Musings On "Marketplace"

I think the marketplace movement ... come to think of it... is probably a response to what might have been a lack of activeness and vibrancy in the ordinary Christian's life. Its purpose is to call Christians to live out their faith in the marketplace too, not just restrict it to Sundays. I think its intention is noble. Beautiful and much-needed. A call to arms again, as it is. Perhaps we could start with a look into what is meant by the term "marketplace".

The term "marketplace" seems to have started spanning everything, e.g. arts, education, politics and so on. If that's what it means, then it's good lah. But gee, I think we're not using the term properly then. Perhaps we should discard the term "marketplace", since it implies that the Christian's main place is in the - guess what! - marketplace. Because it also implies that the Christian's calling and place will always be in the office. Nah! Some are artists, and some are full-time parents, teachers and so on. I reckon if you want to call them all "marketplace"... well, that's stretching the term quite a bit to the point of misunderstanding. Just gotta be careful when we bandy the term "marketplace". Call it by another name then. Like... "everyplace"? Well, I guess people have been using the term "marketplace" to refer to EVERYTHING... including media, arts, education and so on. Man, I don't like the way it's being used. It's unnecessarily confusing and potentially stumbling. Because not everyone shares the same Christianized definition of the term "marketplace". We risk making our own version of Newspeak.

So it seemst that the common understanding is that it means that you can glorify God through your work. Important! Yes and amen. But I think we must not neglect the aspects of being specially set apart for missions and so on. For full-time work, etc. After all, the church at Antioch was commanded by the Holy Spirit to "set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them." There is such a thing as God's work. You know, special things like missions, serving full-time, etc. I do believe that there is a more special thing to being called. That Jesus will really call you to come follow Him, even while you are doing your normal marketplace work. Then you need to drop your nets (literally) and follow Him. The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.

Anyway, I think this marketplace movement may be a case of attempting to treat the symptoms of nutritionally-deficient faith. It does work, like a medic fixing a casualty's wound, but I think we gotta zoom out and see the entire picture, as far as possible. Because the key thing is that if a man/woman is on fire for God, then wherever he/she goes, be it campus or school, home or office... he/she will want to shine for God brightly there. Even in something as simple as brushing your teeth, something like the way you drive your car... and respond to others who drive their cars...Everything will be on fire. EVERYTHING. Well, ideally. But that's what sanctification is about. To quote Townsend, "All growth is ultimately spiritual growth." Because everything of our lives was meant to be fully occupied by God. Especially by the Holy Spirit.

Imagine what the world could be like, if every Christian decided to throw their lives fully into the hands of God again. To let the Holy Spirit move us as He pleases. And if we were to band together as churches. Exercising the fullness of the gifts He has given us. But more importantly, and more powerfully, what if everyone of us chose to OBEY His word by FAITH? To decide to no longer conform to the world's pattern, but choose to embrace one another as family, truly family? No longer seeing as "Oh, that person is from Youth service," or "Oh that person is from Adults" or "Tertiary" or so on. But as "Hey, bro! Hey, sis! Let us learn from one another!"

And what if we decided to go out into the world and preach the good news to all creation? :)

So I guess the marketplace movement is more like a response to calling battlefield stragglers, but ultimately it's limited in its measure and scope... inadequate even in its challenge to us. What is key is that we need to go and make disciples of all nations... the Great Commission, in other words. Let's not win the battle but lose the war.