a l i v e & a w a k e

 

 

One of the greatest gifts I received (looking back) in my life was Christ. Before you say ‘oh, of course you would say that’, realize there is a certain aspect of eternal life that was given to me in this relationship. I have heard many before say this. Many emphasize the salvation of Christ (meaning ‘I’m going to heaven’) and that is good –a great bonus. The greatest aspect of the gospel for me is that I have been called into the living work of Christ manifesting Himself on this earth on a daily basis. That has much more comfort to me rather than a beautiful place of ‘gold’ that I will spend eternity.

In essence the gift Christ has empowered me with is Mission!

 

Salvation for the human race has to include Mission. For me it has been crucial to my growth and awareness of who Christ is to seek, see and act (celebrate). This is not a one time occurrence but an ongoing salvation (sort of like “work out your salvation with fear and trembling”-Phil 2).

 

My first injection of this mission was at Graphite Camp. I seem to go there for the girl population and it was just a fun thing to do over the summer, but I caught a taste of something else—mission. It was the mission (looking back) of community building, helping the poor and sharing Christ that I really enjoyed on a deeper level. I had this experience off and on for about 5-6 yrs. It wasn’t until I was asked to be apart of starting a new ministry in Bancroft (switch Yard –see stories from Joe’s view) that I grabbed hold of the way Christ had equipped me. 

I am now at a church (The Meeting House) and finding this dynamic of missional is needed in my setting. I see people who have not been empowered to be on mission but want to contribute to a bigger cause. The history of the church has proven to be one of a fortress mentality as opposed to an organic community placed on this earth to bless others with the mission and life of Christ.  I’m in no way perfect and I forget many times to be intentional in this way. Mission is where we can all find a purpose and place to belong.

 

A great analogy of a Missional and non-missional mindset

If you were prejudice, racists, complainer type, you would not have time to be any of those things if you were in the heat of battle on the frontlines. On the frontlines, the bombs are going off so you can hardly hear, the bullets fly over head and your have a gun in you hand hoping the person beside you is with you. You wouldn’t care if they were racially different. You wouldn’t care if the food wasn’t great that morning, or if your clothes were the most comfortable or fashionable.

 

Back ten miles from the frontlines –rear echelons—they find the soldiers are complaining about everything –even when they can hear the battle in the distance!

 

This is true with the church sometimes if we are not consistently putting ourselves in the reality of the battle around us. If we are positioned in the church like a ‘rear echelon’ than we will find people complaining, acting on prejudice, apathetic and harmful for team moral.

Here are some of my thoughts on how the church can transform into a missional community. We need to create missional environments. It is moving from where we have typically practiced church to something else.

Missional is moving from

l       Giving l       God’s power Revealed l       Learning l       ‘what’ thoughts l       Building relationships l       Christ –reconciler

to...

l       Equipping l       Empowering l       Learn to teach l       ‘how’ thoughts l       Partnering l       Christ reconciling through us

Cultivating an atmosphere of Moving from a goal to gather,  to a goal of gathering to move. Bottom word INTENTIONALITY!

 

Lots more can be said, but this a taste of my journey.