It started when Derek and I preached through the gospel presentations in Acts. I began to see that something was seriously wrong – not just with my Christian walk, but with our Christian culture as a whole. The Newsboys said it very powerfully in the song “Lost the Plot”:
When I saw you for the first time
you were hanging with a thief
And I knew my hands were dirty,
and I dropped my gaze.
Then you said I was forgiven
and you welcomed me with laughter.
I was happy ever after.
I was counting the days
when you’d come back again.
we’ll be waiting for you
When you comin’ back again?
we’ll be ready for you
Maybe we’ll wake up when…
maybe we’ll wake up when
you come back again.
lies.
Let’s be blunt.
We’re a little unfaithful.
What do you want?
Are you still listening?
`Cause we’re obviously not
We’ve forgotten our first love
We have lost the plot.
And why are you still calling?
You forgave, we forgot.
We’re such experts at stalling
that we’ve lost the plot.
lost the plot
When you come back again
would you bring me something from the fridge?
Heard a rumor that the end is near
but I just got comfortable here.
I struggled for a long time on my own, trying to figure out where our theology and practice went wrong. But recently, I’ve been hugely encouraged by a whole bunch of theologically solid believers, pastors, churches and speakers who have been distressed by the very same thing – and, more importantly, has figured out the answer and have been living it. The movement as a whole is called the Missional movement and the group that best characterizes it is the Acts 29 Network, a loose association of theologically-solid, missionally-minded churches across the nation.
I’ve been taking TFC’s staff and student leadership team through an excellent bible study called Sent: Living the Missional Nature of the Church. So far, Session 2 (of 5) hit me the hardest. Here are the five paragraphs that I liked the most:
There is a better way. The better way is to stand for justice and to serve those in need – but never let anyone tell you that you can bring justice but you can’t bring Jesus. The better way is to lead the pack in meeting both physical and spiritual needs. The better way is to put aside our preferences in favor of the gospel message. The better way is to contextualize our message into our community, recognizing that the HOW of ministry is in many ways determined by the who, when and where of culture. To do that, we must actually be involved in our culture rather than opposing or running away from it. When we serve in the name of Jesus, we carry the message of reconciliation. And we are truly representing Jesus and His kingdom inside the context of our present culture.
Of course, it’s the “living among non-Christians” part that I think we have a big problem with. It seems we have developed an unhealthy fear of the culture around us. We are surrounded by cultural ideas that seem to threaten the very core of our beliefs – like lack of absolute truth, flexible morality, and situational ethics. But in response, we have retreated inside the walls of our churches to form holy huddles. We have decided that holiness is keeping ourselves separate from sinners and not sin. We have created Christian music, Christian basketball leagues, Christian schools and Christian breath mints so that we don’t have to rub elbows with people who might challenge our faith.
Sometimes that means not giving my opinion about everything, and always it means not getting in the way of the advance of His kingdom. As an ambassador of Christ, I don’t act on my own behalf; I act in the authority of the very Creator of the universe. Ambassadors don’t try to re-create a walled-in version of their home country in foreign land; they purposely spend a majority of their time choosing to live among others in an effort to represent their homeland. That means we have to get engaged in our community as ambassadors.
- Ambassadors remember the renewing work Jesus has done for them.
- Ambassadors find themselves living in – and engaging – this world, but not buying into the world’s systems.
- Ambassadors choose to find hope in the cross, and with the authority of Jesus, tell others about the reconciliation that’s available to them.
- Ambassadors have to get over their own fears, prejudices, hang-ups, and preferences so that they are willing to go wherever Christ calls them and do whatever He says to do.
It is this love – the same love that compelled Jesus to die willingly and without protest – that still compels us outward. As Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:14-15:
“Christ’s love compels us, since we have reached this conclusion: if One died for all, then all died. And He died for all so that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for the One who died for them and was raised.”
Minor Nitpicks about Sent:
It seems like Stetzer believes we have a dual mission: serving and saving. As he says on page 41: “Dr. Luke, in his Gospel narrative, saw this mission in terms of serving and saving. In Luke 4:18-19, a passage showing the inauguration of the ministry of Christ, Jesus claimed He was coming to bring good news to the poor. He was coming to heal the blind and bring freedom to captives and the oppressed. Jesus came to serve. And this is still a great part of our ministry of reconciliation.”
It seems to me that Jesus’ mission was “to seek and to save”, which are really two components of the same thing, rather than “to serve and to save”. I think the church has a single mission, to “make disciples”, which admittedly has two components, baptizing (implying evangelism) and teaching to obey Jesus’ commands, but it’s still one mission.
Serving (or I would call it Loving) is not a part of our mission, but rather a core part of our character as believers and Christ-followers. It should dramatically influence how we live and how we go about our mission, but it itself is not our mission or our end-game. Just like a teacher in a school may well show a great sense of humor or show genuine concern for students who are abused at home – and these things will aid him in his mission – his mission is still to teach. I’m not saying that we as individuals or corporately shouldn’t do things for people’s welfare, just as the school-teacher may startup a free breakfast program for kids or an after-school counseling program for abused kids – but the heart and intent of such programs must be to help the kids learn. Its critical for the school and the teacher to remember their mission. If the teacher or the school decides that counseling abused kids is more important than their learning and want to change missions, they need to leave the school context and start up an independent counseling program.
The same goes for the here-and-now element of the Kingdom of God. It is not a part of our mission to bring in the Kingdom of God, rather the kingdom-among-us should be a reflection of the character of Christ-followers and the character of a community of Christ-followers. Again, I’m not saying we shouldn’t think about and work on developing a genuine, devoted community, but I am saying that we shouldn’t get it confused with our mission, which is to make disciples of Jesus Christ.
How are these things changing my life and the life of my family?
It’s hard to know exactly how things will take shape, but I know that I must (and we all must) obey Him by being a light, shining in a secular community, once again. I can’t turn back the clock and enroll as a student at Whatcom Community College again, but perhaps I can be a light in a whatcom county amateur writers community or graphic design community or maybe even, somehow, in Whatcom Community College again.
