Subverting Mediocrity

As followers of Jesus our desire is to become a missional community of truth, beauty, and generosity.

The Church Exists For Mission.

The story begins with God creating everything that we see and everything that we don’t see. At the pinnacle of God’s creative activity is his creation of humanity in his very image—something about mankind reflects who God is and his desire for our world. Everything goes very wrong, though, and the man and woman willingly rebel from God and are thus alienated from him, one another, and the rest of creation (Genesis 1.-3).

God’s kindness is extended to mankind immediately, however, as he promises to send one who will ultimately defeat the enemy and redeem humanity and the created order (Genesis 3.15). God’s plan for redemption begins in the garden, in the midst of rebellion, out of an overflowing heart of love for our world. And his redemption extends to the whole person and the whole world (Deuteronomy 6.4; Matthew 5.48; Acts 1.8).

Early in the story God selects a man named Abram, later renamed Abraham, instructing him to leave all that he knows behind to journey to a place God himself will show. God makes some great promises of blessing to Abraham. Although Abraham and his wife are old and without children he is promised to become a great nation, with a great name (Genesis 12.2-3). Elsewhere he is promised descendants as numerous as the stars (Genesis 15.5).

The purpose for God’s blessing of Abraham was not for him solely, however. God’s blessing of Abraham is “so that [he] will be a blessing…and in [him] all the families of the earth shall be blessed� (Genesis 12.2,3). God’s heart has always extended to the whole world, not only singular individuals and communities. The people of God are to always have their face outward looking.

This missional purpose is thread throughout the biblical narrative and in fact forms the backbone or lifeblood of what it means to follow God. Jesus was a friend of sinners (Matthew 11.19), he came to seek and save the lost (Luke 19.10), he came to call sinners (Mark 2.17), and was in fact a ransom for many (Mark 10.45). It is only through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection that mankind finds redemption.

Upon Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, and giving of his spirit the church exists (Matthew 16.18). The church is established as God’s people picturing the already here, yet not fully present Kingdom of God in our world. The church is God’s missional agent in our world seeking to extend his vision of redeeming the entire created order. Surely God does not need the church to accomplish his ends but he has just as surely chosen the church as his prized instrument for this end.

The church, then, exists for mission.

The church is God’s chosen means to redeem a world that is at odds with him and his kingdom. Mission is not something the church does but why the church exists; not another program of the church but the focus of the whole church; not just something done in a foreign land but the work in our neighborhood. As someone has said, it is not as if God has created a mission for his church; rather, he has created a church for his mission.

The church is truly the hope of our world. And it’s for this reason that we seek to launch LifeConnection in KC.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 2nd, 2007 at 6:00 am and is filed under Church, Church Planting, LifeConnection, Missional Movements, The Scriptures, Theology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.