"Gospel order means we live as disciples and as a church with Jesus at the center, in a unity of faith and practice, in a unity of heaven and earth. It turns from theory to practice, not just when we look for accountability in conflict, but also in the very ways we organize ourselves, relate to civil authority, choose our leaders and deploy our missionaries."
In light of some recent political violence in Russia:
Kelly wants neither the escapism of other-worldly piety nor the obsession with here-and-now effectiveness of church-as-social-agency. It is the constant awareness (fading inevitably from foreground to background, and back again) of Divine Presence that gives us both endurance and perspective. As I contemplate how life is not a chess game where we have unlimited time to construct a perfect strategy, it’s a great comfort to me to consider that my only real task at any given moment is to remain in that Presence.
