Hello friends and welcome back to the pastor talk
We are thrilled to have you with us again for another conversation this week as we keep marching our way through this series
Called mission musings today.
We’re going to talk about us and them and in some ways this transition from our conversation
Last week is maybe a little nuanced here because on some level
This does connect with some of the things that hold us back from understanding our mission
It is a barrier on the other hand.
I think this does deserve a whole week’s conversation because this is a
constitutional understanding of what mission is it really asks us to consider how what is our
relationship to the internal and to the external the us and
The them is mission going out is mission related to our identity as people so we’re gonna sort of tease out how this is both
Yes a barrier, but it’s also an opportunity.
And so I think I’ll be interested to see where this conversation goes
So last week we kind of made the case that there are barriers.
There are things that get in the way
They’re kind of hurdles as we do mission
I think in some ways we want to focus that now at a congregational level and to talk a little bit about the tension
that congregations feel that that churches experience between
Various aspects of what we call mission Michael and I’ve been making the case throughout this series that mission should be
The the understanding of mission should be expanded that we have historically
shoehorned mission into two particular of a definition and we haven’t thought of it broadly enough
Well, one of the practical things that happens when we shrink it when we compartmentalize it in churches
Is that we get into these conversations that pit one area of mission?
Against another whether it’s people in the church versus people outside
Whether it’s local community versus global community whether it’s this thing versus that thing
and I think the history of the church is ripe with examples of
Mission battling mission because we’ve understood one thing as mission
But not another thing or we’ve understood one part of mission to be more important than another part and we I don’t want us
To I don’t want to give you the impression
That you think we’re beating up on this church or any church
But this tension exists as you begin to expand how you think of mission
this temptation to compartmentalize really becomes problematic at a church level and so
We’ll talk I at this point this likely sounds like it doesn’t make a great deal of sense
But it will I think if you give us a little time
I think we can help flush out what we mean and I think this is an important conversation
For us to have for the church to be engaged in so maybe a very very practical
On point here to this conversation might be to look at church budgets
So money tends to be a place where this is seen pretty clearly so
The temptation as you come down to look at a church’s mission giving is how much are we going to give?
Internationally or nationally how much are we going to give to people who we are supporting as they go out and they do some kind of
formalized Oftentimes institutional kinds of ministry.
These are the people who are serving
Helping with clean water projects in Africa or they’re doing doctors without borders or they’re people who are
Doing Wycliffe Bible translations or they’re you know,
maybe campus crusade for Christ.
They’re all around the world.
They’re doing these very
Connective kinds of ministry things we think of doing our mission giving to support those people those organizations
Etc.
Then on the other hand,
you’re gonna have conversations about
Yeah, but what about our community?
What about our people?
What about our local food bank?
What about the local?
Nonprofits who are doing really important kinds of ministries these conversations then will follow
Well, shouldn’t we be balancing this outward focusing thing with the very place that we live?
Doesn’t Jesus say that we should be putting food on the tables of those who don’t have it?
Shouldn’t we be clothing those who don’t have it?
What about those people who exist in our own place?
If we’re sending all of our money overseas,
then how are we not living out that mission in our own place?
These two both valid both interesting both helpful perspectives can put us in a situation where we find ourselves fighting
Against one another fighting over us fighting over them and in those budgetary conversations
This has implications beyond budget
But in the example of budget
This is where we begin to see this sort of us them language get used and when we do that we fail to
Draw out of this deeper missional identity and instead we’re just essentially
defaulting back to our
Basic idea that mission is exporting something.
How far do we export?
That’s a dangerous place to be
I’ve had people literally say why do we send money to?
Haiti or
Africa or Guatemala or wherever when there are hungry kids in
Spirit Lake there are people in Spirit Lake who don’t have enough food.
Well
When we have those kind of conversations,
this is what happens exactly what we’re making the case for today
We pit people against one another we pit we pit mission
Against itself and now partly this is recognition that we don’t have unlimited resources.
We have a certain amount of money
available we have Certain amount of budget that we can allocate to do local stuff and to do global stuff
But when we when we act like one thing is our mission and another thing isn’t we we do create
We we do create a kind of tension that I think is not helpful
I I think having conversations about what can we do locally?
