Maintaining the Mission

I've heard recent criticism and have read several articles that insist one of the main problems with "house church" or "simple church" or "organic church" whatever you're calling it is that "they" tend to lose their "missional" mandate. Or another words they become too "inward" focused and not enough "outward" focused.

Personally I believe this could very well be the case for some, but not all. Not for those who have come about as the result of the Gospel of the Kingdom. The first two letters of Gospel is "go"...so I believe if we are staying true to the Gospel of the Kingdom, the only gospel Jesus preached, then it carries within its DNA a sense of "missionality" in everything about it.

Last night we had church at our house. 2 of the people are gearing up for "mission" trips. One is a missionary in the sense of Paul and others in the New Testament. He goes around the world (literally) planting small "skate churches" and then moves on to another country to continue his work. He often goes back around to those he help to plant and nurtures, injects vision, worship, teaching, whatever is needed and then leaves again so that the established leadership can continue to minister. He raises 100% of his support through an international ministry. But the place he calls home, family, church, is here in Encinitas, with theRoots community. He is ordained and commissioned to "go". And man does he GO!

Then there is our sister, "K". She used to work at one of the San Diego colleges and a little less than a year ago she felt God calling her "out" of the job and into a more "missional" position with another ministry team. She had at that time been on several short term mission trips with this ministry team and come back from mission trips and ministry events a little more transformed each time. She is now a consultant to the college she used to work full time for and has the flexibility to "go" as the needs arise. She works and raises support.

For this brother and sister we support them financially, in prayer and in any other way possible to enable them to "go" when God says too.

But what about the group that continues to meet every other week when these two are gone? Have we lost our "missionality" in that we're not out there "going"? Some might say yes. Others no. I guess it depends on a couple of things.

1. Your call. You see I believe that no matter where you are in life, work, play or community you are a MISSIONARY. Because this is not your home. You're from another country. You've learned to speak this cultures language, customs, lifestyles, etc...but you're representing another world, another culture and another Kingdom! I live in Encinitas and I consider it my mission field. If I go to get gas, I'm in the mission field. If I go surfing, I'm in the mission field. Take my boys to school, I'm in the mission field. Go to dinner with my wife, I'm in the mission field. You get the point?

2. The Gospel. If your Gospel paradigm is that of the Kingdom "getting IT out there" is carried in everything you do and in the way you go about doing it. If it is the gospel of the church then everything is about "getting it in Here". One says you have it now go and sow it. The other says you don't have it come and get it. One focuses one DISCIPLESHIP the other focuses on CONVERSION.

3. Your daily life? I would like to close with this portion of Romans from theMessege.

Place Your Life Before God
Romans 1-3
So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

I'm speaking to you out of deep gratitude for all that God has given me, and especially as I have responsibilities in relation to you. Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it's important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.

For me I've seen that the Spirit of God keeps bringing us all back to the "simplicity" of the Gospel. But in no way does it mean "insignificant" or "powerless". Often I find His presence and power involved in the mundane and ordinary aspects of life.

Keep it real.

Tim