Are you being a good citizen?
An interview
with Rob Peabody, author of
Citizen: Your Role in the Alternative Kingdom

Peabody realized his faith had
little connection with the world around him. He had inherited a westernized
view of Christianity that too often glorifies personal success, comfort and
individualism to the detriment of the lifestyle to which Jesus calls his
followers. He realized Jesus was calling him — and all of us — to an
all-or-nothing lifestyle, not a pick-and-choose faith salad bar. Something had
to change.
Q: Let’s start off by talking about
the title of your book — Citizen: Your
Role in the Alternative Kingdom. What is the “alternative Kingdom”?
The
“alternative Kingdom” is the way in which God originally intended for creation
to live. In the Garden of Eden, everything was right, perfect and the way it
should be, but man’s sin corrupted this perfection. Ever since, all of humanity
has been subject to living in a world that is not right; there is something
wrong with it. We find in the Gospels that, through Jesus, God is setting the
world back to the way it should be, and when we find Jesus, He invites us to do
the same. I find it interesting that at the height of the Roman Empire, Jesus
(and later the Apostle Paul) begins speaking of the “Father’s Kingdom,” or a
new way of life. He didn’t speak of a better
empire or corrections to the current world system but rather a completely
different kind of Kingdom. Jesus showed us how to live as part of the only
Kingdom that will truly last and the Kingdom that brings heaven to earth. He then
He empowers and releases His followers to do the same. The “alternative Kingdom”
is the “Jesus way” of living life. It is a rebellion of righteousness in a
broken world that is far from God.
Q: You once held a position as the
lead campus pastor at a mega-church in Texas. While there, you had a major
realization about your life and work. What was that realization, and what did
it lead you to do?
I
was 26 and had just finished seminary when I was promoted from young adult
pastor to the new role of leading our newest church campus. It was my dream job
with great influence, hundreds of congregants and the chance to lead a thriving
church community. The church exploded with excitement. People were being baptized and saved, and true growth was
occurring. It was all going to plan . . . and then it hit me. I couldn’t go on
this way any longer.
God
was doing something in my heart. Later I would come to describe it as a “holy
discontent.” I began realizing the way I viewed church was off-kilter. For me
and many others worship was being reduced to an hour time slot on Sunday
morning. Don’t get me wrong; worship services are an essential part of following
Jesus, but God was showing me that true worship transforms a life completely,
not just when it is time to sing. Monday through Saturday is just as important as Sunday morning when
it comes to following Jesus.
This
realization led me to our city mayor’s office, along with my friend and worship
leader Joel Warren. We told the mayor Jesus did not just save us from something (hell and eternal
separation from Him), but He saved us for
something. Stated simply, we wanted to see the worship overflow from the church
building to the streets in which we lived. We wanted to be agents of change
where we lived. We asked the mayor about the greatest needs in the community
and vowed to strive to meet those needs in the name of Jesus. We mobilized the
church to adopt local schools and mentoring programs to teach life skills to
the down-and-out in our community. We began the process of being the church and not merely going
to church.
This
wake-up call for me personally led to the formation of the Awaken Movement. Later my family moved
to London, England, to facilitate Awaken’s vision in the U.K., as well as
church-planting amongst those in their 20s and 30s who would never step foot in
a traditional church environment.
My
family and friends were very supportive of our move to the U.K. Although it was
hard for the grandparents to see their only grandchild at the time move across
the Atlantic, they understood God had paved the way to London in so many ways.
It was clearly His plan too.
Q: Do you think the majority of
Christians are really living the kind of life Christ calls his followers to?
I
don’t think so . . . at least from my limited viewpoint of the church in the
West. Unfortunately, we have inherited a Christian sub-culture that thrives on
individualism and personal choice to the detriment of pursuing the true calling
of ultimate allegiance to King Jesus. Jesus makes very bold and explicit claims
about what it looks like to follow Him, and for many churchgoers these claims
get in the way of how WE want to live our lives. Jesus is calling us to an
all-or-nothing lifestyle in the way that we follow Him, not a pick-and-choose
salad bar. When Jesus becomes King in our hearts and minds, our actions and
behaviors will follow suit. Until that happens we (churchgoers) find ourselves
a conflicted people wanting to love Jesus on the one hand, while still bowing
to the idols of our flesh. This conflict must be dealt with before we can truly
live out the kind of life to which Jesus calls us.
Q: You talk in Citizen about how Christians have competing allegiances. What are
those allegiances, and how do they stand in the way of Kingdom living?
We
all have allegiances. Some are healthy and God-given, such as marriage,
parenting, being an employee or employer, friendship, etc. When Jesus takes His rightful place in our
life, there is a re-prioritization of life that naturally takes place. When
this happens, our relationship with the King becomes the lens by which we see
all our other loyalties and allegiances. Therefore living for the Kingdom
informs all areas of our lives and all earthly loyalties and penetrates
everything that we do. According to Jesus, there is no such thing as
compartmentalization of certain areas of our lives.