What can we do in situations that are really beyond our local needs?
I mean the the situations
Globally are far worse are far more tragic far more widespread than our own struggles here
But why should we have to pick one or the other Jesus calls us to do all of it another example?
I’ve been on youth trips,
particularly if they’re led by
Maybe a more evangelistic
influence
Evangelical kind of ministries where they’ve said yeah,
we can go and do work.
We can build a house
We can fix something
But what we really should do is go stand on the street corner and do evangelism because yeah a house is nice
But saving souls is ultimately what we’re called to do.
And what have we done?
We’ve put outreach and care compassion
Against evangelism like we have to pick one or the other like one is mission and one isn’t and and whenever we do that
We compartmentalize mission and we we shrink it to just one thing among many and I think in the long run when we do that
It it creates struggles it creates struggles to understand mission.
It creates struggles to practice mission
The other classic example is that the money that gets sent by a church is mission money
But the money that is spent on doing vacation Bible school to do education and discipleship
Somehow isn’t mission and I don’t think that helps the church
I think a much better approach is for the church to have a holistic idea of mission and then talk about
Which parts can we do and do well,
but understanding that it’s all mission.
I think that makes for a stronger congregation
right, and so I don’t want to
You know get too deep in the weeds here
But I do think that this is helpful to add to the conversation is that we need to
Pause and be a little reflective here about what we mean when we talk about
Them and you know,
that may seem so rudimentary
But but hear me out here because when you stand on the street corner and you’re doing
Spiritual evangelistic type ministry when you’re calling people to follow Jesus Christ to hear the good news of the gospel
the part you’re caring for is their spiritual life the state of their soul as well how we would generally talk about that and
So you’re emphasizing that this person’s eternal life is the thing that is of most importance
Well, that’s a conversation.
That’d be interesting to have however
We as people of faith have always and consistently believed that
We should care for not just the person’s soul,
but their state of being we get this in the book of James
Right that a person that if we see a person in need we don’t care for those needs
But we call ourselves people of faith.
We have an understood faith.
We’re not practicing faith in the real way
So when we’re even thinking of them,
what are we really thinking of?
What is the calling of ministry that we have for them?
Is it just for them to hear the gospel and the good news?
Is it for them to receive a Bible so that they can be transformed?
Those are important things
But what about the person who’s hungry?
What about the person who’s imprisoned?
What about the person who’s sick?
What are what is our imagination of what these people need as well because fundamentally as people of faith?
We’re called to unite these not to divide them
This has been a problem that we’ve experienced
I think as a church is we limit our imagination of the problem
And so therefore we have limited
Imagination for what we are called to do as bearers of the solution this idea the kingdom of God
The kingdom is much broader than we make it to be and so when we hone in on one thing,
that’s not bad We can’t do all ministries
But when we make that the central part of the ministry and we fail to see the value of the others now
We’ve limited the them that is in our scope of what needs done as people of faith
And what our task is and that’s a dangerous thing to leave on the table
That’s a that’s a dangerous thing to leave unchecked and unthought through.
I don’t want to
Criticize other churches because no one has it all figured out
But there are congregations who have essentially said our mission is our community
We’re going to grow as big as possible
We’re going to reach as many people in our region our city as we can and our mission is to grow the the biggest
Best most active church well,
that’s a wonderful goal that that’s a beautiful thing to pursue
except if that comes at the expense of
Looking beyond your setting looking beyond your your region and saying we are also going to be involved in
Changing the lives of other people
Even if they live in places that are outside of our our circle even if we’ll never meet them
Even we know there are people suffering and we know that we can make a difference with some of our resources.
So rather than
Spend all of that time and energy on our particular mission in this place.
We want to expand that to include
As much as we can and and we do that not simply because
It helps us be a better church though,
I would argue that it does
To use the language we try to use a couple weeks ago
We do this because this is the mission of God.
This is what God wants
Not only for Spirit Lake or wherever but for the world and as we engage in that
We have a better
Understanding a better picture a better experience of who God is and what God is doing
not just for us but through us as well and I think I
Think in this conversation that the church has been having over the last couple of decades
one of the great invitations is to
rekindle this idea
That really everything we do is mission when we
Clean the building when we do a mission trip
When we help somebody who needs a tank of gas or a meal when we support the local food pantry
or we send money to Haiti following a tidal wave or
an earthquake
That that is all what?
