Zion Church

Outside of the necessary governance issues notice how the rest of the issues are social justice related. There is nothing wrong with social justice, it is a necessary component to Christian discipleship. However it is only a component.

The Renovare movement lifts up six historic movements of the Christian Church and they suggest we live a balanced life. There is a movement from the UK called lyfe that takes up these six areas and calls them six challenge zones.

The six challenge zones are

1. Withdrawing and praying (Still lyfe)
2. Living a holy life (Real lyfe)
3. Empowered and filled with the Spirit (Spirit lyfe)
4. Memorizing, quoting and teaching Scripture (Word lyfe)
5. Working for justice, peace and wholeness (Just lyfe)
6. Integrating faith and everyday life (Whole lyfe)

I think that individuals and congregations need to think about living a balanced Christian life and when we do that there is a sense of harmony that develops. When we practice the six zones we begin to discover that the zones are connected and interrelated. This then gives a dynamic quality to our discipleship and living.

Below is the link to the lyfe sessions. They are an easy way to get some understanding of the challenge zones and they have good tools for group study.

lyfe