Mission - April 19, 2015
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We
have tried to communicate the core vision of KCF in three words: Gathering –
Growing – Going. The purpose of our gatherings – from this Sunday morning
service, to our various small groups or house groups, to the ladies conference,
to JP’s recent men’s group, to lunches at Tim Horton’s – the purpose of those
gatherings is all about GROWING – growing in our relationship with Christ and
each other. But what is the purpose of that growing?
That brings us to the next “G-word”: GOING. We GATHER to GROW in order to GO. In speaking of “going” I am not referring to physical movement. Going may not require movement from one location to another at all. I am referring to mission – by mission I mean ministry – by ministry I mean service – by service I mean “making a difference.” GOING = MISSION = MINISTRY = SERVICE = MAKING A DIFFERENCE
As these thoughts began to stir in my heart a couple of weeks ago a children’s song from my Sunday school days came back to me: ‘Brighten the corner where you are.’ It’s as simple as that. Don’t complicate it. Don’t clutter it with complex programs and structures. Accept the corner God has placed you in, and in that corner be the light you are and make a difference.
If a church/community loses its sense of mission, that lost sense of mission is never the real problem; it is merely a symptom of the core problem. The real problem is that over the years it became inwardly focused and its mission became self-serving. It is very easy to slip into this without even knowing it is happening. We need to constantly challenge ourselves with the words of Christ who said: “I did not come to be served, but to serve.”
It is impossible to separate Christ from mission. It is impossible to separate Christian discipleship from mission. To be His disciple is to go on a mission in which we make a difference.
When I awoke Easter Monday morning there was considerable agitation in my soul. It was not necessarily negative, but it was profoundly challenging. Two elements came together to form that challenge. I want to share those with you.
The first was the Easter sermon I had preached just twenty four hours earlier. The second was the picture on the following slide. (SLIDE # 3)
On that first Easter morning Mary Magdalene was in the Garden Tomb. She remained when the others had left. She was absolutely filled with confusion. But more than anything else she was in the depths of mourning. Isolated in her grief, Jesus revealed Himself to her. She was the first to witness the resurrected Christ.
Mission begins with a personal encounter with Christ – an encounter so real that no one can ever take it from you. You may not be able to explain it but the reality is such that you can never deny it. That’s what happened to Mary. In a very real sense that meeting in the garden was her point of gathering. In that gathering she was instructed by Christ: this was her point of growing. And then we arrive at this: “GO to my brethren and say to them...”
Right there Mary was commissioned by Christ. Right there her experience of gathering and growing moved to going.
The word commission has many aspects of definition. This is the one that matters to this presentation: ‘authority to act for, in behalf of, or in place of another.’ Mary Magdalene was given authority by Christ to act for, on behalf of, and in the place of that Christ. Right there Mary the mourner became Mary the missionary.
The word missionary has accumulated all kinds of clutter through the long history of the church. Its uncluttered definition is simply this: ‘one who is on a mission.’ That is what Mary became – a woman on a mission. Notice also she was given a specific message and assigned a particular people group to take that message to. That is missions at its best – missions at its highest possibility.
GOING = MISSION = MINISTRY = SERVICE = MAKING A DIFFERENCE: that is what happened in the life of “Mary the mourner becomes Mary the missionary.” (SLIDE # 6)
All of this was brewing in my heart when I awoke on Easter Monday morning. Then I found the picture that is on the slide. Obviously I am blessed with this scene of my daughter giving a blanket to this girl in Haiti. That is going; that is mission; that is making a difference. But what really caught me (and I don’t think I was prepared for this) is the child sitting on the ground. She has become a defining point for me.
I don’t care how much we gather and how much we grow; if our gathering and growing never reaches the little girl sitting in Haitian dust then we are missing a vital aspect of Christian discipleship.
(SLIDE # 8)
I am asking that you allow me to draw upon my personal experience for just a moment. I graduated Bible School and entered the ministry in 1970. I am closing in on 45 years of fulltime ministry – mostly pastoral in nature. It is not easy to define 45 years of anything, and certainly not ministry. But Easter Monday I did a great deal of reflecting upon this very thing.
It seemed to me that much of my effort has been spent dealing with what I call “family fuss.” Is anyone here familiar with the experience of family fuss? We find it in our natural families, our local church families; we find it in each and every community – the policing community, medical community, and on and on.
After 45 years of pastoral ministry I am thinking about writing a curriculum for pastors called: “Fuss Management 101.” If I had to identify the number one family fuss it would be the doctrinal fuss.
Like Mary we have all had our personal encounters with the resurrected Christ. Like Mary we have been given a message. Like Mary we have been given an assignment. But before we get out of the garden we are comparing our personal encounters, the message we’ve been given, and the assignment we’ve been handed. With this the great doctrinal fuss is on.
We fuss over dotting the theological “i” and crossing the theological “t” – we pore over exact wording in our statements of faith getting them perfectly aligned with Biblical revelation. And then our statements of faith become more defining than the Bible itself.
I keep coming back to the Easter reality of mission. I keep coming back to the little girl sitting in Haitian dust. I keep coming back to the question: What difference has forty five years of “fuss management” made to the girl in the picture?
