The Kingdom of God Is Here and Now

How Dallas Willard Altered Our Pastoral Vocabulary

“You are not out there on your own. You are out there as a part of what God is doing in your generation... What we have to hold before us is the greatness of the work that God is doing in human history. We are a part of that, and the city of man cannot survive without the presence of the city of God.”

Dallas Willard spoke these words to a room of pastors and ministry leaders, reminding them that their daily, often unseen work is part of a massive, historical reality.

He understood that pastoral ministry can feel isolating. But he insisted that our work is intimately connected to what God is doing across generations. As pastors, teachers, and leaders, we are helping to build what Jesus called his ekklesia, his called-out ones, his Church.

To serve our generation faithfully, we need absolute clarity on the message we preach. In Lecture 7 of his Spirituality and Ministry course, Willard unpacks exactly what that message is.

You can watch the full lecture or read the transcript here: https://conversatio.org/the-kingdom-of-god-is-here-and-now/

A Unified Gospel

It is a common discussion in biblical studies and theology circles that Jesus and the Apostle Paul preached two different gospels. Some argue that Jesus preached the kingdom of God, while Paul simply preached the forgiveness of sins for the afterlife, and try and assert that these are diametrically opposed views.

Willard challenges this disconnect, affirming their essential continuity. He points directly to 1 Corinthians 15 to show that the resurrection is the center of the kingdom vision. The resurrection was not just an isolated miracle to secure our entrance into heaven. It was the ultimate proof of everything Jesus taught.

“What His resurrection did was to validate everything He had said about the Kingdom of God,” Willard explains. The gospel Paul preached is the exact same promise of new life under God’s reign.

The Range of God’s Effective Will

We frequently use the phrase “kingdom of God” in our churches, but what does it actually mean? Willard offers a practical, working definition.

The kingdom is “the range of God’s effective will. It is where what He wants done is done.”

The kingdom is not merely a future destination. It is a present reality where God’s will is actively being enacted today. For those of us called to pastor, this understanding demands that our preaching emphasizes the active, ongoing reign of God. We are not just holding the fort until Jesus returns. We are bringing the presence of the city of God into the city of man.

Eternal Living

To help us communicate this reality, Willard calls for a subtle but significant shift in our vocabulary: from eternal life to eternal living.

This changes how we view salvation. It shifts it from a static, future destination to an active, participatory experience. “It’s a quality of life that we come to have by taking our life into His life,” Willard notes. We are not just waiting to live. We are invited to start living eternally today.

When we grasp this, our pastoral task shifts. We are no longer just trying to inform people about theological concepts or manage their moral behavior. We are forming them in the reality of the kingdom. We subvert worldly systems of merit and comparison, and we guide people to trust Jesus with their actual, daily lives.

We help them serve God in their generation, right alongside us.

For Reflection

• When the weekly grind of ministry feels isolating, how does it change your perspective to remember that you are part of the great work God is doing in human history?

• Do you tend to preach the gospel as primarily a future promise (eternal life), or as a present, participatory reality (eternal living)?

• How would the culture of your church shift if you defined the kingdom simply as “the range of God’s effective will,” and actively looked for where that is happening in your congregation today?