Mission Shaped Values

Sermon on Holistic Mission
Over the past few months we have been talking a lot about Mission
It’s a loaded word that has many different meaning depending on the context.
Business,
Cultural abuse,
Colonization,
War against terrorism,
Undercover military operations
Sound systems,
Ice Hockey
And a host of different associations within the church too.
It’s the street preacher who rebukes the lamppost
The person who goes overseas in Jesus’ name
The activity of people who go overseas and build schools in the Solomon’s
Here is an image I grew up with….OVALTINA
Mission is also a term that has been seen by some as co word for bigotry, oppression and imposing of alien values on tribal cultures…

The problem has been that many things we have called mission have been more about us
– expanding the empire
- making people like us
- ensuring that the resources of a country fall into the hands of good Christian folk rather than pagan Muslims
Mission has been so often associated with abuse because as the Church historically we have often abused those around us in our name and in the name of profit rather than going in the name of Jesus
- At the heart of the problem is a failure of the church to recognize mission is at the very heart and nature of God – Our God is a missionary God
1. The Father sends his Son to be the savior of the world (1 John 4:14).
2. The Father and the Son send the Holy Spirit into the World (John 14:26).
3. In the same way the God who is Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, sends us into the world. So Jesus can say ‘In the same way as the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.’ (John 20:21)

The point is that mission isn’t some kind of ‘bolt-on’ activity that gets added to God. Mission defines God’s character. (Cistene chapel)
The mission of the Church is not our mission but God’s mission – we are merely his hand and his feet.
Mission is joining in with what God is already doing…So that clarifies something – mission is about God’s activity. It’s about God being active and being active in God’s name.
The question is what does that activity look like?
Depending on whom you ask you’re liable to get some very different answers
I have a friend in CHCH who says mission is about telling people about Jesus – telling people a set of truths and then getting them to tick the boxes
We have a problem – Sin
Sin is separation from God
We need someone who can bridge the gap
Only God is able to bridge the gap
Therefore God must do something to bridge the gap
Jesus is the answer – the God man
Tick the box and score 1000 points
I have a friend in Auckland too
And for him mission is about restoring creation
God created a beautiful world for us to inhabit in communion with him
We spoiled it; God kicked us out the garden
Jesus died to reconcile the relationship – and through that we could work towards restoring creation
So who is right?
Who has the right view of mission?
CHCH or Auckland?
They are both right
The good news is about more than saving us from sin, but it’s also about more than restoring creation too.

In fact in the Anglican Church we talk about mission in five ways – not one way – it’s not an attempt to make everything mission but it is an attempt to express the fullness of God’s mission as described in Scripture.

(1) Proclaim the Good News
In 1 Peter 3:15 Peter says. “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give a reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.” That about telling people about Jesus – what Jesus has done – as God’s people we need to find meaningful ways to express the truth.
Proclaiming the good news may involve a formula and boxes to tick but for most of us it’s more likely to be about What Jesus has done for me – starting from your own experience often helps people connect with their experience.
(2) Making Disciples
That sounds easy but I guess the question is what is a Disciple?
Often in the Church we have talked about discipleship as learning scripture and understanding it – so churches have set up Bible classes studies on the Pauline letters, the synoptic gospels that sort of thing. But is that what discipleship really is head knowledge or is there more to it.
I think there is more – lots more. Discipleship is about equipping people to be part of the Kingdom of God.
The Kingdom of God is a nation within a nation –it’s a different set of values, beliefs – a different way of living.
– it’s culture is based on sharing – as a church we regularly share a meal around the communion table – in doing that we are receiving foretaste – an appetizer of reality when God’s Kingdom has come and we will all be invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb - Jesus
mutual support, love, forgiveness, giving people second and third chances, a culture where leadership is primarily demonstrated in service
– It’s about a different way of living not just in the Church but in the world too.
It’s being salt and light
Salt being an antiseptic, a preservative, adding flavor
Light being about lighting up the dark places.

Being a disciple is about nailing our colours to the flag of God’s Kingdom, Taking up a new citizenship.

