Two Poles, One Call

Just sketching things here, broad strokes.

I know it’s not the full story. No nuance.

But maybe it’s food for thought.

The other night, chatting with DP, we ended up talking about mission and church — and how flipping hard it is these days to find people willing to volunteer.

It got me thinking: maybe this isn’t just a practical problem. Maybe it’s a theological shift.

I grew up evangelical, where sacrifice was everything.

Lay down your life. Give it all for the mission.

There was almost an evangelical martyr complex — like if you didn’t burn out for Jesus, were you even trying?

We wanted to be history makers (shoutout Delirious), shaped by the stories of radical missionaries, D-Day troops, missional risk-takers.

Throw your life into it. Trust God with the wreckage.

And honestly — a lot of it was beautiful.

Radical love.

Big faith.

Courage to risk.

But there was also a dark side.

No boundaries.

No value for quiet faithfulness.

Families sacrificed on the altar of the cause.

Burnout was a badge of honour.

And then — disappointment.

No revival. No culture change.

Just a pile of tired people wondering what went wrong.

Turns out, the Kingdom doesn’t come through burnout.

It often comes through what Alan Kreider called the patient ferment — slow, steady, mostly hidden obedience.

Fast forward to now.

The vibe is totally different.

Self-care, not self-sacrifice.

Safety, not risk.

Limits, not leaps.

And there’s real wisdom in that.

We’ve learned (or started to learn) to respect our humanity.

To tend to trauma.

To live at a more human pace.

But there’s a shadow side too.

We live in an age of mental health fragility.

People are barely holding their own lives together, let alone volunteering for mission.

Self-care, family, survival — it makes sense.

And when you throw in the powerful pull of consumerism — live the dream, build your best life — no wonder commitment is thin on the ground.

Even the Jesus People movement — that radical fire birthed in the US— most of it got pulled into other things.

Consumer Church

Suburban comfort.

The edge dulled.

So now we live between two poles:

Radical love and risky obedience on one side.

Self-care, boundaries, creaturely wisdom on the other.

Both are true.

Both are needed.

But wisdom calls us to hold them together.

We need a radical love that is sustainable.

A sacrifice that doesn’t destroy.

A self-care that doesn’t shrink into selfishness.

Risk and rest.

Mission and margin.

Spend yourself — but slowly, wisely, under the easy yoke of Christ.

The Kingdom is still fermenting.

Still rising.

Even now.

-Rev’d Jon Swales, 2025