We
know how to ‘do church’ but we have not yet learned, perhaps, how to ‘do
mission’ – here at home, here in our own contexts with our own neighbours and
realities.
We know about running churches, about ‘church work’ – but we have forgotten what it means to be the People of God on mission.
We know about running churches, about ‘church work’ – but we have forgotten what it means to be the People of God on mission.
We know how to ‘run our
churches,’ perhaps, but in some cases we’ve run them into the ground, run out
of stream, run out of creativity and fresh ideas - run out of people (or run
people out). We know how to run our churches; do we know how to be
missionaries? - for indeed we must discover or rediscover the missional impulse
and enterprise for which Christ called and calls His Church.
There is a
difference between ‘church work’ and the work of the church which, in the
latter, has to do with what happens when the Holy Spirit flows in and through
us. When that happens – we can’t get enough of ministry. Oh, we get tired, yes
– but it’s different somehow – not as exhausting as trying to do church work.
A lot of things we use to take for granted and do as a matter of course, in ‘normal’ church life and ministry, now seems no longer to be effective, to be working. Faster, further, harder, more of the same doesn’t seem to ‘cut it.’ (We remember the definition of insanity - of doing the same thing(s) over and over while, somehow, expecting different outcomes and results.)
A lot of things we use to take for granted and do as a matter of course, in ‘normal’ church life and ministry, now seems no longer to be effective, to be working. Faster, further, harder, more of the same doesn’t seem to ‘cut it.’ (We remember the definition of insanity - of doing the same thing(s) over and over while, somehow, expecting different outcomes and results.)
