I think there are two primary ways of understanding the church: One is to see the church as “a place where certain things happen” – meetings, worship, teaching, fellowship. You “go to church” much the same way you might go to the shops. You “attend” a church the way you attend a school or a show. Or you “belong to a church” same as you’d belong to a service club with its programs and activities. It’s a place, where certain things happen.
A different understanding is to see the church not as a place, but as a people – and more specifically, “a body of people on a mission;” A community of disciples. People brought together by a common calling and an inclination to be, to go and to do. A “sent people.”
Now these disciples still need to meet together regularly - to learn and be motivated and be encouraged, to worship & pray & eat & share together, but the only reason they do this is as fuel for the mission. They still love each other and support each other, and they want to get to be as much like Jesus as they can, not so much for their own person, or their own sake, but for others, and for Jesus’ sake.
What do you think? Let me put another question to you – what is the purpose of the Christian church? Why do we exist? Is the church a body of people sharing God’s love and making disciples of the Jesus way, or is it a vendor of religion, or is it a holy club?
Fruitful congregations around the globe practice radical hospitality, passionate worship, intentional faith development, bountiful prayer, extravagant generosity, and fruitful congregations all around the world are engaged in risk-taking mission and service. Their understanding of church is as a sent people.
Their mission is the mission of God. They understand that God’s purpose is to restore, and reconcile, and heal creation, so that becomes their purpose. It’s what drives them, it’s what motivates them, the mission underpins everything they are and do.
They are missional. Their mission is their passion; not their building, not their music, not their preaching or their programs. It’s their mission. So they’re not building-centered, or pastor-centered, or program-centered, but instead they’re community-centered, ministry-centered, Christ centered.
If we want our congregation, us, to be a healthy Christian faith community, we must understand that God wants us to be missional, and that our mission can only be effective when it is incarnational. That is, it puts flesh and bone, hearts and hands to the life and teachings and ministry of Jesus, in the world. Here and now. Amongst people. In our neighbourhoods and communities. We want to be a community of people who are committed to follow in the way of Jesus, inviting others to follow Jesus as fellow disciples. Don’t we? Seeking the kingdom of God and serving the kingdom of God above all else. Moving beyond just attendance to actively engaging in the work of Jesus in our neighborhoods. At least I hope that’s what we want to be.
This is what the early Salvation Army was all about. Booth didn’t refer to the Army as a church, but as a movement. He didn’t call his buildings churches, he called them citadels. He gave them uniforms not to wear to worship, but to be recognized in the streets. It was about taking Jesus to the common people. We won’t wait for you to come to us, we’ll come to you. Booth was a missionary, taking the Gospel of Jesus into the neighborhood.
And Jesus was a missionary. He moved about, amongst the people, engaging in the mission of the Kingdom of God. Let’s listen to our Scripture reading again, this time from The Message…. (read to the end of Ch 9)
Jesus was a missionary. He made a circuit of all the towns and villages. What was he doing? Was he trying to sell religion? Was he trying to recruit new members for the Jesus club? Was he trying to boost the numbers at the local synagogues? No!
He taught the things of God, reported Kingdom news, and he shared, and he healed, healed their bruised and hurt lives. And the more time he spent amongst the people, the sadder he became. His heart broke. The hurt, the confusion, the helplessness, the pain. And he said words something like these:
‘What a huge harvest! How few workers! On your knees and pray for harvest hands”
Let’s read on….
So Jesus calls twelve of his followers together, and what did he do? He sent them. Where? To the lost, confused people right here in the neighbourhood, the text says.
You don’t need to go travelling to some far-off place to convert unbelievers. I mean, you can, but to be a missionary you don’t have to. You don’t have to go to a foreign country or even to a capital city, or a big town. There’s just as much hurt and sickness and evil and pain in our own backyard. Go to the lost people right here in your own neighborhood, says Jesus. Go to the confused, the helpless, right here, in the places you live and work.
And he sent them. And they went. And they did the mission of Jesus. As the father has sent me, so I send you, says Jesus to his disciples. Go and be me. Go and represent me. Go and do what I would do.
And they went – with a fourfold purpose I believe. Jesus gave them four things to do.
1. Evangelise – tell them that the kingdom is here.
At the heart of what God calls all of us to do is to be bearers of the good news of the gospel.
And what is the good news of the Gospel?
The Gospel is that in Jesus, God is on a mission recreating, renewing, reconciling, and restoring a broken and fallen world. God wants to have His Kingdom operating here in our midst. On earth as it is in heaven. A kingdom of truth, of fairness, of justice. A kingdom of respect and grace and forgiveness. A kingdom of generosity, of equality. A kingdom of absolute selflessness and love. A kingdom that will come as all the world follows Jesus Christ. And we are invited to join God in that mission of transforming lives and making disciples and reforming society.
Tell them about the Kingdom.
2. Heal – bring health to the sick
And although this certainly meant, and continues to mean, in a medical sense, we know that there are so many in our communities who are unwell. So many who are not whole. People who are in pain, physically but just as much emotionally.
The world’s broken. Not all doom and gloom, but things ain’t perfect. Violence and bullying in our schools, kids falling through the cracks. Criminal justice systems are overcrowded and inconsistent and skewed to the wealthy. Hospitals and medical services - especially if you’re poor with no private health insurance – you can wait and wait for ages. Drugs, alcohol abuse, gambling addictions, family violence, suicide, poverty. They rob people of hope.
And I believe God wants to restore this broken world to the ideal, and invites us to join in on this mission of healing. The love of Jesus is a medicine. It heals. It diminishes emotional pain. Bring health to the sick, says Jesus.
