Book review of "Beyond objectification
In an age of declining church attendance, members may come to be seen as giving units or things rather than real people with needs and stories. By introducing vocational connection groups, Marcus Watson wants to help churches escape that trap by joining in what God is already doing rather than creating ministries meant for people to come forward.
He wants to help churches change the mindset from self-preservation to one of being church. One way to be church is to restore shalom, a state of well-being. The mission of the church is to bring healing.
In the first 300 years of the early church, there was a strong missionary identity. As the Roman church became organized, it was assumed that all were Christians. Over the past century, we have seen changes from what we grew up with. Not everyone identifies as a Christian in our country today.
Church members sometimes leave the work of the church in the hands of the clergy and missionaries and miss out on seeing God at work in their own vocational settings. This refers not only to our work, but to wherever we spend our time.
As we find out where God is working and come together, you become more involved. You will get more involved if you don’t leave everything to the pastor.
Vocational Connection Groups meet monthly to listen to each other and discover how God uses our passions where we are to bring healing and wholeness to our community. They meet over the course of a year to see what new ministry opportunities may arise to try as a group.
Being aware of the needs of our community where we spend most of our time opens doors to meeting those needs. Everyone has something to offer if we listen to each other.
All we have to do to see the current state of our world is watch the news. There are voices that want to be heard and understood. How can we offer shalom to the situation? For me, it was meeting my students’ parents while going to school online due to the pandemic closures. That was a good thing that came out of a new situation. He built a closer community base. It gave us the opportunity to get to know each other better. I wanted to be a support for them.
Now, I’ll be watching to see where God leads with that or where He leads me next.
