Inter-Varsity Press

CONTENTS

Foreword

Introduction

Part One: A story of glory: given, lost and found

1. Where are we?

2. What are we like?

3. The First Great Commission

4. A day of failure

5. The glory of God comes down to us

6. Perfect glory at last!

Part Two: Glory to God in everything?

7. Two Great Commissions and Two Great Commandments

8. Glorifying God at work

9. Christian citizens

10. Called to be myself

11. All callings good, some callings better?

12. Loving God with all your mind

13. Caring for creation

14. Creativity and the arts

15. Enjoying God’s gifts

16. Glorifying God in dark days

17. Living gloriously under the lordship of Christ

FOREWORD

Don’t believe it . . .

Maybe you’ve heard that Christianity is a life-denying, vein-burstingly, eye-bogglingly boring way of life that could suck the marrow from a gnat and the joy from a lark.

Don’t believe it.

Maybe you’ve heard that God, at least the Christian one, doesn’t like great novels, fi ne music, fantastic paintings, awe-inspiring sculpture, soul-soaring kisses or the tangs and textures of a shrimp, avocado, tomato and ginger salad . . . nor rejoice in the creativity that went into making them.

Don’t believe it.

Maybe you’ve heard that Jesus isn’t interested in what you do Monday through Saturday – in the classroom, the lecture hall, the office, the factory, the kitchen, the sports club . . .that he’s not interested in that essay, that document, that cleaning, that slide tackle, and that all he’s really concerned about is what you do at church on a Sunday, and in a small group on a Wednesday night.

Don’t believe it.

Maybe you’ve heard that the Holy Spirit isn’t interested in seeing the poor fed, justice done, wells dug, harvests reaped, schools built, sex trafficking stopped, women liberated, pollution stopped . . . Maybe you’ve heard that all he’s really concerned about is evangelism and inner piety.

Don’t believe it.

Christ came to bring life – life in eternity and abundant life in the here and now. Not a self-indulgent, materialist, logo-obsessed, wafer-thin, glossy veneer of a life, but a life of meaning and purpose and full humanity – living for God, living for others as a full-orbed human being – flesh, blood, mind, spirit, emotion. A life committed to his agenda – a life of love and relationship, as a partner in a movement to reach the world and transform the world. An adventure – in times of plenty and limitation, times of joy and suffering – that his will be done and his kingdom come – in my town, my home, my school, my workplace . . . my heart. That’s what this book is about. And that’s what makes this book a rare and precious and important thing.

And you can believe it.

Because that’s what the Bible is about too.

Believe it or not.

The author of this book is a pastor. Nobody is perfect. And Julian is no exception. He has bad taste in football teams, thinks his home town is altogether too wondrous, and has played ‘Common People’ on his PC over seventy-eight times. But he’s a liver and lover of life, and a man who’s spent years trying to help other people live the abundant life Jesus has for them – whatever age they are, wherever God has placed them in his world. And that’s why this book has the throb of life about it. I’m really grateful for it. And for him. And I hope you will be too.

Enjoy.

Mark Greene; Executive Director; The London Institute for Contemporary Christianity

INTRODUCTION (extract)

Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

(1 Corinthians 10:31)

The key to maximum life, to becoming all we were made to be, to serving God most satisfyingly and completely, is to do everything for his glory. The problem is we sell ourselves short. I have been as guilty of this as anyone. It is a problem sometimes called the secular–sacred divide. That’s a rather technical sounding label so let me explain what I mean by telling a story.

Steve grew up in a great family who did their best to be good citizens but had little time for God or church. Steve’s mother was a lapsed Roman Catholic who always said that convent school had immunized her for life against the virus called religion. Steve’s father, a probation officer, had been deeply influenced by his father, a trade union official with a strong commitment to social justice and a suspicion of the church. He always dismissed it as part of the ‘establishment’. Steve was a little in awe of grandpa but he admired his moral fervour.

When Steve was doing his A levels both mum and dad urged him to go to university. His mother hoped he’d pick up her interest in history of art. His dad tried to steer him towards an obviously socially useful course like development studies, building on his geography A level. Studying English literature wasn’t exactly a compromise: it was what Steve wanted to do. But his dad was reassured when Steve joined the university branch of the Labour Party. In his first term, Steve found himself on the same corridor as Martin and Saffron. The three of them found they all drank Fairtrade coffee and listened to Razorlight. They formed a kind of threesome and used to go around together or meet up for late night chats. It was a nice group to be in but Steve did sometimes feel a bit left out. Martin and Saffron were both Christians. Keen Christians.

This was a new experience. Card-carrying keen Christians who went to church because they wanted to, who read the Bible because it connected with their lives, who talked about

Jesus as someone they knew – it was rather like being in a human version of Jurassic Park. They seemed like dinosaurs, exotic and unusual – almost unbelievable really – and rather fascinating.

After a few weeks, his curiosity got the better of him and he ended up at a service at their church. Lots more modern-day dinosaurs but they seemed fairly normal for all that. So it seemed safe enough to sign up for what they called an ‘Alpha’ course. To cut a long story short, just before the end of the Easter term, Steve realized that Jesus was real, too real to be ignored – in fact too real to do anything other than turn his life over to.

His mum and dad came up to see Steve baptized and were secretly impressed by the church and his Christian friends, although there was no way they were going to admit that to him. After his baptism, Steve enrolled in a group for new Christians. He wondered why it wasn’t called ‘Beta’ but idle thoughts about its name receded as he learned more about following Jesus. The way he’d become a Christian meant he wasn’t surprised to be told that there was no room for half measures. Everyone in the group seemed totally committed and he wanted to be too.

When he mentioned that he was studying English literature some eyebrows were raised: ‘You’ll need to watch out what that does to your faith’, someone said. From then on Steve didn’t talk about novels with his Christian friends. He was sure they’d think there were better things to do than play around with words so he stopped writing poetry too. His academic work took a bit of a nose dive as he found himself leading Bible studies.

Early on as a new Christian, Steve asked if anyone in the Christian Union would like to come to the University Labour Club Christmas party. The leaders’ eyebrows went so high he thought there’d be hair left on the ceiling. He was firmly told that the way to change the world for the better was by getting people to become Christians. ……..