What is Mission?

For those of you that don't know, I am applying to be an Anglican Priest. The first part of this process is filling out an application, which includes essay questions. I was trying to figure out what to do the blog about this week, I was answering a question that dealt with what my definition of mission is, and to reflect on the Great Commandments and the Great Commission. This is how my answer stands so far, but sure it will change before the application is sent to wherever it is that it goes.

Essentially, what mission means is to change the world, a little bit, or a lot at a time for the glory of God. By change the world, I don’t mean things like recycling soda cans and carpooling to work, but to spread the love of Christ to as many people as possible.

Mission is supposed to be an active thing. Christ commands all of us in Matthew 28:19-20 to go out and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. The key thing to point out here is that He says go out. Mission is reaching out to others, and not just waiting for people to enter into the doors of your church, you have to go out and get them.

You do no good getting people into church if that is your purpose, and once they are butts in seats, you leave them as that. The Great Commandments “love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength” and “love your neighbor as yourself” provide a clear picture of what mission is supposed to be. If your idea is only to get someone into your church, then you will only tell them about the things that your church offers that you think they will like. For example, “my church has an awesome band” or “my church has Starbucks coffee and a variety of pastries” or “my pastor is a really nice guy.” While none of these things are bad in and of themselves, they do nothing to show love for your neighbor. What is happening is that instead of glorifying God, you are glorifying yourself, because you got these people to come to church. If every week this person goes to church, but if they are never fed the Gospel and only donuts from their worship experience, then the Great Commandments, and thus mission, have not been met.

Mission is achieved when you continue to minister to people even after they have started going to your church, another church, or have not made a decision yet.  Even after a person has given themselves to Christ, they still need Christian leadership and teaching. If you leave them be after their conversion, they are likely to turn to heretics and false teachers that will undo everything that God has done in their lives. Mission is when God leads you to love others for His glory, and not for your own. This should be the basic model for the individual and for the local church. God uses everybody to further his mission, since it is something that no person could do on his or her own. That is why the local church comes into play. People need to work together in order to accomplish the mission laid out by Christ Himself.

Don't They Know?

Yet again, I will be reflecting on one of my favorite songs. Most of you have not heard of this band or this song (although I know for sure that two of you have). A band out of Virginia called True Liberty has a song called Don't They Know? which is what I'll be writing about today. Sorry, I couldn't find the song on the internet, but the link takes you to the band's website where they have the lyrics.

I would like all the Christians reading this to think about their non-believing friends. I will talk in general (not to be giving things away) about mine. Some are those I work with currently, some are those I have worked with in the past, and some of those who my wife has worked with. I see a great deal of problems that they are faced with (not saying that following Christ automatically fixes all problems), and think of the refrain from Don't They Know?

Don't they know that God has the answer?

Don't they know that He has a plan?

Don't they know that God has the answer?

We must seek the Master's plan.

Jesus and His name are almost everywhere. From t-shirts, to books, even to billboards. These all fall short of explaining Him and who He is. No one pays attention to t-shirts that don't interest them, the same for books. And the billboards only say the name of Jesus, and nothing else. I start thinking about all these people and what they have in common. If you could take a moment, think about your non-believing friends that you thought of earlier, and now think about what they have in common. And no, I am looking for something other than they are your friends and they don't believe. The answer is much simpler, and possibly even more frightening. I thought about it, and it came to me.

Me. That's right, me. That is what they all have in common. Furthermore, most of these people hang around other non-believers, and may never hear the word of God except for one thing. Me. I would dare say, that the common link between your non-believing friends, is you. If your first reaction was anything like mine, it was most likely something along the lines of "Wow, this sucks. That's a lot of responsibility placed on my shoulders. How am I supposed to do this?" Well, I won't give you an exhaustive list, but here is a few important first steps.

Do what True Liberty says in their last verse:

God can heal a broken heart

And the wounds that are too deep to bear

Because if we would only do our part

And bring it to the Lord in prayer

Well, that doesn't sound so hard now does it. Praying is not, but the answer may be. The second part, and the answer to my prayer, was that I had to live a life that was a reflection of Jesus. Simplistically put, you're not going to be able to bring the Gospel to someone that you are currently trying to stab behind their backs. Live your life honorably, keep your tongue tamed, and most importantly, keep your eyes on Jesus. In Matthew 28:19-20 Jesus commands us to "go and make disciples of all nations" as well as "teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you." The point is you actually have to get up and GO do something. As was said recently, Christianity is not a sedentary faith.

The act of bringing Christianity to your non-believing friends is just that. This aspect of the Faith, along with all other aspects, is an action, something you have to physically do. I know it's hard, it is for me. But with every step of the way, keep your eyes fixed on Jesus, and take it to the Lord in prayer.

Amen.

Christmas in August

Well, the original idea of this blog was to post on Wednesday, but I'm full of enthusiasm right now, so I figured I'd do my inaugural blog on a Monday. I guess it will make up for the umpteen billion times that I post late in the future.

Do you ever have one of those moments where you just have to hear a particular song? I had one of those thoughts the other day. I was taking a lunch delivery last week and I just had to hear a particular song. I just had to hear Casting Crowns While You Were Sleeping. A Christmas song in August, that was interesting. Luckily for me, I just happen to keep Casting Crown's Peace On Earth CD in my car at all times, so I would get to hear the song at the exact time that I wanted to hear it. 

For those that don't know, the song starts off by stating that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, an event of such significance and was anticipated for ages. The "King has left his throne" to be "born among the animals, wrapped in dirty rags because there was no room for him in the world he came to save." And they missed it. Kind of a little jab, I thought, to the people of Bethlehem who just weren't paying attention, they were sleeping. Bethlehem went down in history as a "city with no room for it's King."

As Casting Crowns sometimes does, they call attention to what Christians are lacking today. They shift the attention from the Then and There to the Here and Now. Mark Hall starts singing about the United States of America of today and how we're "sung to sleep by philosophies that save the trees and kill the children." He sings of the future, possibly tonight while we are "sleeping", when Christ comes again. He asks in the refrain:

America what will we miss while we are sleeping?

Will Jesus come again, and leave us slumbering where we lay?

America, will we go down in history, as a nation with no room, for it's King?

Pondering this song, and the endless string of unlikely coincidences that led me to listen to a Christmas song at the beginning of August, I started thinking about my preparedness for the second coming. I believe I fall into a trap that most Christians fall into. A great deal of us think about the second coming from the time periods of the day after Thanksgiving to New Years day, and then the two weeks leading up to Easter. Even in this time period, a lot of people are not even focusing on God, but on shopping, evergreen trees, lines at the stores, and hard-boiled eggs. Never the less, outside these times, some of us focus on the fact that Christ is coming again even less. I guess it is a good thing that song just happened to pop into my head at a time when I could actually hear it. It gave me a little boost that I needed to keep me focused on what is really important. I will end this little blog with this: 

Christ has died

Christ is risen

Christ will come again

Will you be ready for when He does? Or will you be like the Bethlehem that Casting Crowns sings about, and be sleeping?

Amen

Starting a blog.

Well, I'm finally doing it. I'm making a blog. I'm calling it Weekly Refresher. I spend a great deal of time thinking about my faith and how it applies in my life. It sounds good in my head, and I keep thinking that I need to be writing this stuff down. So, here we are. I would like to thank all the people who I have invited for stopping by, and those who for some reason stumbled upon this blog, I thank you as well. For everybody, please comment on this post.