God-centered refocusing

Christopher J.H. Wright writes in the January 2007 issue of Christianity Today:

God is on a mission, and we, in that wonderful phrase of Paul, are "co-workers with God."This God-centered refocusing of mission turns inside-out our obsession with mission plans, agendas, goals, strategies, and grand schemes.We ask, "Where does God fit into the story of my life?" when the real question is, "Where does my little life fit into the great story of God's mission?"We want to be driven by a purpose tailored for our individual lives, when we should be seeing the purpose of all life, including our own, wrapped up in the great mission of God for the whole of creation.We wrestle to "make the Gospel relevant to the world." But God is about the mission of transforming the world to fit the shape of the Gospel.We argue about what can legitimately be included in the mission God expects from the church, when we should ask what kind of church God expects for his mission in all its comprehensive fullness.I may wonder what kind of mission God has for me, when I should ask what kind of me God wants for his mission.

(Christopher J.H. Wright, "An Upside-Down World," Christianity Today, January 2007, 45-46)