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A MISSIONAL PEOPLE

One of the popular terms today within the church is ‘missional’. We need to be a missional people, but what does it mean to be missional?

The word, and resulting movement, rests on the foundation that our God is a missional God. The Bible describes God as actively and purposefully pursuing His humanity.

For instance, Acts 17 tells us that Paul stood up in Athens and said, ²⁶ ‘From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. ²⁷ God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. ²⁸ ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’

This missional nature of God is powerfully present in Jesus. Jesus defines his life’s mission with the statement, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” (Luke 19:10)

The Bible is clear. Not only is God a missional God, but He also calls his people to be a missional people. To be a people who reflect the heart and passion of God for the world around us. Matthew 28 tells us that after Jesus’ death and resurrection, the calling he leaves to His followers is, “¹⁸ … “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”” (Matthew 28)

Being ‘missional’ therefore is rooted in the purpose of God and His calling to us. It challenges us about the kind of life we’re called to live as followers of Jesus. The forgiveness, grace, and love of God that we’ve experienced now becomes the catalyst for Christ followers to go about life purposefully and in a way that reflects the heart and passion of God for our world.

What does that mean in practice? Think about the word missionary. A missionary is a person who has been sent on a mission.

The mission begins first of all with a sense of calling. That calling usually begins with a burden or a sense of need. It is usually to a specific place and people. A missionary then studies the people and culture of ‘that place’ to be able to communicate the gospel within the context of that place. When they get there they live with purpose. They may have a job in the marketplace, but they know that their real focus is on communicating the gospel to whatever people God has called them to.

Many of us are familiar with this model, but what the call to be missional does is remind each Christ follower that they are meant to be missionaries wherever they live. In other words, as a follower of Jesus I am to live my life with purpose wherever I am. Being a missionary may involve following a calling to go to a specific place and people. But being a missionary is also God’s calling to each Christ follower wherever they live. We don’t go on mission. We live on mission.

The implications of this are huge for the church, especially in North America. The North American church is described increasingly as consumeristic. ‘Church’ often becomes more about a weekly experience of receiving, than going out into the world in the power of the Spirit and living the gospel out in whatever context we find ourselves in.

At Pacific Church our calling is to be a missional, disciple-making church. God has called us to be a people ‘Transformed by the Gospel: Life, City, World.’ This calling captures the interrelated spheres that intersect and in which we live.

The Gospel, the reality of who Jesus is, what He has done, and what He is doing, needs to impact each individual personally (Life). It’s Jesus who makes us into a ‘new creation’ (2 Corinthians 5:17). As we encounter Jesus personally, our entire being is revolutionized by Jesus, and our eyes are opened to the mission of God in the world. We begin to live this mission out in our life. How we live each day is impacted by the reality of Jesus. Our very life becomes a witness to who Jesus is and what He is about. This impacts our families, our friendships, our workplace, and our recreation. There is not one area of life that is left untouched by Jesus being present and at work in our life.

What this means is that we enter into life differently, purposefully. We engage in relationships with eyes and ears, mouths and hands, legs and hearts, that have been open and impacted by new kingdom of God values. Because I’m a citizen of a New Kingdom, the Kingdom of God, the Holy Spirit, God, literally residing inside of me, empowers me to see and to engage life so that I love, I forgive, I extend grace, and I serve as Jesus loves, forgives, extends grace, and serves me.

This creates ripples in our life. The ripples that come out from experiencing Jesus’ forgiveness and grace at a personal level reach out to our city because we now have the heart of God for our city. We seek the good of our city, the renewal of the city, justice in our city because the Gospel compels us. This is why we serve the poor, feed the hungry, provide recovery for the addicted, and house the homeless. Specifically, we at Pacific engage in ministries like Streetlight in the Downtown Eastside because we know that we honor Jesus by caring for the least of these (Matthew 25). In other words, this is what it means to live ‘on mission.’ We see and engage our city as Jesus’ sees and engages our city, and in serving our city, we serve Him.

