Outward Focus
Being gospel-centered and outward-focused is a great philosophy to live by as a Christian. In this philosophy there is purpose and intentionality.
The first side of being outward-focused is obedience. God calls us to this. We are blessed to be a blessing.
“…and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.” Genesis 22:18 ESV
Christians are generous people. People love to serve as greeters, guest services team, kids ministry volunteers, student mentors and support volunteers. We do a good job of serving within the church. However, we are often not that good at serving outside of the church.
In our cultural Christian moment the tendency is to have a bunker mentality when it comes to those outside of the church, outside of our camp or tribe. We tend to see those different than us as a threat. We may think that any care we give to those who different than us is an affirmation of the things we see as non-biblical. It is important to know what we believe and to stand for it firmly but not at the expense of our care for people.
People aren’t our enemy. In Ephesians 6:12 Paul states:
“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” Ephesians 6:12 ESV
We are in a battle but we fight the same way Jesus fought. He confronted legalism and oppression. He engaged with the last, least and lost with love and compassion. May we do the same.
Out of a grateful heart we engage others. Jesus didn’t just serve the last, least and lost he first saw them. He engaged with them, listening to them, knowing them. We need to do the same, we need to really see and understand those around us who are different than us before we try to give them anything. In the student ministry of my church they use the words, “know, love, center” to describe the approach mentors should have as they disciple the students in their groups. Being outward-focused we must do the same. The order matters. We must first know our community in order to really love them. Then once we know and truly love others we can center/guide/direct them to Jesus.
In being and doing all this we as Christians hope to be the best friend our community has.
The other reason we are outward-focused is because it serves us like a mirror to keep us in line with the heart of God. We want to live in a biblical culture but biblical culture is beautiful in that it is always in context of our specific culture. When we engage with those of different cultures as our own two things happen.
When we see biblical culture reflected back to us as we see and know the other culture we praise God for the beauty of His creation. In Turkey, when I receive Turkish hospitality by a muslim, I can praise God for that hospitality because the Turk is reflecting the image of God that they are made in.
When there are differences in another’s culture than ours those differences are often opportunities for us to share. When we see a difference we can approach with curiosity which then often leads to opportunities to share about God.
As we are gospel-centered and outward-focused we tangibly live out the truths of our faith that our God is a God who reigns and redeems.