Feb 24, 2013: Wordeed 3, Defragmenting Mission

Scripture: Luke 6:46-49

- Once upon a time, the majority of people in Europe and North America were Christian. 

- A majority of people attended Sunday morning services in Christian churches.

- We held weekly worship and prayer services and we met the needs of our communities.

- We knew our neighbors and their needs and we did what we could to meet those needs.

- It was during those days that committed Christians became convinced that the world needed Christ and missionary societies were born.

- Committed people gave generously to support missionaries, sending them and their families to foreign countries to share the gospel.

- What these missionaries did when they arrived was become involved in the communities where they were living.

- They got or created jobs to help support themselves and their ministry, and got to know the needs of the people in their communities and did what they could to meet those needs, and in the middle of it all, they shared the good news.

- Does this remind you of anyone, perhaps Jesus?

- Our God is a missionary God. He sent Jesus to live among us. As the gospel writer puts it, "The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood." (John 1:14, MSG)

- Today, Europe and North America are still sending missionaries and these missionaries are still doing what they have always done, moving into the neighborhood, meeting needs, and sharing the good news.

- The result? Needs are being met and many continue to come to Christ.

- So, what's different?

- What is different is North America and Europe are no longer primarily Christian themselves.

- They also need missionaries. We need missionaries. All of us need to be missionaries to the people around us.

- Somehow, over the years we developed an "us versus them" mentality.

- Somehow, we have forgotten that sharing the good news is an incarnational work.

- What does incarnational mean?  It means just as Jesus had to come in flesh and blood to accomplish his work, so also we must be present to others to continue the work he has given us.

- Like Jesus, we have to "move into the neighborhood" and get involved in the lives of people, meeting their needs and sharing the gospel.

- Here's where the trouble arises.

- Human beings have a natural tendency to compartmentalize.

- Look at our houses. We have a kitchen for preparing meals, we have a dining room for eating meals, we have a living room for relaxing where we watch TV and spend time with others, we have a bathroom for, well we all know what a bathroom is for.

- We also have a bedroom for each person in the house for rest, and a playroom for the kids toys.

- Even if we do not have a room for each of these compartments, we do have an area designated for them.

- Now what happens in our homes? Sure, if we organized it all and walked out and shut the door it would all stay that way. But we don't, we live in our houses.

- We take food in the living room, we sleep on the couch, the kids drag their toys everywhere and there are dirty socks under the kitchen table.

- One room spills into the next and the house gets messy.

- This compartmentalizing does not just apply to our houses. We do it to our lives as well.

- We break up our lives into tidy little compartments or boxes so that we can define and analyze things, understand and manage our lives.

- We have a box for family, a box for work, a box for friends, a box for church or faith, a box for hobbies, a box for leisure or play, and so on.

- Now, here's the problem. While we are busy trying to keep our lives well-managed and keep everything inside their separate boxes, we forget that life does not work that way.

- Real life does not fit into tidy little compartments.

- Like our houses, real life is messy.

- You can't do one thing over here in this box without it impacting every other box. Sadly, many people think they can.

- Oh! You can try. In fact, many attempt to manage their lives in this way for a long time.

- If we keep our faith box separated from the rest of life it will impact our integrity.

- We might say that we believe in God's mission, but do we really believe in God's mission if we do not share the love of Christ in both word and deed?

- Isn't it obvious that the good works that need to be reflected in our lives are works of service to others who are in need?

- Jesus said, "Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord,' but do not do what I tell you?" (Luke 6:46, ESV)

- Let's take the church box as an example. If we go to church each week and do not allow our church going to impact the rest of our week, then where do we stand?

- Listen again to Jesus: "If you use my words in Bible studies and don't work them into your life, you are like a dumb carpenter who built a house, but skipped the foundation." (Luke 6:49, The Message)

- Without a foundation, we have nothing on which to build a life of integrity.

- A life of integrity, that is integral, is a life undivided and whole. It's not a life that is fragmented and compartmentalized, having everything divided into little boxes which never impact one another.

- We've been talking in our small groups about Wordeed and integral mission and just like we need to have integrity, so also mission needs to have integrity, being undivided and whole.

- It is agreed that Christ has called his church to both word and deed. However, there is a great fragmentation with regard to the who.

- Who does the word work and who does the deed work?

- We again try to compartmentalize the mission of the church.

- Terry Smith puts it this way: "There are many different kinds of fragmentation in mission. One division is between its actors: is mission the responsibility of the professional clergy or the laity? Perhaps a more common division is between 'over-there,' i.e. cross-cultural mission in foreign land and mission work within our own country or neighborhood. For others, the division is between the local church and parachurch organizations." (Smith, Wordeed, 21)

- Could anything be more confusing?

- The problem is that we cannot compartmentalize the mission of the church any more that we can compartmentalize our homes or our lives.

- God's mission spills over into everyone's lives and is everyone's responsibility.

- This fact reminds me about our new vision statement and its focus upon an every member ministry: As a church, each member will be involved in ministries that reach out to each other, our families and community with fervent commitment, focussed compassion, and fruitful teamwork as we strive to meet needs and grow through evangelism, discipleship, and social action.

- An every member ministry means that God’s mission is everyone’s responsibility.

- As Jesus said to his disciples on the day of his resurrection, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you." (John 20:21, ESV)

- Like life, mission is also messy, and it's everyone's job.