Within what God calls us to do that’s all what it means to be the people of Jesus Christ
We can’t do everything
But we should join God in as much of what God wants to do as we can and when we do
We are by far better off for it as individuals and as a congregation.
I Think what I hear
The ground you’re walking there Clint is you’re affirming this reality that not only do we need to be reflective
about those who were called to serve and those that were called to bring the mission of God to but that has a way of
actually flipping itself back around and
Changing and shaping our identity of who we are
right because the temptation is to think that we
Equip and send out this good news to the world that we clothe other people that we have provide these
Lifesaving opportunities or that we are proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ that we’re meeting them
Whoever they are at their place in their time
When we do that,
we are tempted to make the assumption
That we are the ones who have it and we’re sending it out
What we have happened when we begin to broaden our understanding of mission is for it to come back and redefine our
understanding of who we are and this is really really absolutely essential for us to recognize that we need the mission of
Christ to transform us as much as we need for that mission to leave us and go somewhere else.
There’s this beautiful
Movement that actually happens within the Christian faith
We there’s never one who possesses the gospel.
There’s never one who owns it or controls it.
It’s always a gift
That’s why we use this language of stewards.
We’re stewards of what we’ve been given
We are those who witness to the good news of Jesus Christ.
We don’t bear it
In a sealed package.
We can only point to it
This is essential because once we have this understanding then we recognize they will transform our understanding of how we should behave
even in the world what we are therefore
practicing in worship a thing that our brothers and sisters in Christ are doing all around the world that those
congregations in Africa and Europe and Asia those Christians who are
In Antarctica, but they’re worshiping at that time.
We’re bound together in this beautiful thing
We’re all one this idea of one church in Christ
It becomes a reality that we experience that that transforms our imagination
So, you know this temptation Clint to think that we are
That we’re this group of Christians.
We’re out doing gospel work
That needs transformed We need to recognize the full extent of the gospel that surrounds us and then to be shaped in this
Understanding that we partner with other Christians and other places times tribes tongues
and that this is the way that it has always been intended and I think that’s a radical sort of
Transformation of our identity that needs to happen and can only happen in this missional conversation.
I think
it is possible that through a
Struggle with small thinking or
Perhaps small mindedness and I don’t mean unintelligent.
I mean that
historically the church struggles with
Keeping its eyes on something bigger than itself we have
Boiled some of that down into I would say I think I’d make the argument two major categories
discipleship on one hand which would be things like worship and
study and growth and community congregation so the ways in which we
Personally grow in the faith and we’ve practiced those largely within buildings within congregations
on the other hand,
we’ve talked about mission that the stuff we kind of do outside the building whether it’s money or
missionary interaction or sending groups to do things and I think
Depending on how well it’s going we’ve talked about at best
discipleship and mission doing both
Sometimes we’ve had to talk about discipleship or mission and churches have conversations
Well, we can only do one thing or another and and let’s be honest
Most of the time if they have to choose they choose us they choose the small circle
Sometimes that then devolves into the argument of discipleship
versus mission the idea that these two
Elements of a church’s life are competing for people’s time and energy and resources and that they’re literally
Against one another and this is where we get some of that us versus them kind of language
I I think what we’re moving to I hope what we’re moving to I think what we’re being challenged to see is
An alternate way of thinking in which we understand that discipleship is
mission
Mission is the core of who we are to be and discipleship
Growing in Christ through worship and study and all the rest giving and and volunteering and you name it
Is a way that we practice mission?
It is a way that we experience God because mission has to do with the one who calls us to do it
And so I’m I think it’s really exciting to think about where that could take us that
Discipleship is mission.
They’re not separate things.
They are all
wrapped together in what God calls us to do and more importantly who God calls us to be and I
really think that
That could be a game changer,
you know And we’re going to be able in a couple weeks Michael to have a conversation with somebody
I think who’s been at the forefront of that conversation and I and I think it’s a
I think it represents a really exciting possibility for the church.
Yeah, it absolutely does it requires though a
rather uncomfortable move to be honest with you because it requires us as a
community of believers to
Come to grips with and to be honest with where we’ve replaced the idea of discipleship
with the idea of
Maybe Maybe identity.
