Henri Nouwen summarized our calling (as followers of Jesus) this way:
"That is our vocation: to convert the enemy into a guest and to create the free and fearless space where brotherhood and sisterhood can be formed and fully experienced."
In my opinion, the dismantling of western evangelicalism of our day is a good thing. Over time, organized western Christian religion has become more about setting boundaries to determine who's in and who's out than about the kingdom (commonwealth) of God which is open to all, according to Jesus.
A number of young adults have come to me these days disillusioned with the "gospel" they were given and long for "a free and fearless space" to be part of.
At the risk of oversimplifying things, I want to challenge the generations after my generation to do the hard work of finding and/or creating "free and fearless spaces" where anyone who sincerely cares about the outlandish message of Jesus (which includes the outsider and those who aren't 'productive') can experience genuine brotherhood and sisterhood. This will require a living imagination, hard work, perseverance, willingness to make mistakes, willingness to disagree, lots of inconvenience and humility....and more.
The more "free and fearless spaces" that are created (no matter how small), the more the ways of Jesus' commonwealth society will permeate the earth.
