God’s Mission Has a Church!

John 3:16-17; 5:24; 14:26; 16:7; 17:18; 20:21

A third very key element in our desire towards Cultivating Missional Living is our understanding of the concept of missio dei. Our English rendering of this Latin term is, the Mission of God. It is God who has a mission to set things right in a broken, sinful world-to redeem and restore it to what he has always intended. This language emphasizes that mission is not primarily an activity of the church, but rather the activity of God. The church is God’s instrument sent into the world to participate in His mission. So, the church exists because of God’s mission, and not the other way around.

So mission is not the invention, responsibility, or a program of the church. Instead…it flows directly from the character and purposes of our missionary God. So….it is not the church that undertakes mission; it is the mission of God that establishes the church. Or, it is not so much that God has a mission for His church in the world, but that God has a church for His mission in the world.

It is not only crucial that we understand that our God has a mission, but equally important is it that we understand that His mission is larger than the church. We in the church often, wrongly, assume that the primary activity of God is in the church, rather than recognizing that God’s primary activity is in the world, and the church is God’s instrument sent into the world to participate in His redemptive mission. Instead of thinking of the church as an entity that simply sends missionaries, we should instead view the church as the missionary. Among other things, this shift in perspective will bring about radical changes in two particular areas.

First, a mission of God perspective will shape our thinking about the form and function of the church.

Typically, churches view missions as simply one program or activity among many other equally important functions of the church. So, the missions “program” is seen alongside other programs such as music, Bible Study, men’s and women’s ministry, youth, and children’s ministry and so on. When missions is viewed in this way, the main business of missions is to determine how to spend the mission budget rather than to view the entire work of the church as an exercise in mission. But, when a church begins to define itself as an agent of God’s mission, it will begin to organize every activity of the church around the mission of God….So, missions as the organizing principle means that missions goes beyond being some sort of optional activity or program for our church.

Actually it is the organizing axis of the church. (missions) The life of the church revolves around it. This is not to say that we do not have worship, develop community, and make disciples, but that these are catalyzed by and organized around the mission function. Only in this way can we be truly missional. Merely adding events or special outreach days to our church schedules will not develop missional people nor make us a missional church.

So to help clarify this issue of God’s Mission as the organizing principle for all other activities of the church, I again say I do not want to minimize the need and importance of the other functions of the church. But I’m simply stating that no other function of the church can rightly be the organizing principle, or the reason we come together in the first place. Worship should not be the reason. Fellowship, what I tend to call community these days, should not be the reason. Even, discipleship and evangelism should not be the reason.

Instead, worship, community, discipleship and evangelism. And every other important activity of the church are properly understood and initiated only when viewed through the lens of mission. And, please hear me, this is my passion in this life, it is what I beg God for, God help me give them the vision you have given me for Your Mission. 

I wish there was a pair of glasses I could buy for you that, would give you the vision God has given me of Worship, and Small Groups and Bibles Study and Discipleship, when seen through Missional Glasses. Without them everything is blurred.

The Second significant shift that occurs with a mission of God perspective deals with our starting point for missional activity.

When we begin to see the church (individually and collectively) as the sent, missionary people of God, we no longer view the church as the jumping-off point when thinking about mission. Instead, we look for God’s activity in our local setting as the place to begin our missional engagement.

Among other things, what this means is that the nature and shape of mission cannot be decided beforehand, but must be discerned in relation to God’s participation in a local context. Instead of front-loading mission plans and strategies with what we think the people in the community need, we begin by listening and learning to what God is already doing. Then, and only then after our discerning what God is doing in our particular setting do we then ask how God wants us to participate with Him.

Our Response

Consider these four D’s of Missional engagement.

Discover-If it is truly God’s Mission and not ours, then we must discover where God is at work.

The first step in discovering what God is doing is through listening. Individually and collectively we must cultivate our ability to listen well on three fronts-to God, the local community, and each other.

It is simply impossible to ascertain the movement of God without carving out significant time to listen to his voice through prayer and scripture as well as the voices of those we desire to serve.

Discern- In addition to listening, participating in God’s mission will involve the very difficult task of discernment. Not only will we need to discern what God is already doing, but we will need to ask the follow up question, In light of our gifts and resources, how does God want me to participate in what he is doing? The fact is we can’t do it all, which is true for both individual followers of Jesus as well as local church members. But it is also true that God has gifted us all to do something! The point of discernment is to determine where and how to participate in God’s mission.

Do-This may seem obvious, but the process of discernment is useless if we do not obey what God is calling us to do. When God prompts us to participate in what he is doing in the lives of others, we must be obedient to respond.

Why is that, because no matter how great our plans for a community might be, it may not be what the community really needs? We can’t assume we know. Instead, we must listen-listen to God and listen to the community. Then we must act.

Debrief- Throughout this process of engaging God’s mission we must create opportunities to reflect on our missional involvement. Sometime this may simply mean individual down time to reflect upon our activities. We may need to ask God to affirm our involvement, or to ask for clarity of direction. But it will also mean we must carve out time to reflect with others in our faith community. We need to hear what others are seeing and sensing concerning God’s activities and to hear the stories of how others are engaging God’s mission. In this way it is important for us to be in the position to offer feedback.

See to participate in the mission of God is to play a personal and vital role in the movement of God’s redemptive mission. Ridgecrest our God is moving us into His missionary adventure.