Sermon Notes - August 26, 2012
I. The past 100 years have brought with them significant and dramatic change. In fact, some historians have suggested that the world has witnessed more change in the last century than any preceding century in history. These unprecedented changes have affected almost every dimension of our lives - socially, culturally, technologically, and even relationally. Scientists are even beginning to discover that the brains of children growing up in today's world learn and function differently.
.
Many assumed that, in the midst of these vast cultural and social changes, the church would remain the one thing that did not change; the church would remain a constant source of stability and security. (And we all know that the church is very efficient and effective at resisting change.) But as the church was confronted with a dramatically different cultural and social landscape in which to do ministry, inevitably change came to the church as well. Much of the change that we have experienced in the last 100 years has been profoundly positive; we have experienced liturgical renewal, ecumenical renewal, and charismatic renewal. We have experienced a renewed awareness of our role in matters of justice, healing, and reconciliation.
.
However, in the midst of these changes, somewhere we along the line, the church lost touch with a central component of its identity. We lost touch with our "missional" identity. We lost touch with our identity as "God's sent people."
.
For the past several decades, we have simply expected that people will "come to church," if you build it, they will come! As one author put it, the church has changed the command to "go and be" to an appeal to "come and see." We have adopted an attractional model of ministry as opposed to an incarnational model of ministry.
.
II. Recently there has been a conversation taking place within the larger church. This conversation has been addressing many of the challenges facing the church in the 21st century, in particular the challenge to reclaim our "missional" identity, our identity as "God's sent people." One of main goals of this "missional" conversation is to refocus our attention the central biblical claim that God is a sending God and we are God's sent people.
.
This central biblical claim is evident throughout the history of God's people:
- Adam and Eve were sent forth as bearers of the divine image
- Abraham was called by God and sent to a new land
- The people of Israel were sent into the Promised Land
- Jesus in all four gospels commissions the disciples to "go forth"
- The book of Acts chronicles the rapid growth of the early church
.
We have been invited to participate in this awesome, life-giving, life-transforming mission, what scholars call the missio dei, the "mission of God." The early Christian movement reflects the basic truth that it is not the church of God that has a mission, but the mission of God that has a church!
.
III. But somewhere along the way, we have lost touch with this basic truth. We have lost touch with our central identity as God's sent people. How did this happen? Well, we have taken the awesome, life-giving, life-transforming mission of God and made it simply another church "program" (during the preaching of this sermon, I used a box that represented the church's mission program/activity). We have reduced mission to an activity of the church.
.
Within this programmatic structure, we find many of the various ministries associated with mission: church planting, mission trips, service projects, outreach ministries, evangelism, and many others. These are important ministries that each contribute in significant ways to life and ministry of the church. However, we often focus our attention on these ministries for a week, a month, or maybe a year and then we place them back in the "box" until next week or next month or next year. Sometimes these programs go neglected for long periods of time. Another problem with this model of ministry is that we have the tendency to assign people to specific groups. Consequently, mission is understood not as the ministry of every member of the church, but is consigned to a particular committee or group.
.
But what if God's vision is much bigger? What if the mission of God is much more expansive than what our programmatic structures can contain?
.
IV. What if we truly believed that the Holy Spirit is alive and active in the world around us and that we are invited to partcipated in this ongoing work of the Spirit?
.
What if people were to ask us what church we "come from" rather than what church we "go to?"
.
What if being the church is not so much about how many services we have, but how many people we serve?
.
What if being the church is not so much about how many people attend our ministries, but how many people are equipped for ministry?
.
What if being the church is not about the church at all, but rather about bearing witness to the kingdom of God that God's dream might be manifested on earth as it is in heaven?
.
If we can begin to imagine this kind of church, than we can imagine what it means for us to reclaim our identity as "God's sent people." We can begin to imagine what it means to be a "missional church," a church in which mission is understood not simply as a noun or a verb, a program or an activity, but as an adjective that describes every aspect of our lives.
.
This is journey that we will taking in the coming year. The journey of becoming a "missional church!"
.
.
For the past several decades, we have simply expected that people will "come to church," if you build it, they will come! As one author put it, the church has changed the command to "go and be" to an appeal to "come and see." We have adopted an attractional model of ministry as opposed to an incarnational model of ministry.
.
II. Recently there has been a conversation taking place within the larger church. This conversation has been addressing many of the challenges facing the church in the 21st century, in particular the challenge to reclaim our "missional" identity, our identity as "God's sent people." One of main goals of this "missional" conversation is to refocus our attention the central biblical claim that God is a sending God and we are God's sent people.
.
This central biblical claim is evident throughout the history of God's people:
- Adam and Eve were sent forth as bearers of the divine image
- Abraham was called by God and sent to a new land
- The people of Israel were sent into the Promised Land
- Jesus in all four gospels commissions the disciples to "go forth"
- The book of Acts chronicles the rapid growth of the early church
.
We have been invited to participate in this awesome, life-giving, life-transforming mission, what scholars call the missio dei, the "mission of God." The early Christian movement reflects the basic truth that it is not the church of God that has a mission, but the mission of God that has a church!
.
III. But somewhere along the way, we have lost touch with this basic truth. We have lost touch with our central identity as God's sent people. How did this happen? Well, we have taken the awesome, life-giving, life-transforming mission of God and made it simply another church "program" (during the preaching of this sermon, I used a box that represented the church's mission program/activity). We have reduced mission to an activity of the church.
.
Within this programmatic structure, we find many of the various ministries associated with mission: church planting, mission trips, service projects, outreach ministries, evangelism, and many others. These are important ministries that each contribute in significant ways to life and ministry of the church. However, we often focus our attention on these ministries for a week, a month, or maybe a year and then we place them back in the "box" until next week or next month or next year. Sometimes these programs go neglected for long periods of time. Another problem with this model of ministry is that we have the tendency to assign people to specific groups. Consequently, mission is understood not as the ministry of every member of the church, but is consigned to a particular committee or group.
.
But what if God's vision is much bigger? What if the mission of God is much more expansive than what our programmatic structures can contain?
.
IV. What if we truly believed that the Holy Spirit is alive and active in the world around us and that we are invited to partcipated in this ongoing work of the Spirit?
.
What if people were to ask us what church we "come from" rather than what church we "go to?"
.
What if being the church is not so much about how many services we have, but how many people we serve?
.
What if being the church is not so much about how many people attend our ministries, but how many people are equipped for ministry?
.
What if being the church is not about the church at all, but rather about bearing witness to the kingdom of God that God's dream might be manifested on earth as it is in heaven?
.
If we can begin to imagine this kind of church, than we can imagine what it means for us to reclaim our identity as "God's sent people." We can begin to imagine what it means to be a "missional church," a church in which mission is understood not simply as a noun or a verb, a program or an activity, but as an adjective that describes every aspect of our lives.
.
This is journey that we will taking in the coming year. The journey of becoming a "missional church!"
.
No comments:
Post a Comment