Mulholland urges collaboration with God's divine mission
Published: October 06, 2023
Author: Dave Bell
A 2016 Greenville University alum recently returned to campus and challenged students to take a cue from the triune God by embracing collaboration.
“We worship and serve a collaborative God,” The Rev. Justin Mulholland said during a chapel service following the All-College Hike, a fall tradition in which participants hike six miles from the GU campus to Durley Camp on Governor Bond Lake. “We need all three parts of the Godhead – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – to experience holistic freedom.”
Similarly, Mulholland said that God uses all parts of his identity to draw people to Himself.
“God wants to establish an everlasting covenant with His people,” said Mulholland, Pastor of Local and Global Missions at Greenville Free Methodist Church. “That mission is fulfilled in Jesus, through the power of the Holy Spirit. Together, all elements of the Godhead have worked to pierce the darkness and unleash the Kingdom of God.
“It’s the will of our collaborative God that we all experience that liberation. It’s radical, but everything is turned inside-out in the redemptive power of Jesus.”
So, how do current-day believers participate in God’s divine mission?
“We must live lives marked by collaboration,” Mulholland said. “There are three truths about collaboration I’d like you to consider:
1) “Collaboration requires celebration, not comparison. We are to serve others, not seek privileges for ourselves. Even the disciples struggled with this, as they compared where they sat and who had Jesus’ ear.
2) “Collaboration requires compassion, not competition. God’s ways are not about competing with others. It’s not us versus them. Instead, we must have a deep compassion for others in our hearts.
3) “Collaboration requires creativity, not conformity. We must think deeply and imaginatively about the ways we share Jesus with the people around us. We should seek new ways for people to experience Jesus and be changed.”
Mulholland urged students to make such collaboration evident on the GU campus.
“Can we imagine such redemption and freedom coming to our campus?” he asked. “Can we see this as a place where people are being set free by Jesus and then working to free their neighbors? It can happen – right here, right now.”