Q: You say, “Citizens of the Kingdom
should be the most risk-taking people on the planet.” What do you mean?
I’m
finding this quote is really standing out to people. It means if we have truly
died to our allegiance to ourselves and it has been replaced by a greater
ultimate allegiance to Jesus, then our lives are no longer our own. In 1
Corinthians, Paul tells us we have been “bought with a price” — that price
being Jesus’ own life — and that we died with Him (Romans 6:3) and will be
resurrected with Him. So if we have already died and the penalty for our sin
has been dealt with, we have absolutely nothing to lose! There is no fear of
death for people who have already died. For the believer, death has been dealt
with, so what is the worst that could possibly happen to them?
I
think it is this reality that frees us to live as risk-takers, Kingdom-bringers
and radical, righteous rebels who take Kingdom ground during our relatively
short time on this earth. I am becoming increasingly convinced that Kingdom
ground is not taken any other way.
Q: Has the spiritual climate in the
U.K. changed the way you view the American church? How so?
Absolutely.
You never really see your blind spots until you are given a different
perspective. Living as an outsider in a different country has given me a unique
view into Great Britain but also a different perspective of my homeland.
Living
in a post-Christian city (London) made up of less than 2% evangelical
Christians has opened my eyes to the reality that if the church in America does
not make some serous changes, they will go the way of post-Christian Europe. I
think the American church, with all its members, money and “success,” is (at
times) over-complicating what it means to follow Jesus. I’m finding that as an
American pastor, I didn’t really understand the need for unity or Kingdom
living amongst the body. I got too caught up in numbers to the detriment of
true discipleship. Programs began replacing relationships, and buildings
clouded my view of the body. When you live in a city as a part of the tiny religious
minority, your faith either falls away or becomes very real. I think the church
in America could use some of this shock to wake them up from operating as
business as usual before it is too late.
I’ve
thought about this question a lot recently, and I would say discipleship,
prayer, unity, stewardship, lifestyle worship and Kingdom-living. What it all
comes down to, though, is Jesus. We must re-imagine our lives, re-position what
we value, re-identify who we are and re-center all of these things on the true
King of the world.
Q: Tell us more about the Awaken
Movement you helped found. What is its mission and purpose?
Awaken
was born in 2008 as an organization to help resource the church for action. We
inspire, educate and equip local churches to put action to their faith as they strive
to be the church outside the walls of the church building.
Co-founded
by Joel Warren (musician/worship leader) and me, Awaken came out of our work
together in the suburbs of Dallas, Texas, as we sought to help our church “reclaim
our Jerusalem” and live as agents of change in the cities in which we lived.
Awaken is led by a collective of compelled artists, musicians, pastors,
photographers, filmmakers, songwriters, authors, missionaries and business professionals
who are dissatisfied with the status quo of merely attending church. We desire
to see a generation of churchgoers living as Kingdom-bringers in their
communities. We create small-group studies, films, music, books and church-wide
campaigns to help carry this message and vision to the church in the West.
Q: One unique characteristic of the
western world is our love of personal autonomy. How can this actually be a detriment to the Christian life?
Individualism
and personal autonomy are two of the things our Western dreams are based upon.
The tricky part is that Jesus lived on earth and the Bible was written from an
Eastern perspective and worldview. So the task is to see how Jesus lived, hear
His words and examine His life, and then apply that to our 21st-century lives.
It seems to me that individualism is actually a Western cultural stronghold that
prevents us from living like Christ at times. If the goal of our lives is to
make money, be comfortable, save for the future, enjoy life and seek happiness,
those values and ideals can be pitted against the very things Jesus is calling
us to. We must let Jesus transform our heart and reevaluate what we want to
devote our life to. This is especially important when living in a culture where
personal autonomy reigns supreme.
Q: What do you think is the biggest
enemy to the Gospel in America? The world?
I
believe one of the main ploys the Enemy uses against believers in the West is
to encourage them subtly to give in to the silent killers of apathy and fear. Comfort
could also be added to this list for many of our brothers and sisters in the
West.
Q: Does a Christian need to quit his
or her job and go into full-time missions work to apply the principles you lay
out in Citizen?
Most
definitely not. In fact, I think that would completely defeat the purpose of my
message in Citizen. This book is for
everyday people who want to follow Jesus and live for something greater than
themselves.
Q: How do you hope Citizen changes its readers?
My
prayer is that Citizen would show you
who you really are in Jesus and then release you to live a life more abundant,
more fulfilling, more daring and more joyful than what you are currently
settling for. There is so much more to life, and it can only be found in our
true King.
For more information about Rob
Peabody, visit his online home at awakenmovement.com, become a fan on Facebook (awakenmovement) or
follow him on Twitter
(@AwakenRob and @awakenmovement).
Comments