4 I's for Mission

Last week I had the priviledge of doing some coaching with individuals and couples applying to be Apprentices or Church planters in the region.  Part of the opportunity was to look afresh at some of the ideas and areas we were asking the candidates to consider.  One of those areas of consideration was the Four I's.  More than just for church planters, however, I found it a helpful list for anyone who seeks to be living with mission intentionality.  With that in mind I offer it here for you consideration:

Identify- Where is it that God has you?  What are the needs in the community around you.  There are physical, emotional and, importantly, spiritual needs around us.  What are the pockets where Jesus is needed?

Invest- How is it that you can spend you time, energy and resources to love and serve those around you.  How can you invest your life to engage relationally with your neighbours?  How can you pour into people's lives with genuine, authentic relationships?

Invite- What can you do to recognize where people are at and intentionally invite them to consider the next step in a spiritual journey?  Perhaps it is questions to promt spiritual exploration.  Perhaps it is an invitation to make a decision for Jesus.  Perhaps it is an invitation into a discipling relationship.  Whatever the situation, how can you invite the next step?

Increase- The heart of the Great Commission is a call to make disciples, who in turn make disciples, thus creating multiplication.  What plan do you have to walk someone down a journey of maturation, to equip, encourage and empower them towards a life of bearing fruit?  

I found this to be a great check for my life, a good framework upon which to hang specific details that I can work through for my context.  Let me encourage you to think through it for yourself.  

A special thanks to my colleagues at NAMB, Send Toronto and Send Vancouver for the refresher and the opportunity to pour into others!

10 Tips for Living on Mission

If everything worked out correctly, I am away for a short one day getaway with the love of my life.   So I thought it would be a great time to share this post that came across my twitter feed from @SendNetwork.  Below is a link to an article written by Bryan Barley that appeared at www.sendnetwork.com.  Some great, practical, simple and straight forward thoughts to get you started thinking about living missionally within your community.  Enjoy!

10 Tips for Living On Mission In Your Community

Beer Store Breakthrough

What started as serving coffee slowly became coffee (hot chocolate for those who don't drink coffee), sandwiches and conversation.  From there the conversation led to collecting prayer requests, eventually praying for people on the spot and then progressed to gathering a group to pray together on the sidewalk.  Most recently, I have begun to bring a scripture, specifically words of Jesus, starting with His "I Am sayings."  I have been sharing the scripture to begin prayer and then praying that scripture and an application for our lives before praying for individual requests.  This is the shape of what is now referred to as Beer Store Church.  Like many ministries, it has ups and downs, times of prayer and times of breaking up fights, rich times and times of wondering about the point of it all.  Yesterday, however, put a smile on my face; a bit of a breakthrough even.  

We began our prayer with Jesus' words, "I am the way the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me."  As soon as we were finished praying someone asked about people that lived before Jesus.  It provided an opportunity to talk of the Old Testament, its relation to the new, about seeing the Gospel in Old Testament texts and to give a brief survey of the Gospel story.  It also, and as importanly, gave me an opportunity to really listen to his questions and comments and better assess where he is spiritually.  

In the end I was really encouraged.  I was  encouraged because I love to talk about that kind of thing and walk with people as we discover truth.  I was encouraged because I have a clearer idea of where he is and can better move forward to meet him where he is at.  I am most encouraged because the question let me know that at least one person was actually engaged in what was going on.  

That in and of itself is reason enough to be there next week!

Both/And-Community and Mission

Jesus' words in John 13:34-35 give us two distinct and yet interconnected purposes for the church. Jesus, speaking to his disciples and having just washed their feet, says "as I have loved so you should love one another..." There is a very real and distinct sense in which the church must be a deep, loving, supportive community to one another. If we turn to Act 2:41-47, we get some amazing glimpses of this live being lived out by the early church. Community is central to how Jesus envisioned the church.

Jesus, however, goes on to say in John 13, that "by this all men will know you are my disciples, if you love one another." Even the way believers are to love one another, our community, is meant to have an impact on those around us. We are meant to be a living, tangible expression of Kingdom principles and the love of the King. Our community can be a foretaste of the Kingdom, helping people to taste and see that the Lord is good, that we are different and there might be something that they are missing. Community is a part of our mission. Again, if we turn to Acts we will notice that this amazing community passage is bookended, or sandwiched between missional thoughts. Verse 41 speaks of many being added to their numbers following the preaching of Peter (they were also proclaiming). Chapter 2 then ends with the community having favour with all people and the Lord adding to their number every day. Community on mission and community as mission.

So, although community and mission are two important and distinct concepts, they also go hand in hand working together. To have one without the other is to be out of balance. To have both is to be in time with the rhythm Jesus intends for his people-Up (our relationship with The Lord, In (our relationship with other believers), and Out (our relationship with the world around us).

