Calling & Character: Prophet Archetype

by on October 23, 2020

Continuing a conversation about what it means to live out the character of God in the context of the kingdom of God, Dan, Cathy, and Rachael engage the archetypes of stranger and prophet. You’ll hear more about what it means to be a stranger who, in the redemptive process, can begin to use their sense of alienation and isolation on behalf of the kingdom as a prophet. As Dan notes, in our world today we desperately need to listen to prophets who tell the truth, and open the door to imagination and redemptive hope.

Quotes

“There’s something about the nature of our brokenness that becomes the soil for being able to grow the fruitfulness of being a priest, prophet, and king or queen.” Dr. Dan Allender

“A prophet is meant to show us what is possible, to reveal something of where things are broken and help offer an opportunity to what should be.” Cathy Loerzel

“I think the prophets in our world are the artists and the dreamers and those who imagine with radical hope and can see and taste something of the kingdom of God we are meant for in the here and now, not just someday.” Rachael Clinton Chen

“What we do with the truth-tellers in our midst says a lot about who we are, and I think to listen to the prophet means exposure, means learning something about our heart, about the parts of ourselves we don’t want to know—we have to allow those things to come to bear.” Cathy Loerzel

“Oftentimes the prophet in the family system may not be a truth teller in what they say but their body might be telling the truth in what it’s bearing of the family’s darkness that’s not being engaged.” Rachael Clinton Chen

“It is our responsibility as prophetic presences to invite people to look at what you do to a child who disrupts you, let alone huge protest movements that are calling forth for something to be addressed with regard to a long, unaddressed history of isolation and harm.” Dr. Dan Allender

“We’re in a moment right now where something needs to be dismantled, not for destruction, but for the sake of human flourishing. People are crying out ‘I am dying, and I need something to change.’” Rachael Clinton Chen

“That is the power of the prophet, and as the stranger is tended to, because a part of what you have to tend to with the stranger is a sense of yes, you left and you rejected the world that’s rejected you, but the reality is you’re sad about it because you love it and you see something of its future in your body. You see what’s possible and therefore the grief and the rage that comes alongside seeing people not rise to the occasion or dismissing what you’re seeing is heartbreaking. So the stranger is really just heartbroken, because they have seen the people they have loved not rise to the occasion.” Cathy Loerzel

“Can you tend to the place that you have known deep agony and suffering the disappointment of a broken world and can you find the communities who sing the songs of lament with you and who dream dreams with you?” Rachael Clinton Chen

Resources