JC|KF
JC|KF is short for Jesus-Centered, Kingdom-Focused — a Prime for Authentic Being and Missional Community. These are Core Virtues that, as a Prime, are irreducible, authoritative, propulsive, and cohesive:
- irreducible (point) — The center of Christian Authentic Being and Missional Living is a person –Jesus — and a person is a unique, integrated, indivisible entity. Apart from their utility and productivity, a person has intrinsic identity and value — all the more for the Only Begotten of God1 who is YHWH, the Self-Existent One,2 from whom all intrinsic identity and value proceeds.
- authoritative and propulsive (line) — From the person of God, Jesus the Living Word is spoken to create all things and initiate all actions.3 This makes him the Author of life4 — the Source from which all life proceeds.5 Because of this, Jesus is rightfully the King of Kings:6 the ultimate authority for all things in heaven and on the Earth. His authority is propelling all creation towards it’s destined design: The Kingdom of God. All that is now aligned to this design is the Kingdom. All will one day be aligned to it and will be the Kingdom. Therefore the Prime-line of anything truly Christian is Kingdom-focused. Kingdom-focus is the necessary motion proceeding from the Prime in either time-direction and it is the story preceding any Kingdom-now point on the line.
- cohensive (plane) — Jesus is the Vine and we are the Branches.7 He is the Unity upon which all things in Heaven and Earth converge.8 The ultimate end of the Kingdom of God is unity of humanity with God integrated perfectly through love with creation in the New Heaven and the New Earth.
A Clarifying Question
JC|KF answers the question: Why is this Christian and something else not? The question, properly considered, cuts to fundamental identity and essential motion. It’s more useful that the question, what does it mean for someone/something to be Christian? This second question can be answered by a wide range of descriptors that are applied after the fact from people’s cultural and behavioral experiences.
Why is this Christian and something else not?
- This must be true at the core – if something’s origin is not JC|KF, how could it be Christian? Is “Christian” a white-wash to legitimize idolatry and merely human constructs?
- This must be true at all scales – if at any level, something is not JC|KF, it’s not yet completely Christian and the Kingdom must still come to some part of it.
- This must be true in all proceeding implications — if it doesn’t produce fruit that has JC|KF as the DNA of it’s flesh (ecological product) and seed (reproductive product), there is still something out of Kingdom alignment.
Describing the Terms
Jesus-Centered
By Jesus-Centered we mean:
- Personal (identity, agency, destiny) Holonomy – unique intersection of past, present, and future.
- Way of Being (as the integration of being and doing)
- Incarnational
Kingdom-Focused
Meta
This Frame originated from a need for clarity in the Camp Deerpark project. While thinking about how to interpret the stated mission of the camp and retreat center being “a Christian community”, ProfMag started to contemplate why is something Christian as opposed to not? The desire was for an answer that would get to fundamental identity and essential motion of the phrase — a rod by which to measure interpretations and applications.