I I don’t quite have the words for it
I would say that our temptation with church has always been for it to be a place of comfort of fellowship of connection
there’s a sense in which I think for most of us who have been Christian for a long time that the church is a place where
We find respite and rejuvenation and this is a good thing
But church is always and we must never let it stray from a place of transformation
a place of discipleship and that word we really need to pause on because the church is a place where we
encounter a God who is
Making and remaking us an iron sharpening iron kind of movement
So the part of our lives that needs to be fashioned and reformed often hurts
It’s the impatience and the arrogance and the pride and the selfishness and the jealousy
It’s the things that keep us focused on self and keep us from being able and willing to see others
This is the thing that gets transformed as we recognize our missional identity
Let’s think about this for a second.
If we’re going to be outward focused
It’s going to require us to grapple with our inward focusedness our pride our
Our inward turn as Luther would say our sin that we know all too well and Clint
Discipleship requires work.
It requires waking up and committing to the faith
And there are times of the faith entire seasons of the faith
Maybe where we’re tempted to go on autopilot where the church has been on autopilot
We’ve been doing the things that we do,
but we haven’t been submitting that to the kind of difficult
transfer transformative work that we should as people of faith and
This this is an easy conversation to have
words are cheap in the sense that as we actually find this transforming us and we
Feel that inward groaning that comes from
Wrestling with some really difficult things.
This becomes very difficult
The great corrective I think to this expanded
understanding of mission is that
properly understood
The theme of mission makes it nearly not not entirely but nearly impossible
To make church about us
To make church about what I want what I like what I think we should do the the idea of
mission writ large this larger
Understanding of what the mission of God calls us all to be and do
Is very much a self-corrective against
an inward focus against an obsession with self against the selfishness that
Wants to kind of control and take over and that that’s a very important corrective
within the church
Again, I want to be careful here.
I’m not trying to beat up congregations
But in our corner of the world in our part of the country we see
Churches that are struggling we see communities that are struggling and one of the one of the very natural
Temptations in the midst of that is as a church shrinks and as a church begins to struggle
there is this deep temptation to focus on the inside to kind of pay less attention to mission and
Commit ourselves to well
we’ve got to pay the pastor and well the the furnace needs work and we better put money away and
And there’s not very many of us so we don’t have very much energy
So we’re gonna drop the nursing home visitation and we’re not going to do VBS this year
And as a church does that you can just see
Those become steps that accelerate really the decline
Once a church gives up the idea of outward-looking
Once a church says we got a hunker down and take care of ourselves
Really at some at some level.
I think at some some place that is deeply true
they’re going to struggle to be what we could call church at that point because because isolation and
Self-preservation is Not part of the church’s calling that that’s not who we’re called to be
That’s not what God envisions for us
And so when we do that when we kind of hunker down and say we got to take care of ourself first
It becomes almost a self-fulfilling prophecy it almost never
results in that church
turning the corner it almost always I would say
quickens their demise
Yeah, this is a really I think nuanced part of this conversation.
So so hear me out here,
but this is essential
We don’t participate in the mission of God.
We don’t receive this missional identity and live into this
For our own sake it’s not because it’s going to result in
Good things for us that that would be a misunderstanding of the conversation
That said if we are living as
Disciples and we are not living into a missional identity if we’re not living outside of our circle
And if we don’t have an external understanding of what it requires of us in the world
Then we must go back and question some of the assumptions that we’ve made about the faith that we received
So Clint this is not a great analogy,
but it is an analogy makes me think of
The musical the music man if you remember the music professor comes to town
We know as an audience he’s in huckster,
but the town doesn’t know that yet
And if you remember in the show he goes to get all of the townspeople to buy these
Instruments and he promises that he’s going to teach them to
Play those instruments except for the fact that he doesn’t know how to read music.
So what does he do?
He teaches them how to play their instrument by humming the notes,
right?
