Wednesday, October 7, 2015

Missions versus Mission

Recently at our church we had a Missions Sunday where we brought in a number of missionaries that we support to hear what God is doing through them and to encourage them. Our church has a fine missions program and I want to affirm it and support it.

In fact, I have made a commitment not to make or even suggest any major program changes at the church for at least the first year so that I can focus on getting to know the church (the people) better.

That begin said, if I am going to be faithful to the Lord, then I cannot help but continue to be on the mission that God has given me. He has called me to make biblical disciples through authentic and intentional relationships. Because of this mission, I am constantly seeking to encourage the people currently in the church to grow closer to Jesus, and I am constantly asking God to help me form new relationships outside the church to help draw more people to Him.

As a result of desiring deeper relationship with them, my family and I (and hopefully many of you) are naturally going to invite new people to join us for studies, worship time, kids ministries, and various other activities with our friends in the church.

These new relationships will bring change to the church, because new people will bring new and different ways of doing things. Some of the differences will simply be cultural like, how they dress, how they speak, what they like to do for fun. Further, they will not understand our Christian culture and probably could not find the book of Genesis, let alone the book of Hezekiah. Other differences will be because many of these people are not yet Christians or are new or very young Christians, and so they do not behave as we expect Christians to behave. They might cuss sometimes. Some of them struggle with money management, addictions, anger, broken families with all of their messiness, and sometimes even basic life skills like how to work, how to do laundry, etc.

While these behaviors might make you uncomfortable around new people, I would like to remind you that these should all be expected because we are all in the process of growing. In fact, if you dig deep enough with any of us, you will find that we are all still pretty messy at some points, and that God has lots of work still to do in our lives. As long time Christians we often get good at hiding our issues, but how many of us still struggle with lack of faith, gossip, conflict, pride, greed, and lack of love. We all need Jesus every day, and any changes in our life and character are to His credit not ours.

Most Bible believing Christians agree that one of the primary missions of the church is to reach out to the lost, and that is one of the reasons that we support missions. On the other hand, when it comes to fulfilling our mission to reach the lost, we often talk a good game, but do not in fact fulfill the mission very well. One of the reasons is that being on a mission means change and risk and being uncomfortable. God specifically calls us on mission to help stretch us and cause us to see our need for Him.

Therefore, while I am not proposing any new programs for the church, I would like us to be aware of the fact that if we are obedient to God's mission for the church, then the church is going to change even if we don't change a single program. Beyond that, we will change, because as God uses us to reach more people, the Holy Spirit will also change us so that we can minister to them like Jesus. I am praying that God will continue to change us, so that everyday is a Missions celebration.