There is a controversy brewing and I just don't get it.
It's all about the word missional. "To be or not to be", borrowing from William Shakespeare.
I've been hearing and reading discussions in the Body of Christ, and in particular the Organic, Simple and Missional movement, about the value, worth and sequence of being missional.
Debates and conversations over things like; "does Christology proceed Missiology" or vise versa ? "Worship, not mission, is the ultimate goal for the church." "Missional is really a covering for the works of our flesh." "There is too much emphasis on being missional, and we need first to have more fellowship with Jesus and with each other in community".
I'm personally frustrated with these conversations.
How can you have intimacy with the Lord and NOT live in a "mission". A mission that others would know Him! Intimacy results in an alignment with the desires and heart of God. His heart is missional! He wants His creation to Know Him!
Worship is the ultimate goal over mission?
Mission is worship. Mission is obedience. Obedience is worship.
Jesus honored the Father by obeying Him in all things, the first being His being willing to come to earth and live among us for awhile and then dying for our sins. His prayers were heard because he was submitted to the Father. My mission is to worship Him with my life and with all that I have been given. Far more than the songs I sing or the money I give. Remember the parable of the talents? I want to multiply it all to honor and worship Him.
We honor the Father, as Jesus did, when He walked in their shared mission to provide redemption and relationship to humanity. Jesus did only that which the Father told Him to do, every day. He had the overall mission, and then the day to day missions. If you study the daily life of Jesus, you see that He was the epitome of living missional. He could of sat on top of the mountain every day, basking in the intimate presence of God, but He didn't. How blessed we are that he instead revealed the mission of the Father each day to people in a multiple of ways.
God Himself is mission and the source of all mission.
Mission is not initiated by the flesh of men, but by the Spirit of God.
He gave His only son, SO THAT others may know and experience the incredible relationship of knowing Him. That's His mission and desire (that all would come to the knowledge of Him.) Without mission, no one would know His great love!
I know Him, and this incredible gift He "missioned" to give me 25 years ago. I want others around me to know and experience what I have! It's too awesome and incredible to keep to myself! It is the Spirit of God within me that initiates and motivates this, not my flesh. It's not our flesh that pursues mission, it is the Holy Spirit working out the desires of the Father and Son.
Jesus told the disciples to wait until they received the Holy Spirit and then they would "go out" and tell others and make more disciples who would be filled with this same Spirit. When they did receive Him at Pentecost, it motivated them into the greatest missional movement the world has experienced.
Jesus is my example in all things. Jesus is the ultimate model of living a missional life that was full of intimacy with the Father, fruitfulness and perfect obedience. He said, if you see Me, you see the Father, and as He sent Me, so I send you.....
That's enough for me.........
I'm thinking of the goofy Frank Sinatra version of "Love and Marriage:"
ReplyDelete"Worship and mission, Worship and mission, you can't have one without . . . the other!"
Erik! Thanks for making it even simpler!
ReplyDeleteGreat thoughts, Katie. One of the things that God has been reminding me of lately is that in the Great Commission, spiritual authority ("all authority in heaven and on earth") and the presence of Christ ("I am with you always") are two things we experience while acting as sent ones on Mission. Charismatic/Pentecostals AND evangelicals all want to experience more of the presence of Jesus Christ in their lives as well as walk in greater spiritual authority (though "spiritual authority" means different things to each!), but both often seek these two things outside of mission and, rather, in the context of corporate worship. If only they could see that what they long for is found in obedience to the Great Commission! God has clearly articulated a designated path to experience more of Jesus's abiding presence and experiencing a representational authority we have only heard about in field reports from overseas: and the name of that path is MISSION.
ReplyDeleteMike
Mike, that is so right! My next blog discusses some of this, but not as articulately as you do! I'm with you, regarding that our field reports reflect what God does through us in our neighborhoods, workplaces, every day life, as well as oversees! Now THAT would be a missional movement!
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