(3) Responding to Human Need
What did Jesus say the greatest commandment is?
One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?" "The most important one” answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these." (NIV, Mark 12:28-31).
Standing next to the poor, offering a cup of cold water to someone in need (Matthew 10: 40 – 42) is an essential aspect of mission.
Now some people say we do that so we can preach to them because they are so grateful – no we do it because that is what God says we should do – the world has a word for this it’s called charity.
Charity is actually a biblical word – it comes from the root Charis – which sometimes we translate as love, but more often as Grace – and in both cases its God’s love and Grace.
To offer charity is about giving someone God’s grace – it’s a blessing.
Yes it’s open to abuse but God has poured out his Charis up on so who are we to say he shouldn’t do that to others just because they may sell the gift and but a lotto ticket or a 12 pack of beer.
We are simply called to love – to offer loving service.

(4) Challenge Injustice
If we are called to pray that God’s Kingdom should come on earth as in heaven – and if God’s kingdom is about how we treat one another about modeling forgiveness about sharing round the communion table as an appetizer for the reality when his Kingdom has come then as a church we should challenge everything that gets in the way of that shouldn’t we?
In Isaiah 58 God says that the kind of worship he wants to receive from his people is “to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke”. That’s powerful stuff – coming against anything that would prevent God’s kingdom coming and allowing people to receive that Kingdom
This is the sort of stuff that challenged William Wilberforce to make the abolishment of slavery his life’s work.
But it could equally be about:
Saying no to gluttony when so much of the world is starving
Saying no to the moral decline of society
Saying no to Easter eggs because the manufacturers them but their coco beans from source that use child slave to harvest them.

(5) Caring for Creation
While it seems like an optional extra too many caring for our environment is also an aspect of mission
Now I know what some of you are thinking
“Why bother to care for the environment when heaven is really our home and the earth is going to be destroyed anyway?”
Well firstly we should care because it was the first commandment of God in Genesis 1
He said to be fruitful and multiply and have dominion – that’s not about exploitation or using up all the earth resources in one generation it’s about caring - looking after it – nurturing the planet.
But God doesn’t just leave it there..
John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave His only Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life – that’s not just about God loving humans – the Greek word that we translate as world is cosmos – and it refers to the whole created order.
If you like John 3:16 is about reversing the issues of Genesis 3 – we are redeemed but so is the whole world
Secondly we need to look after the planet because when we exploit it –someone else – usually someone who is a lot more poor than us suffer people who have less than us go without and all so we can have the latest toys – it’s sick…

We are talking about Mission but we are talking about holistic mission – that’s not some mumbo jumbo new agey thing it’s mission as God intended.
We are all called to get involved in this
Mission is at the very heart of who God is –
Our God is a Missionary God –
A God who reaches out to us…
And calls us to do the same

Evan Almighty...

Just come across the web site to this new movie Evan Almighty, obviously a sequel to Bruce Almighty, but they are trying to also promote being carbon neutral, apparently the movie itself is the first one made with a zero carbon footprint, what they are also doing is encouraging people to do Random Acts of Kindness. It's the sort of thing you look at and think why isn't the Church doing this... Well it seems that behind it are quite a few Christians, the people Youth Specialties for one . From what i can gather Evan is called by God to build an ark to save people from the coming flood - sound familiar. Should be a great
Check out Ark Almighty too to see how the movie can be used in your church...

Evangelism? 3 B's and formation

Just had an interesting conversation with a few colleagues about what works in evangelism. While we didn't come up with much that works we did a fair bit of discussion around the issues.
For my part I want to say that:

• I think Evangelism has always got to be scene as part of the same continuum as discipleship
• The churches understanding of Good News is often confused as Bad News, the idea that it is only good news because of God's judgment strikes me as stating the obvious. I think the majority of people are aware that there is something wrong - while they may not know what is they do no that they need a way out - Jesus - Good News.
• Programs like Alpha work because they are about discipleship more than evangelism - in the fact that they help people who are fringe understand the faith.
• Programs also work because they help the average Church person focus on others.
• God is the supreme evangelist, too often we can run programs to evangelise and run them as if God does not exist. God is alive and well and at work in this world (hence my church sign, Jesus has left the building).
• Too easily church people generationaly forget why the Church exists, and why we are there. We are the church of Acts and need to remind ourselves of that, We need to remember our story of why we exist and who for.

