Jesus Cropped from the Picture

This Is Not Working for Me

their own personal meaning. In a church, a SLIM approach only reinforces these problems, leaving people lonely and unfulfilled, continually seeking personalized adventure and meaning. However, an EPIC approach helps a person find Niebuhr’s categories of family, community, and craft through the Kingdom of God. Family can be found in the life of the local church. “One is not subjected to an individualistic salvation, in which one stands alone, but is introduced to a community of people who provide social, moral, and psychological assistance to the converting person undergoing a radical change in life.” 62 Community is experienced within the universal Church (the past, present, future people of God, across all cultures). Each local church can be traced back through its history to the first Church at Pentecost. That first Church found its roots in the nation of Israel, which is connected back through the generations to Adam and Eve, who were created in the image of the Triune God, who is the Eternal Community that has been self-existent from ages past. When people understand they are a part of God’s “set-apart community,” they can find the meaning and identity Niebuhr describes. Craft is practiced through the individual’s contribution to Christ’s Kingdom by use of their spiritual gifts. Each person has a job to do within a local church, endowed by the Spirit to make their contribution to the Kingdom’s task. An EPIC view provides people with destiny, purpose, and meaning because the Kingdom provides them with a family, community, and craft .

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