And so we fuss about nits and all the while we are picking them, the little girl sits in the dust patiently waiting for that one “Mary the mourner” who has been transformed into “Mary the missionary” who brings a message of hope, rescue and redemption.
That brings us to the next “G-word”: GOING. We GATHER to GROW in order to GO. In speaking of “going” I am not referring to physical movement. Going may not require movement from one location to another at all. I am referring to mission – by mission I mean ministry – by ministry I mean service – by service I mean “making a difference.” GOING = MISSION = MINISTRY = SERVICE = MAKING A DIFFERENCE
As these thoughts began to stir in my heart a couple of weeks ago a children’s song from my Sunday school days came back to me: ‘Brighten the corner where you are.’ It’s as simple as that. Don’t complicate it. Don’t clutter it with complex programs and structures. Accept the corner God has placed you in, and in that corner be the light you are and make a difference.
If a church/community loses its sense of mission, that lost sense of mission is never the real problem; it is merely a symptom of the core problem. The real problem is that over the years it became inwardly focused and its mission became self-serving. It is very easy to slip into this without even knowing it is happening. We need to constantly challenge ourselves with the words of Christ who said: “I did not come to be served, but to serve.”
It is impossible to separate Christ from mission. It is impossible to separate Christian discipleship from mission. To be His disciple is to go on a mission in which we make a difference.
When I awoke Easter Monday morning there was considerable agitation in my soul. It was not necessarily negative, but it was profoundly challenging. Two elements came together to form that challenge. I want to share those with you.
The first was the Easter sermon I had preached just twenty four hours earlier. The second was the picture on the following slide. (SLIDE # 3)
On that first Easter morning Mary Magdalene was in the Garden Tomb. She remained when the others had left. She was absolutely filled with confusion. But more than anything else she was in the depths of mourning. Isolated in her grief, Jesus revealed Himself to her. She was the first to witness the resurrected Christ.
Mission begins with a personal encounter with Christ – an encounter so real that no one can ever take it from you. You may not be able to explain it but the reality is such that you can never deny it. That’s what happened to Mary. In a very real sense that meeting in the garden was her point of gathering. In that gathering she was instructed by Christ: this was her point of growing. And then we arrive at this: “GO to my brethren and say to them...”
Right there Mary was commissioned by Christ. Right there her experience of gathering and growing moved to going.
The word commission has many aspects of definition. This is the one that matters to this presentation: ‘authority to act for, in behalf of, or in place of another.’ Mary Magdalene was given authority by Christ to act for, on behalf of, and in the place of that Christ. Right there Mary the mourner became Mary the missionary.
The word missionary has accumulated all kinds of clutter through the long history of the church. Its uncluttered definition is simply this: ‘one who is on a mission.’ That is what Mary became – a woman on a mission. Notice also she was given a specific message and assigned a particular people group to take that message to. That is missions at its best – missions at its highest possibility.
GOING = MISSION = MINISTRY = SERVICE = MAKING A DIFFERENCE: that is what happened in the life of “Mary the mourner becomes Mary the missionary.” (SLIDE # 6)
All of this was brewing in my heart when I awoke on Easter Monday morning. Then I found the picture that is on the slide. Obviously I am blessed with this scene of my daughter giving a blanket to this girl in Haiti. That is going; that is mission; that is making a difference. But what really caught me (and I don’t think I was prepared for this) is the child sitting on the ground. She has become a defining point for me.
I don’t care how much we gather and how much we grow; if our gathering and growing never reaches the little girl sitting in Haitian dust then we are missing a vital aspect of Christian discipleship.
(SLIDE # 8)
I am asking that you allow me to draw upon my personal experience for just a moment. I graduated Bible School and entered the ministry in 1970. I am closing in on 45 years of fulltime ministry – mostly pastoral in nature. It is not easy to define 45 years of anything, and certainly not ministry. But Easter Monday I did a great deal of reflecting upon this very thing.
It seemed to me that much of my effort has been spent dealing with what I call “family fuss.” Is anyone here familiar with the experience of family fuss? We find it in our natural families, our local church families; we find it in each and every community – the policing community, medical community, and on and on.
After 45 years of pastoral ministry I am thinking about writing a curriculum for pastors called: “Fuss Management 101.” If I had to identify the number one family fuss it would be the doctrinal fuss.
Like Mary we have all had our personal encounters with the resurrected Christ. Like Mary we have been given a message. Like Mary we have been given an assignment. But before we get out of the garden we are comparing our personal encounters, the message we’ve been given, and the assignment we’ve been handed. With this the great doctrinal fuss is on.
We fuss over dotting the theological “i” and crossing the theological “t” – we pore over exact wording in our statements of faith getting them perfectly aligned with Biblical revelation. And then our statements of faith become more defining than the Bible itself.
I keep coming back to the Easter reality of mission. I keep coming back to the little girl sitting in Haitian dust. I keep coming back to the question: What difference has forty five years of “fuss management” made to the girl in the picture?
And so we fuss about nits and all the while we are picking them, the little girl sits in the dust patiently waiting for that one “Mary the mourner” who has been transformed into “Mary the missionary” who brings a message of hope, rescue and redemption.