Sent? . . . Why? - How?

What does it mean that in following after God's purposes for our lives, we remember that as Jesus was sent to our world, so are we? Indeed, a missional church is one that is sent rather than merely one that sends. But then, how do we unfetter ourselves as apprentices and disciples of Jesus so that we can follow the uncontrolled Spirit of God?

It is my happy task to assist the churches of a denomination - a particular 'tribal' family, as we seek together to pray, plan, respond and initiate mission - thinking and acting both locally and globally (glocally), following Jesus as best we may, wanting to get in on the blessing in what He is about (back since Abraham and the Old Testament People of God, and down to our day), joined in God's redemptive purposes, in His reclamation project(s).

Since, in this regard, I can’t be everywhere or be immersed as I might prefer in each local church, I have been seeking to think through and lead in areas that (hopefully) develop over-arching vision(s) for our family of churches, for specific local churches, for Associations and whole regions of the provinces of Ontario and Quebec. I'm struggling with how to be a strategic catalyst with the goal (with others) of creating ethos, birthing ‘a movement’ so that all the churches and those gathered together in Christian community, both leaders and congregants, see themselves as active missioners. I long for holistic, Kingdom-broad presence - signs and witness of Christ's living Presence, through transformed leaders and churches.

The ‘so what?’ of all of our 'church work' and work as a Church is that we may see transformed communities, as well as transformed people and transformed local churches. We will not bring in the fullness of the Kingdom; it will not come till Jesus comes again at the Great Day to fully establish His Rule, but we can set up sign-posts of this advent and make folk even now more hungry and thirsty for Kingom-coming, and for the King - who brings abundant life to our lives and especially to our churches. .

Thus, we have been exploring mission-thinking and trying strategies that we trust will lead to new (and also still through some old, ancient, tried-and-true) responses and initiatives as revealing God's intervening grace. We want to be part of this, in light of the opportunities and challenges of our times - in both those issues and areas that are global and epic in nature and also in those one finds in the more immediate contexts of our churches and regions, with the people who are actually proximate to us.

So, Issachar-tribe-like, we need an awareness of our times and a knowledge of what to do. Where are the prophets among us for these times, this day? - the prophetic leaders and voices in our churches, raised up by prophetic leadership in our pulpits. Where are the apostles among us? - who get big-picture realities and who can move into the transfer- and cutting-edge points of opportunity, in these two great provinces, and in this nation.

Where are the evangelists among us? - who will lead (within our churches)to help call forth and equip, train and ‘deploy’ other evangelists for the missional contexts of those local bodies - who will help us all to ‘show and tell’ the Story of God’s Gospel-grace, Presence and Life among us.

We have pastors and teachers, yes. We need more of them - thinking, researching, equipping, biblically, all of us for today’s mission. Our church communities need to be led and taught by mature women and men who will bring forth from the Word things old and new, as good stewards in their leadership tasks, and as good equip-ers of God’s people for such times as these.

Christian Community Formation

Pauline ethics is fundamentally ecclesial in character . . . Paul sees the church as inheriting the corporate vocation of God's covenant people, Israel.

Paul is concerned with defining and maintaining a corporate identity for his young churches, which are emphatically countercultural communities. His letters should be read primarily as instruments of community formation.

God is at work through the Spirit to create communities that prefigure and embody the reconciliation and healing of the world.

This runs counter to much of our emphasis and sometimes too-narrow reading of Scripture as if it concerns only one's personal life - one's individual ethics and morality - and the related idea of one having one's own personal Saviour. Indeed one must personally commit to Christ, trusting His saving Person and Work, yet much of our thoughts about individuality in the Western world owes more to the humanistic philosophies of the Enlightenment, to the writings of such as Jean Jacques Rousseau, than to the Scriptures.

God see things whole - clans, cultures - 'the peoples' of the earth (as well as having a personal love for each one of us). Most of the New Testament letters of St. Paul are written to 'you' (plural). The idea of making a 'personal commitment,' of having merely an individual morality and ethic, is alien - or at least not primary - in New Testament thinking and, as well, in most of the world cultures and peoples of our present times - except in the West.

