This is the time of year when students of all ages are heading back to school.
At the Mansfield Mission Center we will kick off the new school year with a staff study on The Jesus Priorities. Over the next ten weeks we will consider eight essential habits that Jesus prioritized expecting that Jesus’ priorities will increasingly become our priorities.
Origin
The eight priorities shown in the image above are the top priorities of Jesus based on Christopher Maricle’s book: The Jesus Priorities (Upper Room Books, 2007).
Just over a decade ago Maricle set out to determine what Jesus prioritized by counting the number of times the Gospel writers claim Jesus said or did specific things. Maricle then categorized these into eight broad themes or habits.
So What?
The Mansfield Mission Center is committed to empowering people on their journey to self-sufficiency and wholeness. Today we carry out this work with a team of around 30 staff and nearly 400 volunteers. This diverse team works well together in part because we share five core values.
Our first core value is that we are Christ-centered. On the MMC website, we explain this value as “our love for Jesus motivates our work and centers our purpose.”
So, for us, this study is an opportunity to get back to the basics.
For my readers, I’m hopeful this post encourages you to give some thought to how you are living out each of the eight priorities.
- Which priority (or priorities) are hardest for you? Share one way you might devote some time and energy to this priority during the next month.
- Which priority (or priorities) does your community of faith excel in? Explain.
If you’d like to learn more consider reading a few of my earlier blog posts on this topic:
- Who is Jesus? – The Jesus Priorities (2010) – includes the stats for each of the priorities
- My New eBook (2013) – features manuscripts of sermons I preached on each of the priorities
Note: I developed the graphic above from a template using Maricle’s names for each of Jesus’ priorities.