He has this whole method that isn’t actually music
But it’s just you know sort of feel good think it out
And then you’ll be able to play the instrument of course his strategy is he’s going to
Get these instruments to come into town and then but right before the students would need to play it
He’s gonna be on the first train out of town
He’ll have his money and nobody’s gonna know how to play music,
but they’ll have instruments Well,
that’s a little bit of the fallacy of Christians
Hoping to be disciples without ever actually learning how to play music
It’s like you know
We need to be the kind of people who not only learn about the good news of Jesus Christ you practice
mercy in our Thinking and in our reading it encountering the gracious good news of Jesus Christ in our learning and in our faith
But if we don’t actually live that out if we don’t actually
Do the things required of those who are going to then be transformed by that knowledge?
Then did we ever really have it you have to have both and my point here
I think is just simply that we need to be the kinds of Christians
Who are willing to live into both the?
Transformational discipleship kind of identity work that we might be comfortable with
But we must also be the kinds of Christians who are willing to have that live out in our life
For it to transform what we do with our dollars how we spend our time where we volunteer
If our churches don’t have that as a part of our culture
Then the outcome of it will be negative in the long run because ultimately it’s not just a matter
We’re not doing the right things Clint.
It’s the fact that it will be working in us the wrong identity that we will be
Formed in the wrong direction and therefore the outcome will be bad that so
It does have an impact on their identity,
but I don’t want to make it sound like that’s the reason why we do it
It’s more Causational than it is by purpose.
Is that fair?
I think it is there was a
well-known theologian who once said
The church exists by mission as a fire exists by burning and I think his point is your point Michael that
Mission and discipleship are inseparable you you cannot have one without the other if a church
does everything it wants and
Really is very inwardly focused but gives money to mission
They may be doing mission,
but they’re not fulfilling their mission because mission is to
Participate in those things that we named a couple of weeks ago
evangelism and outreach and service and worship and all of those
Various ways that we encounter what God wants to do in the world and for whatever reason what God wants to do in the world
through people through Congregations and so the idea that we can sort of pick and choose what we call mission
Simply doesn’t work to understand that that it is all mission that we exist
To do mission and whatever we seek to do as we are seeking to be faithful to Christ is mission if that’s teaching Sunday school
You are participating in the mission of God if that’s washing dishes after we’ve served us supper to a community group
You’re participating if you are going on a mission trip and doing evangelism or building a house in the name of Jesus Christ
both of those are the mission of God and what God wants to do in the world through us if you’re going to work and
doing your work as a
Christian person with integrity and faith to the best of your ability and
Trying to treat your co-workers with the grace and dignity of Jesus Christ
You’re fulfilling your mission if you’re parenting and I could go on and on
but you get the point we we have to
Quit thinking of mission as this part of our budget and the people who get the dollars
Mission is who we’re created to be it’s what we’re called to be.
It’s everything that we’re called to do and it is
It is the nature of the church.
It is more than a program.
It is the very
Foundation of how we live in the world as Christians and congregations
We do live in a world that is tempted to be on the extremes to
Hyper-focus on one thing and not the other so one of the I think difficult
Outcomes of this conversation is that what we’re asking you to consider is that a full?
Christian life is not one of these things at the expense of the other It’s not
Focusing on one and and the other just sort of being on autopilot.
It’s that it is always about us and
Them that these are always in tension that they’re in this beautiful kind of cyclical
Relationship and this is really really difficult.
It’s hard to hold these things together
But our families should be devoting time to our own spiritual growth to
Scripture reading to devotional to
understanding what it means to be people of faith in worship and fellowship in our churches and in our church families whatever your context might look like and
Simultaneously, we should be serving in our community
We should be emphasizing with our dollars and our time relationships with those who are doing that ministry
Internationally or nationally outside of our immediate circles our churches should have these same focuses
It is not easy Clint.
It is hard to keep things in tension dollars are not unlimited,
right?
it’s going to require hard choices about how we spend our time and money and efforts and talents, but
navigating those difficult pathways and trying to hold us and them together is a huge part of the Christian life is actually an
essential part of being people of faith to recognize that it’s holding these together that in that process
We begin to learn and relearn what really matters that we’re serving the one who is above and beyond our experience
That is this beautiful kind of thing that that happens in the process
Process itself not just the outcome that you’re pursuing and and I think that’s a beautiful
Yet very difficult task for us to try to hold together
One of the areas I don’t know if this will be helpful one of the areas that I think we see this kind of
Struggle is stewardship and and there are there is always that idea that well, I
only have this much to give and
Yes, we need to all be pursuing
It our stewardship.
