Is God Proactive or Reactive?

The question came up today in a meeting -- is God proactive or reactive? It came up within a conversation about purpose and vision in relationship to being missional. More specifically, the book we're reading suggests that part of the missional process is discerning where God is at work, and then investing ourselves in that work.

The question was raised about our definition of God. Is God proactive or reactive? My own sense of this is that God is proactive without being determinative. That is, God is out front, inviting us to join in the work of God (often referred to as the kingdom or reign of God). While not all the details are known or fixed, I don't think God is without a plan (vision?). If we go back to Abraham, we see the promise of God revealed. Abraham will be the father of many descendants and through them the nations will be blessed (Gen. 12:1-3). As Christians we see Jesus as the culmination of that promise -- he is the means by which all nations are to be blessed. While we have a choice as to whether we wish to participate in this process, God will not be deterred in this work.

To see God as reactive is, in my mind, to see God as "Mr. Fix It." We mess things up, so God must continually fix things. Because God has no plan, the response is always ad hoc. This isn't, I don't believe, the biblical message. This doesn't mean that everything is already written (fatalism/predestination) or that the future isn't open, but it does mean that God will continue to pursue this path, inviting us to join along the way.

In thinking about this question, consider this statement from Jurgen Moltmann:

If we could ask the people in the Bible how they see the future, what should we hear? Abraham and Sarah would tell us about God's promise, which turned them into asylum-seekers in alien lands. Moses and Miriam would talk about the God of the Exodus, and the vision of the promised land of liberty. Isaiah and Jeremiah would speak about the messiah and the new covenant. John the Baptist and Mary, Peter and Martha would tell about Jesus, and about the kingdom of God which has come so close to us in him. From the beginning to the end, the people of the Bible are people of hope. All of them saw the star of promise in the long night of this worked, and glimpsed the first streaks of the daybreak colours heralding God's new day. They all set out to look for this future of God's, for they all heard the invitation: "come, for all is now ready." (Jurgen Moltmann, Jesus Christ for Today's World, Fortress, 1994, p. 131).

Is this not a missional invitation? God has a future for us, and we're invited to participate. Our first order of business, the reason why we pray, is to discern God's work in our world, and our place in that effort.