8 CHARACTERISTICS OF A KINGDOM REVOLUTIONARY

Series Objective

What does a Kingdom Revolutionary look like? A kingdom revolutionary can be defined as somebody who lives like Jesus lived. When Jesus called people to be his followers, and to learn his ways, he called them to be revolutionary. As we have learned, this was not “revolutionary” in that sense of how our world understands it. He did not call people to take up arms, or to overthrow governments, but he did call his followers to be counter-cultural in how they think, in how they love, in how they act, in fact in the totality of how they live their lives.

It is difficult as leaders of young people to clearly communicate this call. Sometimes it seems too hard or too complicated for young people. Other times we are intimidated by the truth of this message in our own life. A leader, to not be hypocritical, may soften the message so that it is congruent with his/her life. Or a leader may soften the message as a result of their insecurities (“I want the kids to like me”). As a result, it is easy to communicate an “easy gospel,” or to teach a theology in which God exists as a servant to fulfill our wishes and desires. As we read through scripture we find little justification for this kind of thinking. However, some of our Christian clichés reinforce this thinking. Consider the well-known saying, “When God closes a door, He opens a window” or “God wants you to be happy.” Are these ideas scriptural? As we study scripture we discover that the life of a kingdom revolutionary is in itself an adventure. It is not for the faint of heart or for those seeking to fill their lives with safe religion, or a controlled and ordered life.

Series Preparation:

This series is in many ways a conclusion and an overview of all that we have studied over the past year. The concepts for this series are extracted from Erwin McManus’s book, Seizing Your Divine Moment. In fact, each characteristic is simply the chapter title from a chapter in McManus’ book. The basis for McManus’ book is a biblical story found in I Samuel 13:16 – 14:23.

Contact: Please feel free to email the author to clarify, brainstorm ideas or provide feedback: Darren DeGraaf.

SERIES TOPICS