What I got Wrong about the Ambassador of the Kingdom of God Thing

I'm quarantined.

Trips outside of the apartment are now severely restricted until further notice from the powers that be at the home where we are Independent Living residents.

So, it's reasonable to conclude that Chapter One of my career as a Kingdom Ambassador has come to an end,...

...that is, assuming, by the grace of God, I survive the pandemic and return to my job at some time in the future.

Here are two reflections on my experience to this point:

1. (This is, by far, the less meaningful of the two.) You've probably picked up on this because I've not always been subtle about it.

I resent denominational leadership's hypocrisy by regularly advocating that CGGC people live this life yet, at the same time, neither visibly living the life themselves nor mentoring the people who do attempt to live it.

Denominational communication regularly advocates that CGGC people live the ambassadorial lifestyle. The first-ever CGGC Strategic Plan includes it but,...

...from where I stand, having been in the world doing it for more than six and a half years, it's all talk, as far as the holders of institutional authority in the CGGC are concerned, and no walk.

The ambassadorial walk is a joy, but it is also a challenge. Many have been the times that I've wished that the holders of institutional authority in the CGGC would call together a community of our people who live the life or, at least, are interested in living the life, so that those of us who are doing it can, as Hebrews says, "spur one another on to love and good deeds."

Beyond that, I have yearned for teaching, mentoring, in the life. I've often thought that I am more committed to the life than I am effective in living it out.

That is, I'm very committed to it, but, often I think, not especially good at it.

And, I resent the fact that the holders of institutional authority in the CGGC sit behind their large desks in their spacious offices and promote the life I have committed myself to and, then, offer nothing to me, or to anyone else, by way of support.

Just a brief side note here: It seems to me that this is one important reason why there is no followership in the CGGC. When CGGC people do practice followership, there is no corresponding leadership. The casting of vision with no follow up is what counts for leadership in the CGGC these days. 


2. And, this is the thought that matches the title of this post, and it's frustrating and, even embarrassing:

I realize that I was living as an ambassador, inadvertently thinking of it as a religious service to be consumed by others. 

Ouch!

One of my most common harangues on this blog is my attack on the unbiblical clergy/laity divide in the institutional church in which the clergy produces religious products and services so they can be consumed by the laity...

...so that, for most of the people in the church, righteousness is defined as nothing more than the faithful and diligent consumption of the work product provided by the clergy.

This producer/consumer paradigm is unbiblical and it horrifies me, and yet...

I now realize that I was doing the ambassador thing as a religious service in spite of myself. 

Yet, in truth, it's not that...

...and it never was.

Here's how I came to realize that: Numerous coworkers, and even customers of the store, have reached out to me since I went into quarantine in the way I would have reached out to them when I was living the ambassadorial lifestyle.

I'm getting at least as well as I gave, maybe better!

It seems that I wasn't providing a religious service that was simply being consumed but,...

I don't know,...

...participating in the Kingdom life?...

Participating in a genuine priesthood of all believers!


There is a genius in a walk in the Spirit that is truly supernatural.

The Spirit can take feeble acts of obedience, even if they are misguided and misunderstood by obedient people, and He can turn them into something truly meaningful and important.

Now, that I'm in quarantine, I realize that my puny efforts to live out the values and the laws of the Kingdom were taken and magnified by the Spirit in a way I could not have dreamed.

The Spirit did things through my sincere Kingdom-focused silliness that are truly meaningful.

And, I am humbled.

It frustrates me to realize that I was doing the ambassador thing from the provider/consumer paradigm...in spite of myself.

It humbles me that, by His grace, He took my foolishness and did something meaningful.