Posted 10/13/2008 - 7:36pm by pk
When thinking about missions, what comes to mind is a trip in the summer to an obscure place or a department of the church, keeping in mind that this comes from a Korean Presbytery context. Within the Korean church, I can not and could not help but think missions was a secondary aspect to what we call the Christian life. Believing I am not the only one with this view, I offer a new and fresh look at Missional outlook.
What if I was to say that by nature we are called to be Missional? What does that even mean? It all started before time began, when God shared mutual love within the community of the Trinity. Father, Son, and Spirit loving each other to the full extent. Then came a moment when this love yearned to reach outside of the Trinity to be shared, and God created humans, who are not God, to be loved. We were created by God with the intention of being brought into this amazing love that was being shared by the three Godheads. Now because God loved us to the fullest, he sent his son, Jesus, to come and make us his.
God in his very nature is missional! God sent his son, Christ, in order to draw us near to him into this love that is shared within the Trinity. Now the question is, how does this explain why we as Christians need to be missional? Yes, God is missional, but what does that have to do with us?
John 20:21 reads "Again Jesus said, 'Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.'" Jesus proclaims God's missional nature in this passage to his disciples. As the Father has sent him to draw us into the communal love of the Trinity, Jesus is now sending us to draw those who are not part of this love. We are called to be missional in nature as well as Christians, Christ followers.
Now this has enormous bearing as to being a community of believers. We are called to draw people into this love of the Trinity, yet we are not 1 of the 3 in the Trinity. How then are we suppose to draw people into this love? It is proclaimed that we were created in the image of God, correct? If we believe this, we are then created with the ability to love like God. But, Christ does not call us as individuals to love as God loves, but that his body be the love of God. The Church, is the body of Christ in which we are to love. We as Christians by nature are suppose to reach those outside the body of Christ and draw them in to have a foretaste of the love in Heaven.
Now for those who are Math orientated:
God + Christ + Spirit = Perfect Love
God ---Sends--->Christ = Humanities ability to join in the love.
Now applying the same model to Christ's call to his disciples:
Jesus----Sends---->Us = Non-believers now have the ability to join in the love.
Therefore, we are as Christians to be missional by nature, not to departmentalized or indoctrinate the thought of mission being secondary. Hope this finds our brothers and sisters well, and encourage each other to pursue the nature of God in view of his plan for humanity
peace and love, peter
looks like someone goes to seminary...showoff.
i actually think our church has been very active in the mission field
if you look at the map in our fellowship hall downstairs, there's a world map showing all the missionaries we support..we're also been going on short term missions since i was a sophomore in high school...which is back in 1995...and we've been semi-active in the community through events like soup kitchen and thanksgiving dinner for the homeless for roughly the same amount of time.
not to say we can't do more...but we have a good foundation to build from.
Minkyu is right. Peter is just trying to show off his seminary knowledge. Come on, dude. Let's be humble.
Seriously though, I think that this is more than just a Korean Presbyterian issue, but Christians in general. The way I read your entry was that mission is more than just a program that we do at church, but a mindset. Instead of missions being a department in the church, it needs to be a part of our lifestyle. For example, I know that for me, I've gone on mission trips every year for the past 8 years or so, but how many times have I shared my faith with people right here in the US? How many times have I brought up Christ in my conversations outside of church? That there is the problem.
KPCE is definitely active in missions in the sense that we help support various missionaries as well as sending out mission teams overseas as well as locally (as Minkyu said), but the problem lies in the fact that many Christians limit missions to just that (me included). If we were truly missional in our mindset, then every person we talked to at school, work, in passing, etc., would be a potential person to share our faith with. But how many of us really approach life that way? I certainly do not, I'm ashamed to admit.
This blog is a good reminder of how we should be approaching our faith: actively trying to share our faith, and not using short term mission trips as our only missional actions.
Good post, Peter.
ok, Isaac MSN is right.
mission overseas is wonderful, but what about our own backyard.
this is where children's ministry is sooooooooo wonderful
don't want to pat myself on the shoulder, but Samantha is a great evangelist
you should hear her share the Gospel with total strangers,
she may be shy with stranger with certain things, but when it comes to telling others about God, and what Jesus did for us, it comes so natural to her.
when she sees a person hurt or sick, she quickly offers to pray for them, to total strangers
even during her playdate, she invites her school friend to pray before they eat and when her friend asks her why, she tells them the Good News.
I believe God has given us different talent, that included mission. some are share the Gospel overseas and others right here in our own backyard.
Missing you all,
Lisa
Loving this post Petey.
If what you wrote is true, which I believe it is, then mang...
so much weight is put on how we love each other!!
Following rules and keeping strict doctrines/commandments may be important,
but just as important are the relationships that we are to make and nourish.
ORRRR maybe the rules and doctrines are just means to making our relationships work better?
in some way shape or form...
nahh mean?
so maybe you know when people are like "if you wanta be a better Christian you have to read the bible, pray, go to church, blah blah"
also included in there, and actually maybe at the top of the list should be
"you need to work on your relationships."
like.. "hey Bob, hows your spiritual life doing?"
" man Jim, I haven't been doing too great... I feel like I'm in a slump"
"oh man Bob... have your relationships been loving? have you been loving people?"
"actually no I haven't! ah! thanks Jim, that's what I need to be working on!"
"No problem Bob! by the way, Bob, have you met my friend Bill? if we all hang out we'll be a group of people with really generic names!"
yeaa get my point a little?
mmmmmm.
AND, God created humans to be loved (by experiencing the love of the Trinity ) HMM.
meaning, almost in a selfish way, I can live just basking in this glorious love, having full security that God loves me and...
yea plainly, thats it. He loves me = meaning of life.
any other aspect of my religion is... just that. an aspect of my RELIGION.
hm, makes sense to me... so just be loved. that is my concentration. cool
Also, my brotha, that explanation of the Trinity is brilliant!
a great example that can be used within the Church.
God, Jesus, Holy Spirit experience SUCH perfect love within themselves that they need/WANT to share it with.. the creation of humans.
as you said, they had a YEARNING to reach out... because of the full extent of the love within the Trinity Community
which can essentially be followed by the Church.
experience such love within the church that there is the overwhelmingly powerful urge to share it outside.
meaning, the solution to loving outside, is sorta to experience loving inside....
A ministry's evangelism can only be as strong as the love within the ministry (give and take few outliers).
hmm so, strengthen the love outside by perfecting the love inside.
(I feel like I just wrote the same thing, diff ways, four times, hah!)
wow I just realized I wrote alot, so I shall stop haha. much more thoughts but I'll spare you :)
maybe I'll save them for my own blog or for conversation :D
but thanks Petey.