We need to grow in our stewardship.
We need to think about the ways in which we are
tempted by
Finances to be selfish versus to be generous and gracious
But but there is this kind of
Experience that I can’t do I can’t give everything that I wish I could
We understand that the same can be said of
Lots of areas in the church’s life.
It is sort of easy to see it through the lens of financial giving
But I think what is most important is
That we take steps in that direction
You may not be called
To go on a church mission trip
You may feel led to teach Sunday school to be a youth sponsor
You may want to help with hand bells.
You may want to be in our choir
But there are these multitude of ways to serve and God is leading you
Not to all of them at once not to all of them at all
But to the one in which it is the right way for you to contribute to the church
Yes, that includes finances We’re we’re always grateful for that part of our mission is to be giving as individuals and as congregations
but more than that the ways in which God is inviting you to participate in
what God is trying to do in the church and in the world and the
Beautiful promise of our faith is there is a place for that.
Maybe it’s coming and
Helping with a project
Maybe it’s you know what?
I’ve got a couple days off.
I’ll help Tom wash windows
I I’m not I’m not telling you she should wash windows.
I’m simply saying that as we as
We open our eyes to a wider
View of what mission is we also?
Find ourselves I think not just volunteering for tasks
but understanding that we are called to
Participate in those ways that those things are I want to be careful with the language
But that’s a holy task very few people think of being a middle school youth sponsor as a holy task
it is because part of the church’s mission is to teach young people what it means to be Christian and
Arguably more importantly to show them what it means by putting them in contact with people who are faithful and
The I just think it’s I just think it helps so much Michael to understand that.
Yes, the church has to do some stuff
But when we understand that stuff to be part of our mission
Then the people who do that stuff are invited to understand those things as part of their calling and and that very much
Changes the discussion.
I think in some ways Clint you’re now showing our cards because what we’re saying is
Throughout this whole conversation that what is required is for the church for Christians to
Redefine what our faith means through the lens of mission that recovering that active
Combination between what we do and what we believe and that for churches to thrive in the 21st century and beyond is going to require
us to to fully
understand ourselves as missional people as as
Identities wrapped up in our individuality as well as congregations and as
institutions what we’re saying is that we need to look at this through the lens of the mission of God and our
role as being witnesses within it.
This is a
substantial claim and it requires us to recognize that we’re going to need to unlearn some things that we have
practice in previous times and places,
but if we’re willing to do that,
Clint then what’s going to happen is we will radically change how we
Present to not only the world,
but we present to ourselves
We become people all learning how to do the mission that is right in front of us and and quite frankly the mission that
Lives far beyond us.
It will change our identity as Christians and and that kind of fundamental change
It changes not necessarily what you do.
Maybe the windows are the thing that needs done.
It changes why you do it
You’re not doing it because you want the building to look pristine
You’re doing it because that is what a missional person would do is we have to serve we have to make this space
Inviting so other people can come and that they can have their
identity transformed by the good news of Christ it is a
Sort of wave upon wave that transforms our identities of who we are and that will therefore change what we do
And and that is the the core thing that we’re talking about is that the church
Relearn our identity both as individuals and community in light of this missional task
We’ve been given right better yet
Maybe a few of us get together and we wash windows here at church and someone says well
Do you know my neighbor down the street just got sick and they can’t do this and we go wash their windows
It is always an invitation to take the next step down the path of mission.
It is not about us
Yes, the windows here occasionally need washed,
but that’s not the thing
The thing is that as we do those things in our context
We begin to see how God can move them outside of our context
Even throughout the world as we put our check in the offering plate we as we pursue
Stewardship and faithful use of our funds might hear God say look there’s this thing happening in
China and You all have an opportunity to be a part of it and we might feel led in that moment to do that
And so it how do we connect with those?
myriad of threads in the tapestry of what God wants to do in the world
How do we find the threads that we are being called to contribute to and and I think as a church
Understands that it just it makes it so much more of an exciting conversation
Probably more of an exciting congregation as well and it gives us a way to place
Ourself within this bigger framework of not just what do we want to do here in this church?
What is God calling us to do here in this church and in the world?