Missional Monday-By Name

The doorkeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. (John 10:3 HCSB)

Recognizing that Jesus knows us each by name as He calls us, it gave me pause to think about how many of my neighbours I can call by name. I actually know more of my neighbours after just a year in Hamilton than I did in 6 years in Milton. This has a lot to do with the different nature of the neighbourhoods. Milton was a commuting town and many people left early and returned late each day. My neighbours now spend a lot more time in the neighbourhood, on the street and hanging out on the front porch. To be honest, however, there are still many neighbours that I do not know. And more than just neighbours, there are many other people with whom I will interact on a regular basis as I go about my day whose names I might endeavor to learn. What it requires is being intentional.
I think that there are people in each of our lives that we will see or interact with on a regular basis. I truly believe that God can, and wants, to use us where He has us. Some of us may be sent to specific places for specific task at points in our lives, but God wants to use each of us at all points in our lives.
A good place to start is to look and see who God has put in our path. There may be many strangers who are simply one introduction and a few conversations away from being an acquaintance and even friend. When we have learned a name we are building a relationship. It is often through such relationships that we find the opportunities to serve and share and make a difference for the sake of the Kingdom.

Thoughts from Atlanta

I missed posting last week because I was away on a disaster relief mission trip to McDonough Georgia, just south of Atlanta. A church in the town wanted to lead an outreach in their county to some of the poorest residence in their community whose houses, that were in bad shape to begin with, were badly affected by all the rain and flooding of the past months. They invited a team of Canadians down to help get their project kick started and so a team of us from across Canada met down south and went about getting work started (and completed) on about 14 different projects. There was a lot of work to be done as we sought to reach out in the name of Jesus and provide tangible expressions of love and concern as we helped some people with their greatest physical needs. A week like this also provides many opportunities to express why it is that we were their doing what we were doing. We were able to share about the kind of things that Jesus wanted to do through his followers, including reaching out and helping those in need. This often, in turn, leads to opportunities to share about who Jesus is and what He has done for us. As me meet physical and material needs, we often have the opportunity to share about spiritual needs as well. We shared with those whom we were serving as well as having a very unique opportunity to share with a group of young men who, because of trouble with the law, were working with us as a part of their community service. I believe that the efforts of our group from Canada, and of the local church with whom we were working had a very positive influence on a number of the young men, many of whom came back to help even after their mandatory hours where served. One youth actually made a profession of faith in Christ.
One of the most exciting things to come out of the trip, however, was a sentiment that was shared at an appreciation breakfast held on the very last day. I had already left to drive the 16 hours home, but those who were in attendance shared about the heartfelt thanks that was expressed. This is a part of the e-mail report I received:
"The Mayor and their states representative were both at the breakfast and thanked the Canadians for being the catalyst for stimulating their community into action. We completed 14 projects and they plan to keep going to do some more. People that seemed to have slipped through the cracks are now in touch with help organizations such as meals on wheels, church groups, counselling, home maintenance, and home care to see that they are properly looked after."
What I was most excited about was the fact that our trip may have been a catalyst for the community and the local church to see the needs in their own community and the possibility of continuing to do something about it. The reality is that in a short one week trip their is only a small dent that one team will ever be able to make. When one sees the amount that needs to be done it can actually be overwhelming to the point that I can begin to ask, "what is the point of doing a short term trip?" There was one house alone, owned by a man who had polio who had all but given up on life, not to mention his house, that we could have worked on for a year. One week is just not enough. We were able to accomplish 14 projects, not bad in and of itself, but if this was the beginning of something longer lasting in which the local church continues doing this kind of work in their own communities then the trip was a huge success.
I have been reminded of that famous mission verse in Matthew 28:19 in which Jesus commands his disciples to "go and make disciples of all nations..." The "go" here is a participle (going) making the real command "make disciples." Our efforts at disaster relief may meet physical needs, but it requires someone to stay behind after the week in order to continue to build the relationships and to engage in discipleing people. What a great thing to hear the the local churches were inspired to keep on building upon what was started. This does not, however, take away from the idea of going but rather broadens our understanding and the need to go. It is perhaps best translated "as you are going..." which really means that we are to consider ourselves on mission everywhere we go, for what ever reason we may be going. In other words, in all that we do, whenever, for whatever, we are representing Christ. This does not take away from the need for people to intentionally go places for the purpose of missions, whether long term as missionaries or for short term projects. Rather, we should be adding a sense of intentionality to all that we do that whether we go to Atlanta or down the block we go with purpose.
After this last trip I find myself pleased by the work we were able to accomplish in the name of Jesus, and am excited about future trips that might be in the works. I am especially pleased to think of the effect that it may have had on the local churches who seemed inspired to keep this work going. I am also thinking about how the members of my church might begin to do this same work here in our community. Who are the individuals that are slipping through cracks here? Who can we be assisting in the name of Jesus? What positive impact could we have here in Milton that might lead to opportunities to make disciples?