3-fold mission(al)

Missional is more than a buzzword (see here for some humor about it, some serious reflection here ).

Missional is missionary used as an adverb — an adjective-verb. I believe it aims to connote the what, why and how of being the Church in our culture. (I like the word, although I don’t want to overuse it. Much like "love," we want to be wise with our words, for we should not "love" a hamburger as much as our child. Although, come to think of it, enjoying Burgerville with my son makes us both happy.) (grin)

The Scriptures are replete with God’s commands and enablements to be His sent people in His world, for the sake of show His worth, work, and ways. Open up a passage and if you read it in context, you will find the concept of being missional there. If not in our being sent at least in God sending Himself, the great Initiator and Lover of His people. God is the Hero of every text, revealing His promises and promise-keeping nature.

The mission of God (Missio Dei ) centers on Jesus Christ. He is not only the Example of how and what to be, He is the One who alone is able to show us God breaking into our world. All things will be put together in God-glorifying ways in Christ (Eph. 1:7-10; Eph 3:8-12). He is the Word, the Light, and of His fullness we have receive, grace and truth, grace upon grace (John 1:1-16 ). We will never exhaust exploring His worth, in this life or the ages to come. He is the fullness of God’s aims in the universe, and under Him all things will be brought together in the vastness of their expression.

Considering this great truth takes up much of my mental capacities, and while I won’t be able to blog for at least the next week (it’s finals in seminary), I’ll leave you with a some missional thoughts to ponder.

At our church we focus on "loving God, loving people and serving the world." We aim to be known as a caring community that embodies those three simple directions.

The first is vertical, the second two are horizontal, and while in mathematics the x- (horiz) and y- (vert) axis are each considered independent, in the real world our love for God is incomplete (in not absent) if do not love others (see 1 John for a healthy dose of this reality). We cannot claim to have the vertical without being diligent on the horizontal.

We are to be God-centered, Gospel-driven and people-directed. Those hyphens mean something significant, and figuring how the connecting in those coupled-words is now my life’s work.

1. To love God He must be first in our affections (which does not happen by default);
2. To love people we must relate to others on the basis of the Gospel, which involves being candid about our own weakness and shortcomings;
3. To serve the world our God-centeredness and Gospel-drivenness will take shape in intentional service and sacrificial giving (of our talents, treasure and time), directed towards meeting needs and redeeming circumstances. (In short, to merely talk about God and the Gospel is not enough.)

Are we doing this perfectly? No. Are we on a trajectory towards uniting these three? I believe so. This involves moving outside our comfort zones, relating to God on the basis of Christ’s work alone (always, continually), and adapting ministry by taking risks. In my first up-front interaction with our people I noted that I will probably sound like a broken record to some, because I will emphasize these core things over and over. We do not need to know and do everything. Rather, we must know a few things so deeply that we are gripped by them, send by God into action. I hope we sense a willingness to risk much (and probably fail a thousand different ways) rather than be content to "succeed" in things that don’t matter.