Get Your Pretense On!

Chapter 5: Represent Strong! • 129

the Kingdom, every disciple can minister the life of the Good News in the place where God has placed them today.

Correspondingly, we do not need to be in “full time ministry”; every role and life where we are is “full time ministry.” Our position, station, or employment status does not matter. We can be carpenters, teachers, plumbers, or accountants. We can be married or single, young or old, poor or wealthy, graduates of the IVY league, or learned our craft on the streets or in the prison yard. We can be a minister and church planter, or a sales person or a roofer. We can be housewives (or house-husbands), supervisors or shop fellows, foremen and forewomen, a grand mother, or an uncle or aunt, secretaries, or students, or politicians – or whomever . The issue here is this: it is not where you might be, but how you live and act where he has placed you. The Lord needs ambassadors in the board room and on the shop floor, in the sales office and in the college classroom, in the halls of power and on the streets of the people. You must deliberately live with your new identity as God’s agent and ambassador. Change your persona (in other words, match your demeanor with your designation ). Get your pretense on! Do not be colloquial or causal about your role as Christ’s agent and “missionary” where he has placed you. Embrace your identity as his Gospel representative with those with whom you represent and relate. Let everything you do (your words, disposition, attitude, and actions) show you to be Christ’s servant and agent. Represent the Kingdom, live by its purposes, priorities, and principles. And, above all be patient with yourself. Give yourself time to try on your new persona and identity as Christ’s