Last night in our small group we studied Mark 13 and the mini apocalypse section that it contains. Its a tricky bit of text in Mark’s Gospel but I think whatever decisions you reach about the details (within reason) the overall picture seems to be clear: Jesus is coming back to judge and save so heed the signs and be on your guard.

In looking to apply this section we asked a set of questions of ourselves and attempted to answer each question from two points of view: Firstly as a CHRISTIAN who is UNCONCERNED about the end and then secondly as a CHRISTIAN who IS CONCERNED about the end, as the passage suggests we should be. These where the questions:

What do I think about evangelism?
How do I pray?
How do I choose where to work?
How do I conduct my relationships with other Christians?
How do I spend my money?
How do I spend my free time?
How do I view church attendance and meeting with other believers?
How do I view personal Bible reading?
How do I respond to false christs and gospels?

What was great to see was that as we attempted to answer these questions from both points of view we could see a distinct move from a sort of consumer-Christian mindset to a missional-Christian mindset in the way that the group thought out the implications. What was the basis for this move from consumer to missional? The end – when Jesus comes to judge and save. Ironic then that if you don’t see Jesus coming to judge and save then you end up with a consumer mindset rather than a missional mindset – and yet many ‘missional’ proponents suggest that talking about judgment is not longer en vogue – curious?