And I think those are the right questions
I will only sort of make my conclusion here with this
I think a temptation that especially the modern church has fallen into is
thinking that we need to do a better job of marketing and
What is essential to understand this conversation is that doing the mission of God is?
Invitational it it makes sense to a world to see people who have been transformed by the good news
Living lives that extend goodness to others that has a coherency
But here’s the thing we don’t do it because it’s good marketing
We don’t do it because we want to have a good face to the world that we want others to see these things
About ourselves that we want to be true now these things happen
Because of the work that Jesus Christ has done we we serve in our community because that’s what Christians are called to do
We don’t serve because it leads to a particular end that we want
This is a real real temptation Clint in the midst of a church,
especially the mainline church that is struggling for membership
struggling for budget struggling for all of these
repercussions of years and years decades even of
Blight is that we we begin to talk about mission hoping that it’s going to market the church in a good way
Hoping that we might be able to get the church out there in a good light if you pursue mission to that end
you will ultimately hit a dead end because you’ll put yourself at the center of the mission as
Opposed to the one who must be at the center and that is the risen Lord
So let’s let’s be clear.
It may result in others being invited to a story bigger than their own
But don’t make it about marketing to people what you want them to see because that will never pan out
That’s not what the gospel calls us to do
Nearly
probably two and a half decades ago now I
heard a pastor make a comment in a sermon and
It was almost could have been passed over.
He said it is the nature of the church to grow and
for
25 years I’ve wrestled with that statement because initially what I thought he meant was
It is the nature of the church to get bigger
I’ve since come to realize that growth doesn’t always mean bigger.
Yes
Sometimes more people is a way the church can and should frankly grow
But growth is more than that growth is deeper growth is more faithful growth is more service growth is more
Stewardship there there are many many ways to grow
But I come back again and again to that statement
It is the nature of the church it is who the church is meant to be
to experience growth and the way we do that is
Living out our calling we live out our mission.
We forgive one another
We care about those in need.
We share good news
with gratitude and with joy we worship with
with
genuine
Affection we we worship with with genuine enthusiasm
We do what we do.
Well, we we practice hospitality we do those things
That we understand to be the nature of what God calls the church to do in the world and as we do
We experience growth Because that is who we are in Jesus Christ and that is what we’re called to be in Jesus Christ
And whenever the church is the church when we pursue mission in in all of those various ways
We will experience
We will we will experience
The growth that comes with it.
We will experience a kind of
Invigoration a kind of renewal a kind of life really I mean,
maybe that’s the best word for it
If you’ve ever been into a church if you’ve ever visited a church where you’ve just felt the sense that there’s life here these people
Seem to embrace the faith in a way.
That’s real that that is
palpable almost
And as we do that if we do that and as we do that we experience what God invites the church and
Disciples of Jesus to become and I think as long as that becomes our focus and stays our focus
Then most of these other conversations
Take a backseat our Title for this conversation here is us and them and we wouldn’t have been faithful in this conversation
If we didn’t at some point point out it’s neither us or them.
It’s him.
It’s Jesus Christ and Ultimately,
that is who we are all called to
discover as he works within us by the power of his spirit and then to point others to to
Point our fingers at the work that has been graciously done within us both as individuals and communities
It’s him and when he is at the center us and them works itself out in a beautiful way
That’s what that’s what faith is.
That’s what God does by the work of his spirit
we give credit to God and
And we get to be a part of this story by by that gracious invitation
That’s the good gift we have on display and we do so by pursuing the things that God wants done in the world that Jesus
came to bring the world and as we do we find him at the center of
Our lives of our church and of our faith
They’ll wrap it up for us today guys.
Thanks for being with us.
We hope that this conversation has been helpful
Inspiring challenging certainly would love to hear from you if there are any sort of aspects of mission that now begin
Begun to form for you that you’d like to talk more about
Put that in the comments wherever you’re engaging with us if you’re listening via podcast
You can submit those questions or comments and feedback via the link in the description of this
Particular podcast friends.
It is a blessing to get to spend this time with you
It means a lot that you would engage in this conversation with us and we look forward to joining with you again in our next
Topic as we continue along this series next week,
but until then I’ll be blessed.
Thank you for listening