Marketplace Musings - More

I've been glancing through the comments I've received... whoa! thanks guys, you are one heaven of an eloquent bunch! And am impressed how you can compactly say in a few lines what it takes me a few pages to say. In other words, you concise, I 'cheong hei' (long-winded).

Well, it seems that so far there's two sides to this view...
That both sides don't have much issue with the definition of the marketplace.
Just that one side is not comfortable with idea of using "marketplace ministry" as an excuse for not stepping out in faith into full-time.
And the other side is not comfortable with the idea of using "full-time" as an excuse for not stepping out in faith into the marketplace.

Then there's a third perspective (the middle view):
Fredrick Buechener says, "Neither the hair shirt nor the soft berth will do. The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet."

I was thinking... wow, very interesting. Let's explore further. The fact is, John the Baptist did go into the desert and wear a hair shirt, and preach, "You brood of vipers!" Whereas Daniel and Queen Esther got to sit on a soft berth... And Paul? He hammered Christians, and then after he met Jesus, he got hammered for being a Christian. So I don't think we can really appropriate the idea of a "middle way". After all, as someone quipped, you can't be very well-adjusted to your world if it says you have a demon, your own family says you're out of your mind, and you end up being nailed naked to a stake of wood.

There's a fourth perspective: Wherever God calls you to go, there you go. If it's to Wall Street, go. If it's to the Amazon jungle, go. If God calls you to rebuild a devasted city, then plan... or if He calls you to just step out and walk on water... well, you have to throw all logic to the winds. One time He orders Joshua to summon the ENTIRE nation to go against a tiny city, and another time He orders Gideon to cut down his army to only 300 men - against a bloodthirsty horde of countless infantry and cavalry. I'm thinking now that the fourth perspective  makes the most sense. Because it's all about doing God's will. Not anthro-centric, but God-centric.

One lesson I've learnt from the Bible is that we can't restrict God's thinking to our own level of thinking. God is God, and we are not. But the key thing is to listen and do whatever He wants us to do.

Now, one of my friends said that perhaps missions field is tougher than the marketplace. And no doubt that Paul directed Timothy that the elders in the church are worth of double honour (also meaning that their pay should be doubled). This is to show the importance of full-time ministry - especially those who preach the Word. So full-time ministry is very important, and I think there IS a difference in full-time ministry.

But all the same, all of us are called to minister everywhere we go. Just that God chooses some for full-time, and chooses others to go into the marketplace. We all are a chosen people.

I think this passage from Ephesians 4 is worth pondering over (the Message translation):

1-3In light of all this, here's what I want you to do. While I'm locked up here, a prisoner for the Master, I want you to get out there and walk—better yet, run!—on the road God called you to travel. I don't want any of you sitting around on your hands. I don't want anyone strolling off, down some path that goes nowhere. And mark that you do this with humility and discipline—not in fits and starts, but steadily, pouring yourselves out for each other in acts of love, alert at noticing differences and quick at mending fences.

4-6You were all called to travel on the same road and in the same direction, so stay together, both outwardly and inwardly. You have one Master, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who rules over all, works through all, and is present in all. Everything you are and think and do is permeated with Oneness.

7-13 But that doesn't mean you should all look and speak and act the same. Out of the generosity of Christ, each of us is given his own gift. The text for this is,

He climbed the high mountain,
He captured the enemy and seized the booty,
He handed it all out in gifts to the people.

Is it not true that the One who climbed up also climbed down, down to the valley of earth? And the One who climbed down is the One who climbed back up, up to highest heaven. He handed out gifts above and below, filled heaven with his gifts, filled earth with his gifts. He handed out gifts of apostle, prophet, evangelist, and pastor-teacher to train Christ's followers in skilled servant work, working within Christ's body, the church, until we're all moving rhythmically and easily with each other, efficient and graceful in response to God's Son, fully mature adults, fully developed within and without, fully alive like Christ.

14-16No prolonged infancies among us, please. We'll not tolerate babes in the woods, small children who are an easy mark for impostors. God wants us to grow up, to know the whole truth and tell it in love—like Christ in everything. We take our lead from Christ, who is the source of everything we do. He keeps us in step with each other. His very breath and blood flow through us, nourishing us so that we will grow up healthy in God, robust in love.

The full-time workers train up those sent out into the marketplace. How's that? :)

Hmm... wondering aloud. Is missions = fulfilling the Great Commission then? Is fulfilling the Great Commission = extending God's kingdom?

Edited to add:
I mean missions as in the overall aim of the church, not going overseas...