Small Working Models of New Creation

N.T. Wright, Session 1 of the Holy Spirit Conference

Photo by Oliver Hihn on Unsplash

Over the next few weeks, I'll be unpacking each talk from the Bridgetown Holy Spirit Conference. My goal is to capture not just the content, but the impact - what stirred my spirit and challenged my thinking. While no written reflection can fully convey being in those moments, I hope these posts will give you a glimpse of what God was doing in our midst.

Friday night opened with N.T. Wright setting a powerful foundation for what would become a transformative series on "The Kingdom, Now and Not Yet." As I sat listening to him explore the Holy Spirit and the Church's role in God's new creation, one phrase kept emerging that captured my imagination: the Church as a "small working model of new creation." This concept, woven throughout his message, has profound implications for how we understand both our individual calling and our collective purpose as the Church.

The Pattern of New Creation

Wright traces a fascinating pattern through Scripture, from Genesis to Acts. In Genesis, God's Spirit hovers over the waters, bringing order and beauty from chaos. At Pentecost, that same Spirit comes to create a new kind of order - not uniformity, but what Wright calls "differentiated unity." The Church becomes the place where diverse people and gifts come together in harmony, modeling what God intends for all creation.

More Than Just a Signpost

What struck me most was Wright's insistence that the Church isn't just pointing to God's future new creation - we're meant to be an active embodiment of it. Like the ancient tabernacle and temple, we're meant to be the place where heaven and earth meet, where God's presence dwells. But unlike those physical structures, we're a living, breathing community filled with the Spirit.

The Dual Calling

Wright highlighted two essential aspects of becoming these "small working models":

1. A People of Lament: We're called to stand in the world's pain, groaning with creation, interceding for God's kingdom to come. This isn't passive sympathy but active participation in the Spirit's work of renewal.

This point landed as a loving but firm jab to my spirit. As an Enneagram 8, I naturally gravitate toward action, solutions, and forward movement. Lament, grief, sitting with emotions, and slowing down are not my natural rhythms. Yet here was Wright, echoing what the Spirit has been pressing into my life - the necessity of standing in the world's pain, and often harder; my pain, rather than rushing to fix it. This theme would later be amplified powerfully in Gemma Ryan's closing session (more on that in a future post).

2. A People of Commission: Just as Jesus was sent by the Father, we're sent to be His presence in the world. The Spirit equips us not just for our own transformation, but to be agents of transformation.

The Challenge and Promise

Wright delivered a powerful critique of what he calls the "evacuation theology" that has dominated much Western Christianity. This view sees salvation primarily as souls escaping earth to go to heaven, treating the physical world as temporary and ultimately disposable. As Wright pointed out, if Ephesians 1:10 had been taken as the watchword of the church in the 16th century, the entire history of Western Europe and North America would have been different.

The biblical hope, Wright emphasized, is not the Platonic hope that our souls will eventually escape through some tortuous journey to end up in a place called heaven. Instead, the living God always intended to dwell with His people. He did this in the Tabernacle, in the temple, in Jesus (who "pitched his tent among us"), and now through the Spirit in the church. The goal isn't to escape earth for heaven, but for heaven and earth to come together - first in the church as a working model, and ultimately in all of creation.

This vision radically challenges both individualistic and escapist versions of Christianity. We're not waiting rooms for souls bound for heaven - we're meant to be places where Heaven and Earth intersect right now. We're called to be advance signs of God's promise that one day "the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea" (Habakkuk 2:14).

Practical Implications

Being a "small working model of new creation" means:

• Taking our unity in diversity seriously

• Standing with those who suffer

• Living as communities of hope

• Demonstrating God's justice and peace

• Being signs of God's future in the present

Looking Forward

Wright's image of "small working models" offers both humility and hope. We're small, were human and finite - we don't have to pretend we've got it all figured out. For the love, I am not sure I have anything figured out! But we're working - actively participating in what God is doing. And we're models - showing the world a glimpse of what God intends for all creation.

The phrase reminds me of Jesus' parables about the kingdom - the mustard seed, the leaven in the dough. Small things through which God does His big work. May we embrace this calling to be faithful small working models, trusting that the Spirit who hovered over creation's waters is the same Spirit working in and through us today.

Leading Small Working Models in our Vocation

Wright emphasized that God's plan for new creation isn't just about Saturday or Sunday worship or "spiritual" activities - it encompasses all of human vocation. Just as God gave humans the task of tending and cultivating creation in Genesis, our work today is meant to be part of God's restorative purpose. Our vocations - whether in business, ministry, education, or any other field - are meant to be spaces where God's future breaking into the present becomes visible.

This understanding transforms how we view leadership and organizational life. If our workplaces are meant to be "small working models of new creation," then everything should change - from how we structure our organizations to how we measure success. Here are several key principles for leading with this vision:

1. Differentiated Unity in Practice

Just as the Spirit at Pentecost created unity while preserving diversity, our organizations should:

• Celebrate different perspectives and approaches

• Build teams that complement rather than clone

• Create cultures where unity doesn't require uniformity

• Value each person's unique contribution to the whole

2. Counter-Cultural Leadership

Wright's emphasis on the "upside-down kingdom" suggests leadership should:

• Prioritize serving over being served

• Focus on formation over mere performance

• Build sustainable, life-giving rhythms

• Model vulnerability and authenticity

3. Spaces of New Creation

Our organizations can become "thin places" where heaven meets earth through:

• Just and equitable practices

• Cultivation of beauty and excellence

• Care for both people and creation

• Integration of spiritual formation with daily work

4. Signs of Hope

Like the ancient temple, our organizations can be places where:

• People experience God's presence

• Healing and restoration happen

• Justice and mercy meet

• The future breaks into the present

5. Communities of Formation

Leadership in this context means:

• Prioritizing character over competency alone

• Creating space for spiritual growth

• Integrating prayer and discernment into decision-making

• Viewing profit and productivity as means, not ends

The challenge for leaders is to resist the gravitational pull of business as usual and instead create spaces where God's new creation can take root and flourish. This might mean slower growth, different metrics of success, and practices that seem counter-intuitive to conventional wisdom. But if we truly believe we're called to be small working models of new creation, then our leadership must reflect that reality.

This aligns deeply with what I've been learning and writing about with Tov leadership - the Hebrew concept of "good" that implies fulfilling the purpose for which something was created. Tov leadership and spiritual formation are inseparable; we cannot lead beyond where our spiritual formation has taken us. As Wright reminded us, God's project isn't to snatch people away from Earth to Heaven but to colonize Earth with the life of Heaven. This transforms both the purpose and practice of our leadership.

When we embrace this vision, our organizations become spaces where people can flourish as they were created to be, where work becomes worship, and where we participate in God's new creation breaking into the present. It requires us to resist being just about performance-based metrics and instead integrating formation, character, and the slow work of cultural transformation. Leading the whole person is a great start. We're not just building successful organizations - we're cultivating spaces where God's new creation can take root and flourish in the here and now.

What is the right next step for you, for me, for us collectively? May the Holy Spirit guide us on this journey.

Until next time,

"You must arrange your days so that you are experiencing total contentment, joy, and confidence in your everyday life with God — that and that alone is what makes a soul healthy." - Dallas Willard