Jon Cruz wrote something with which I strongly resonate. As I've investigated the "missional church" here in Australia, as I've talked over chai with colleagues in the 'mission field', as I've engaged other Christians in discussion, I've come to believe that the great commission is more than what we in the evangelical community have made it. When we are called to 'make disciples', we are not called to merely preach on the street corners and hope that somebody might be inspired to accept Christ. The great commission is a call for those of us that follow Jesus to inspire and invite others to follow him as well; we are to make seekers of the world, not believers. To clarify: a believer is one stagnant in their beliefs, someone who is convinced of the validity of something, never doubts, never questions, never tries to further refine their worldview. A seeker is one who is constantly questioning their assumptions, their beliefs, their values.
As Christians, we are to seek, to constantly refine our worldview and question our assumptions. Why do we believe what we believe? Is the Bible ok with what we believe? Are we just trying to justify our actions to ourselves?
Just so we're clear, a seeker can hold solid beliefs; they can believe that God exists, they can believe that Christ died and rose again. But it doesn't stop them from re-evaluating their beliefs on a regular basis. If anything, this helps them re-discover their passion for their God, for their cause. Asking "why" is the best motivator for mission I can think of.
As Christians, we are to seek, to constantly refine our worldview and question our assumptions. Why do we believe what we believe? Is the Bible ok with what we believe? Are we just trying to justify our actions to ourselves?
Just so we're clear, a seeker can hold solid beliefs; they can believe that God exists, they can believe that Christ died and rose again. But it doesn't stop them from re-evaluating their beliefs on a regular basis. If anything, this helps them re-discover their passion for their God, for their cause. Asking "why" is the best motivator for mission I can think of.
5 comments:
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Don't know what that last comment is, but anyways...I've got a "missional/emerging church movement" quesition. I've been reading up a little bit on it lately and I can see clearly that it is based heavily on getting beside your neighbour, feeding the hungery, etc... as following an example of Jesus, which is great, and really it shouldn't just be the emerging church that is doing that. But in regards to what you've been saying about seeking, do you (the church) also do alot of bible teaching/study/reading/discussing as well? When you guys get together at the pub, or whereever it might be that week, what do you do exactly, or if it's different every time give me a few examples :)
Yeah, I'm not sure about that first comment either.
Yes, we do. We have decided to balance the time 50/50, doing mission and service to the community every other week, alternating with study, devotions, and "corporate" worship. For example: one week we'll meet at a pub and engage a passage of scripture (that happens to be this coming weekend), the week after we might go and visit someone's community and participate in their mission work (I believe the next community is Jono and Sarah's), the week after we have a slightly (only slightly) more traditional service (still at the pub, but in a back room they let us use ... I think 'Nette wants us to do some singing this time too, in addition to a more formal communion), and the fourth week we don't meet as a large community, but instead meet in our own communities to do more intensive mission there (this is often harder for my particular community, since we all have different mission projects that happen not on sundays, so we usually do some sort of study and discussion ... we did the whole book of Jude once, it was fun). We're trying to be as balanced as possible, not swinging the pendulum too far the other way, but not remaining in that static place we came from. The tendency of emerging and missional churches is, in some cases, to over-compensate and spend too much time in the community and not enough time as a church. Scripture says we're to do both, and so that is what we at mimos are trying to do. Does that help?
Actually, my mistake, this coming community (two weeks from now) is ours; we'll be going down to the SEDA facility in Kensington to talk about Seeing Eye Dogs and participate in a fundraiser for the organization. It takes $25k to raise and train one guide dog, and they need all the help they can get.
Yup that answers my question...I was just curious because I never heard much mention of it so I thought I would ask instead of making assumptions
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