3. Spiritual – tackle the evil forces of the world – demons and death
Jesus reminds his disciples that there is a spiritual war being waged all the time, all around us. There is good, and there is evil, each straining to gain the upper hand. But the power of good will always overcome the power of evil. God is good, and when we take the light of God’s Spirit amongst the darkness of evil, it will dispel the darkness, force it to flee. Good will win, God will win, but there will always be a struggle. But if we keep the light all bound up in church buildings, the darkness wins. We are the light of the world. Don’t keep the light hidden. So we can’t go about on this mission in our own strength. We need to be fueled by God’s Spirit and God’s love. There’s a whole lot of people doing a whole lot of good deeds in our world – good on them – but the war won’t be won, the kingdom won’t come, until the spiritual battle is won. Kick out the demons, Jesus says.
And Jesus finally tells his disciples to
4. Befriend the friendless
The poor, the marginalised, the mentally ill, the despised of the community, the lonely. Touch the untouchables says Jesus. Touch them, those that no one else will touch. Hold the beggar’s hand.
We are the resources God uses to change lives and transform the world. You and I.
And we have to be courageous enough to do something beyond these walls. To get involved with our community and our world.
Now too often the church says, “We do mission. We do service.” When what they are really doing I would simply call charity.
Charity is what we do for the poor and marginalized to make us feel good about ourselves. We provide clothing and furniture and food; we run soup kitchens; we even volunteer to feed the homeless once a week, and at Christmas, we prepare food hampers for the “underprivileged,” as we like to call them.
Now please, don’t misunderstand me; all of this is important and necessary and part of what it means to be a faithful church. But it’s not enough. It’s just charity. Jesus didn’t give his disciples a bag of food or a wallet full of vouchers. He said, go and get involved. You are the equipment, he said. Go into their homes. Tell them about me, heal them, touch them. Be their friend. Be generous. In fact they took no money with them, no nothing. No fundraising campaign before you start, says Jesus. They couldn’t give any material aid, cause they didn’t have any to give. They were to give of themselves.
See I can get people to come into my office and sit at my desk and ask me for my help and give them my food voucher or my clothing voucher. I can do that from a position of power – I’m a have, they’re a have not. But risk-taking mission and service puts the boot on the other foot. How can I help you? What can I do for you? Can I be your friend?
Stuff that pushes us right out of our comfort zones to make a real difference in the lives of people. Service and friendship to those in our community who have the least power - the poor, the unemployed, the stranger, the hungry, the homeless, the abused, the addicted, the immigrant, the victim of violence or bullying. Not given from a position of power, but from a position of servitude.
Not for my benefit or to make me feel good, for the benefit of others to make them feel good.
And for some of you this probably doesn’t seem all that attractive. Probably doesn’t make sense. And even as I was writing some of these words, I’m thinking, gee I’m setting myself a task here. I’m gonna have to be prepared to move right out of my comfort zone. Doesn’t come naturally to me. But from what I’ve seen, the more sold out on Jesus that you are, the more this stuff starts to come naturally. The more convinced you are that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life, his ways just become your ways. The more like Jesus you become, the more this stuff will start to ooze out of you.
That’s why congregations who practice risk-taking mission and service are fruitful, and healthy, and grow. Cause it comes from Christlikeness.
From being like Jesus. From being his true, obedient disciple.
So the question we must always be asking is: Where is Jesus sending us? What is Jesus calling us to do? Where is God at work in our community, and where does God invite our help?
In a moment I’m going to ask you to start thinking about some mission and service ideas that we may consider getting involved in. You live on the Peninsula, you work in the schools and local businesses, you know people, you talk to people. What are the needs?
But before we do, let me just say that we’re not talking safe here. In verse 16 of our text, Jesus says this is hazardous work I’m assigning you. You’re going to be like sheep running through a wolf pack.
So we want to think of things that involve risk. Intentionally tonight we’re not talking just about mission and service – there’s an adverb there. Risk-taking.
You’ll know, when you do something risky – your heart starts pumping, the adrenalin gets flowing, there’s an exhilarating feeling, exciting, cutting-edge.
The early Army were all over this – everything was innovation. We were the first ones to get movies happening here in Australia. In fact the Salvos got asked to film Federation, because we were the leaders in that technology at the time. We led the way in red head matches, cause they used to be made from yellow phosphorous which gave the workers phossy jaw – we helped reform the whole match industry. We tackled child prostitution in England and got laws changed. First to open a prison-gate ministry. We started talking fair trade back in 1897, first ones, with our purchasing of fair-trade tea. First organised labour-bureau in the world. So many firsts. So much innovation. So much risk.
So let’s not think safe, let’s be creative. Let’s be a bit out there with our thinking and our dreaming. Let’s think different, radical, cutting edge, never been attempted before, earth shattering, really scary stuff.
What could we do for single parents that is ‘out there’? How about low income families? What kind of housing ministry? Or maintenance ministry?
How about some servant evangelism stuff? You know like giving away bottles of cold water on hot days, or washing cars? Or doing up bikes and giving them away?
What can we do for kids? Don’t give me breakfast programs, let’s come up with something new. I heard this week about homework hotline, and another group who help with school assignments.
I was in the school corridor Wednesday…..
Can we tackle binge drinking and the whole overuse of alcohol in our society?
The elderly – what are some of their needs we could meet?
Family violence, can we play a part in reforming society there?
Mental illness, what are the services like here? Same for drugs, alcohol? How about suicide? Can we do something there – counseling or grief support?
What are some amazingly innovative ways we can share the gospel and tell others about Jesus?
How can we be Jesus across the Mornington Peninsula in a way that is new and risky and exciting? How can we as a group work together in this community to transform lives?
Last Modified on 23/04/2012 11:56