Gospel, Heaven, Worship

I originally signed up for an "Event Planning" class and was very excited to take it, and I experienced it for the first time last night. It's AMAZING! It's a small class - only about 12 of us at the most - but it's great! The professor as one of my classmates said is like, "intensity refined."She's super spunky, intelligent, passionate about her work and the class and loves to get interaction from the rest of us. It's definitely not a boring class :)

Last night we spent the class discussing the spiritual purposes for event planning, which is already a neat way to start off the class. It's always good to know why you're doing something, and if it has a Biblica perspective behind it, that's even more important. It's such a blessing to go to a school and have classes where you pray before and after classes and address each topic with a Biblical worldview and foundation.

We discussed beginning anything, from an event you're planning to waking up every single day, with the mindset of beginning with the end in mind. And for Christians, this goes even deeper than hoping to make it out "alive" and in one piece :) It has three components:

Gospel, Heaven, Worship

Sounds like an easy thing to do every day but when we were asked to privately rate ourselves on a scale from 1-10, it was hard to realize that I do not wake up everyday preaching the Gospel to myself (ahem...Mahaney:), having an eternal perspective (Heaven), and though I find myself thanking God throughout the day for things He's blessed me with, I do not "run those sunbeams back to the sun" (Piper). That is true worship. So, I miserably fail on all accounts. Pretty humbling.

The professor suggested that we have to have a strategy. We need a plan to focus on, so we do wake up everyday with the mindset of Gospel, Heaven, Worship. One point she made was that being a Christian and a Christian event coordinator are not two seperate things. You don't flip a switch to turn off being one person to become another. That's not having integrity. And more than that, being a Christian and a Christian event coordinator has the same goal(s): Gospel, Heaven, Worship. Both have clearly defined purposes.

Perhaps the biggest thing I took away from last night's class had nothing to do with event planning in particular. When we were talking about why we don't wake up everyday with a Gospel focus, our professor said,

"I think a lot of people think the Gospel is a point in time."

So true. We think the Gospel was good to save us, but it's kind of like justification. We were made right when we accepted Christ, but now "we got it from here, God." We don't like to be reminded of our sin. And that's what the Gospel does; it reminds us that we were sinners and that we still are sinful. But we think that now we're saved, we're not that bad, which is why we don't like to share the Gospel with others and with ourselves every day when we wake up.

When we begin with the end in mind, we should approach any task with the "end in mind," which for Christians means Gospel, Heaven, Worship. One practical way Christians can do this is by approaching the task with the mindset of offering our gifts back to the Lord to say "thank you." God gave you the gift of creativity, organization, etc.? Good. Use it to serve the Lord by serving others and say "thank you."

Another practical way to approach tasks with this mindset is to assume there are unsaved people wherever you go. An important question to ask after working on an event or task is, "Did I leave the person with a good or bad impression/experience?" The unsaved people will judge Christ based on you. They will get their impression of Christianity based on what you do, how you act and how you treat others.

Who knew that what seemed like just a "fluffy" class could be so convicting?!?! Praise God for things that make you think. I pray that I can grow in these areas and wake up every day and approach each task with the mindset of Gospel, Heaven, Worship.

On another, lighter note, what other class uses Pinterest to turn in assignments?! Pretty neat :)

Looking forward to this class,
Em