The community of faith, the local church, is the primary addressee of God's imperaties. . .To do 'ethics' apart from ecclesiology is utterly unthinkable for Paul.

There is no salvation outside of Christ and 'in Christ' we join in a Body, a Community of believers who together - around the world and through the ages, as the people of God, enter into God's salvic purposes.

( interacting with Richard B. Hayes: Ecclessiology and Ethics)

House Church

Houses come in different shapes and sizes, of course, and are very different from land to land and culture to culture. I was almost nonplussed, however, to have my horizons majorly expanded, last November, as to what a 'house church' might have looked like in 'Bible times' - as the church expanded from Jerusalem and throughout Samaria, Judea - and to the ends of the earth.

On main street 'Ephesus' (in ruins to be sure, but still remarkably suggestive of what things must have been like when the city was more 'intact'), I was able to visit several large houses likely very much similar to those in which St. Paul may have met with Ephesus' first believers. Here are no small bungalow prayer meeting places but houses - homes with huge rooms, courtyards, sloping and terraced 'condos' which in many cases could easily have accomodated scores of people. Mural and fresco-covered rooms, celings and flooers . . . wise passageways and easy, climbing still vibrant mosaics - and inside and outside running water, hidden sewage and large pipes, indoor lavatories - so much. And we think we are so wise and gifted - the first to discover, plan and house such luxuries.

It's amazing to me too how very soon, relatively speaking, in the life of the early Church did they move from these homes (again, many of them very large) to the architecture of special holy places - to church buildings, no doubt because even these many large houses with their expansive rooms no longer contained enough space for those gathering - newly come to faith and still looking to be joined into  the community of faith - for worship, fellowship and practical instruction.

Together

We need to form more partnerships and seek more friends for the journey, as we join in community and seek new and effective ways of moving forward. None of us has all of the pieces . . . we need each other. It really is all about relationships! Let's note or make amazing connections with people; let's note or make opportunities for people to come together.

If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far - go together.

— old African proverb

Community Transformation

We need to beyond the goals of having good leadership and healthy churches to an enabled ministry that actually transforms the communities in which we live and serve. Individually and collectively, we are “sent’ ones,” all of us in mission, becoming sign and witness of Kingdom-present and Kingdom-coming.

Perhaps my neighbours should know that I’m a Christian not so much because they watch me leaving my home and neighbourhood each Sunday to attend church elsewhere, but because I am a good neighbour. Can I be a more helpful, caring person on my street, in my apartment or townhouse or for miles around on rural concession roads.

The church exists for the world, not vice versa. The gathered church should help prepare its members to build up community where we spend most of our lives, most of our time. It is in the midst of society that we faithfully join the Saviour, interacting with people in all aspects of our humanity, passion and concern.

As the image of God is being restored in each believer and as we together form communal groups of missional endeavour, the world around can be transformed into the purposes of God. Is that not what the gospel is all about? Not likely in this life will we see God’s Reign fully realized on, but we can certainly by His grace and Holy Spirit, and by our caring acts and witness, create a hunger and thirst for Kingdom-coming. People around us may even now see evidence of His Presence and Care.

A church exists to enable its people to be missionaries Monday through Friday where they live, where they work, play, travel and dream. Right where they are, as St. Francis put it, we must preach the Gospel, and when necessary, use words. Good sewer systems (as well as deep sanctification) is included in the concerns of God’s people who love this planet.

Whether local churches practice “come strategies” (in seeking to attract pre-Christians into our facilities) or “go strategies” (where we intentionally move among ‘normal people’ – on their ‘turf’) we remember that we have been sent as ‘apostles’ of the Saviour. Simply by showing up and through ‘incarnational’ (being present) ministry among people, again with Jesus we love and lived God’s truth, immersed in various cultures in this world. As we do, people will see Christ and be drawn to join this new Way of living and being – entering a life that He calls ‘abundant.’

When this happens, whole regions, towns, villages and cities are utterly transformed. Out of the dark woods of present existence wide areas of full and abundant living become possible; and the Son-shine of God’s love brings once again the healing, forgiveness and provision that is essential for an existence that is fully and truly human.