The ripples also reach out to our greater world for the very same principles that apply to our city. We go out into our world because God calls us into our world. We partner, for instance, with Food for the Hungry, and tangibly support a village in Peru because we are on mission with God to care for the least of these wherever they may be.

What is so significant about being missional and wrapped up in our calling of ‘Transformed by the Gospel: Life, City, World’, is recognizing that we live on mission, as opposed to doing missions.

Too often we can get excited by a ‘project.’ We can become excited by a people overseas, and about a missions trip, and perhaps we even go every year to serve those people. But to live on mission is to understand that daily life is all about honoring God by serving others wherever you are. Living on mission, being ‘missional’ is all about recognizing that the greatest mission field is actually within your own family, neighborhood, Life Group, worship gathering, and workplace.

In fact, perhaps one of the greatest evidences of how much we have been gripped by the mission of God is actually evidenced by how we behave when we gather together. If, when we gather together, our attitude is ‘what can I receive’, then the chances are great that this attitude reflects the rest of our lives. If our worship gatherings are about coming together to reflect the great mission of God, a mission that first of all begins at home, the chances are great that we are a people that live all of our life surrendered to the reality of who Jesus is and what He invites us to join Him in, in our world.

When I started my run this morning it was miserable, gray and cold. What's going on?! It's June 2nd!!!

As I made my way across the Granville Bridge I was grumbling away to myself about how cold it is, how wet it is and how it feels like summer is never going to come.

And then I had my moment. Just as I came into Granville Island I entered a pathway that runs between the town homes. Right in the intersection of the paths there was a fountain and playing in the water from the fountain, and from the rain, were two children with their mom. It was classic. The kids had on their raincoats and rubber boots and they were splashing in the water and the mom was laughing her head off.

My run suddenly changed and my thoughts were filled with all the blessings that I have from living in this amazing, beautiful city. I was reminded of a prayer that Garrison Keillor writes into one of his characters.

'Darryl' says,

To be alive in this world; to be here; to be loved by God; to have been given a most precious gift God could give when he’s given so much else, the gift of his Son Jesus Christ who died on the Cross for us.

What do you say? Tonight as you prepare to go to bed what are you going to say? Here ends another day during which I have eyes, ears, hands and a great world around me and tomorrow begins another. Why am I allowed two?

I say...let it rain!

The Pacific Church Newsletter May Edition is out!  Click here to catch the latest news and an article on the "5 G's", a.k.a. "Reclaim", a series that runs at Pacific every January (podcasts here).

Letting Grief Happen

We just finished our August series 'Pacific at the Movies' on film, faith and life. For our first three years we have ran this series to help us develop a biblical world view and foundation in respect to all the messages we are constantly bombarded with - media, film, and advertising. This year was a heavy line up. Issues like the apocolypse, abuse, dysfunctional relationships and grief.

As I prepared for the last message, based on the film 'Love Happens' I was especially impacted by one bit of information that I came across. If you've seen 'Love Happens' you're aware that the movie is as much about grief, and what happens when we fail to process grief in a healthy way, then it is about love or romance. So what do we do about grief?

There is a certain school of thought which looks at grief as being abnormal. The 'prescription' for grief is to medicate - take a pill until the feelings of grief disappear. Now I realize this is complicated. While grief and depression are quite distinct, people in the grieving process can experience depression and a 'season' of medication may help one get to the place where they can begin to process their grief in a healthy way. But always turning to medication, or seeing grief as being 'abnormal' is a huge mistake.

Let me say it like this. A few years ago I watched an interview between the late Dana Reeve and Oprah. It was the first interview following the death of Dana's husband Christopher Reeve, who many of us remember as 'Superman'. Oprah asked the usual questions about how Dana was coping. She tearfully responded that 'the only cure for grief is grieving'. That may sound obvious but it's also profound. So often we're a culture that likes to avoid pain...at any cost. So if you feel pain take a pill - feel better. But like Burke Ryan in 'Love Happens'  when we fail to deal with our loss, our grief - we get stuck. Don't get me wrong - there are times to take medication, but there is also a time to let the work of grieving, as painful as it may be, do it healing work in us.