Another thing that has struck me late was how much our methods of evangelism do not reflect the current paradigm of the 3 B's (Belief, Behave and Belong). If as is suggested the old paradigm put Behave before Belief and Belong. then it stand to reason that we don't need to keep telling people the story of why we exist, why we do what we do in the church, because in taking part in it we will learn to understand it. But since we are living in an age where Belong and Belief will proceed Behave we need to look at ways in which we can help people to belong more, and to do something about this behave barrier since understanding a group is a key part of feeling as though you belong to the group. Of course in the last 15 years or so the Church has been doing that, seekers services being a prime example of making Church more comfortable - and easier place to belong too. But maybe rather than dumbing down we should be forming and shaping people more - a catechumanate type arrangement.

In terms of what we do in Church I think we need to 'educate' new people about why the Church is like it is, why we do what we do. Maybe Alpha needs a few Church culture sessions, that explain why a particular Church worships in this way.

Maybe Churches could offer programs (if we are to do programs) that unpack the mysteries of Church worship. It would have to be done with no strings attached but I suspect people are nosey about what goes on in the Church, I think that is one of the major reasons as to why the DaVinci Code was so popular, as it attempted to unpack the mystery.

A few years back I took a young adults group through a book I was reading "why bother with Church", by Simon Jones, over about 8 weeks we stripped the whole thing back to try and understand why we did, to recapture the Story - for me it was brilliant - i felt as though this was something I could more belong too and I suspect that the young people involved felt that too.

Another rant..... Identity and navel gazzing

Around the Anglican church at the moment i hear the word identity thrown around quite a bit - and the need to define who we are before we can engage in the task of mission. What crap, when Jesus sent out the the 12 did he say find out who you are and then go??? I don't think so.
It seems to me that in working with young people and looking at the scriptures the identity issues comes through a process of action and reflection, sitting around in conference rooms contemplating our navels does not tell us anything. Messing our way through the mission of Christ, engaging with those around us, screwing up and saying sorry tells us far more about Christ's mission. Why on earth can we not just get on and Christ's hand and feet instead of being his navel
Don Tamihere often uses a phrase which I think is great and I thinks sums up some of the problem "aren't we supposed to be Angli Cans and not Angli Can'ts."

Tagged for Jesus

I got Tagged the other day from a local youth group person. Not having a clue what that meant I had a look on the site was kind of confused by the whole thing. I guess like My Space, beebo and some of the MSN groups before them it is a way of socialising, semi anonymously with people from around the world. It struck me as being kind of weird, not that i don't think socialising is a good idea but there does seem to be an element of collecting people and their links, just like I collect Psychedelic Firs Cd's or my wife use to collect stamps - i think there is a real danger in this type of phenomenon that people become numbers and not a lot else. We call it making friend but is it really, or is it making transactions?
It reminds me a lot of how I have seen many Christians approach evangelism. In my BC days I had quite a few Christian contacts who only i think wanted to know me because they saw me as a potential convert, and a good one at that having been a new age Church of Scientology type with a leaning towards being a goth. It all came to a head one day when I accused one of the people of only being interested in me because they saw me as another notch on their crucifix. Needless to say after this spread many of these people wanted nothing to do with me, to them I was just a link a transaction.
I guess this experience has really shaped my approach to evangelism in the fact that I don't believe in it - and yet people often tell me I am an evangelist. I do however believe in relationships, sharing bread in whatever form that may be and I am also not ashamed about what I believe. I believe the gospel is good news, but I don't want to deliver it like postman carrying a bill, but I do want to demonstrate it and i believe that relates to the whole of what I do, whether it be smiling at a stranger who has had a bad day, and being patient with the check out assistant, it also means that i am not as quick as i used to be to judge others but would rather encourage them and dare i say it try to relate to them. I do not want to tag people for Jesus, people are not a commodity or a link to be collected.

Bono has a new book...

Bono - On The Move

"The one thing, on which we can all agree, is that God is with the vulnerable and poor. God is in the slums and in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house. God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives, and God is with us if we are with them. 6,500 Africans are still dying every day of a preventable, treatable disease, for lack of drugs we can buy at any drug store. This is not about charity, this is about Justice and Equality." --Bono