Up, In, Out...and Around

In Christian ministry, the triangle "lifeshape" made popular by 3dMovements, the group that came from a remarkable ministry in Sheffield, England, has become very well-known.  They popularized the idea of boiling down the essentials of a Christian life to 3 directions - in, out, and up.  Essential discipleship for a group, then, is to reach in (fellowship), out (mission), and up (worship).  The same goes for an individual, which was perhaps first popularized by Henri Nouwen.  His integrative spirituality led him to propose that spirituality is intertwined with psychology, ministry, and theology.  Thus, for him the authentic Christian life was a series of three movements: from loneliness to solitude (in), from hostility to hospitality (out), and from illusion to prayer (up).  These three directions of life are very useful for patterning life.

I'd like to propose an addition.  Perhaps it's intuitively contained in the "out" portion of both ideas, but I think it warrants being identified as unique.  I'd like to mention a third model here, one from Christian development circles.  Bryant Myers described transformational ministry as one that restores fundamental broken relationships: those with ourselves, God, others, community (systems), and the environment.  In the currently popular book When Helping Hurts, the Chalmers Center combines others and community to make a four-fold model of ministry.  I'd like to do it differently: combine community and environment to make a pyramid, rather than a triangle:

The ministry model might call it participation.  The Nouwen pattern might call it the integration of spirituality and vocation.  He could have called it the movement from isolation to involvement.  I call it the piece that reminds us of the connectedness of all things.

I strongly believe that we live in a connected world, and that thus our life isn't involved simply in movements up, in, and out, but also in the participation with what is around us.  One of the most beautiful and most neglected pieces of Lutheran theology is Luther's concept of vocation.  We have a job, we have a community, we have a government, an economy, an ecology, and countless other systems that we participate in daily.  This "fourth" movement of the spiritual life leads us out into that world as disciples.  Our participation in the world is part of our spirituality.

What happens in this movement to the "around"?  We engage with the world and its systems.  We contribute meaningfully and positively to our workplaces.  We engage with our community on their terms, rather than simply on ours.  We have some involvement in the political and economic issues that so powerfully affect us and others.  We participate meaningfully with the environment as God's gift to us to be cultivated and nurtured.  We even recognize broken and sinful systems, such as those of oppression, poverty, and suffering, so that we can be salt and light in the world.

So, as individuals and as faith communities we can see our discipleship as ministering to ourselves, others, the world, and God.  Let's separate the "around" from the "out" to especially remind ourselves that our positive influence isn't just limited to the people around us, but to the systems as well.  It bridges Luther's split of the "two kingdoms" of God and the world, bringing us out into both as citizens of both.  It conveniently reminds us of the 4 points of the cross.  It even brings us back to the people of God in exile, in Jeremiah 29:4-14, seeking the peace of the city, participating in the city, and living expectantly for His return.