Perspectives- Steve Hawthorne

So I didn't actually see Steve Hawthorne (the editor of the Perspectives books and organizer of the movement) but since our class was snowed out, I listened to an mp3 from the website. My type-A-ness made it tough to sit and listen, and reinforced the quality of the in-person classes, but here are my takeaways from Hawthorne speaking on "the Story of His Glory":

• Glory is church jargon, but it is what God is so rich in that he creates things that are magnificent.
• Jesus did not base his mission and vision on people's needs, but just what the Father gave Him to do. When He died He finished what God gave Him. This indicates that we should not be burdened with solving all of mankind's needs, but just what the Father gives us.
• Crayon drawings- like when your child brings you a messy scribble, it is the most beautiful, precious, valuable artwork to you, God loves our worship in song and love, even though angels could run circles around our efforts.
• There is something precious about diversity- we are all His favorite sons and daughters.
• It is important to see God's story as a whole; there are lots of little stories that are not for their own purpose, not for our good, not for our salvation alone, but all for God's glory.
• Blessed to be a blessing to be a blessing- we as Christ followers are blessed by God so that we can be a blessing to the nations, so they can be a blessing to God.
• If you want to follow Jesus, you will want to be where He is. And He is all over the world.

A big point of this course (as I see it now, anyway) is that we are all called to bless the nations. We can be compared to Jonah, who turned from this call and ran the other way, but I don't think we as a church are as blatantly intentional in our disobedience. Rather, we don't hear this call from the pulpit, which is part of why I am sharing these notes.