MISSION...Part 1



In June, the three of us pastors at HCC preached a sermon together, highlighting the three most essential, necessary components for “church:” Jesus, People, and Mission. While Pastor Bret was on his sabbatical in England, he learned that churches there had come up with these three requirements while trying to discover why people in their country were no longer attending church. These three areas also seemed to be repeated throughout Scripture.

Pastor Bret preached on the first one, Jesus. He pointed out that there is more to Jesus than just “believing” in Him. This does not make a person a disciple of Jesus. Rather, a disciple of Jesus is one who is attempting to listen to Jesus, follow Him, and join with Jesus in what He is doing today. The Church needs to be full of true disciples of Jesus, not just a bunch of people who say they “believe” in Him. This just makes Church a club! When believers gather around this bigger, truer understanding of following Jesus, great things happen and the Church is alive.

Pastor Bruce addressed the second one, People. He said that in our culture, we have stressed the importance of the individual. However, God did not create us to be independent, but to be in relationship--with Him and with other people. The question, then, for us in the Church, is: how connected are we? How well do we live together in community? How do we behave and treat one another? Pastor Bruce referenced John 15 and the new “Behavioral Covenant” the church staff has adopted as examples of how we as a congregation can better “be” a people coming together as a church; as a specific body of Christ in Hilmar, California.

Finally, I spoke about the third requirement: Mission. For my blog this week, I am going to post the first half of my “sermonette” from that June service. The second part will be here next week. Enjoy--and be challenged!
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The third essential component of the Church is MISSION. This word has been tossed around recently in a variety of contexts, but I think there’s a good deal of misunderstanding among Christians about what MISSION really is. Some think of it as “missions,” meaning what missionaries do in foreign countries around the world, sharing Christ and spreading the gospel to those who have never heard it. Some think of it as saving souls. Some think of it as a single project or a proposal; a “mission;” an activity or work experience that helps out somebody or some organization. Some think of MISSION as a goal or focus for one’s life, or for a group; something to shoot for in the future that will strengthen or better one’s life, or the life of the group. Another understanding of MISSION is that it is a cause, a purpose, a reason for being.

None of these ideas of MISSION are wrong. It’s just that they are incomplete. They are only part of what MISSION means. And if MISSION is an essential component of the Church, we need to fully grasp its meaning. Anything less would be a false or minimized description of the Church.

MISSION is derived from the very nature of God. It is rooted in God’s innate being and expressed in His purpose, which is to reach out to all people and bring them back to Himself! It is bigger than personal salvation. It is about relationship. It is about redemption--not just of souls, but of lives. It is about the defeat of evil, sin, death, and the devil--wherever these are manifestated on earth right now as well as at the end of time. It relates to all of life--every aspect of it. It is “good news!” It is more a verb than it is a noun. MISSION is derived from the Latin “missio,” which means “sending.” Which is, again, the very nature of God! God is a “sending” God; a God who goes forth, out into His creation, nudging and prodding, wooing and calling and, ultimately, redeeming people to Himself, making things right and all things new right now and for all eternity. MISSION is the action of God; His initiative; the movement of God out and into the world. Through MISSION, God is establishing His Kingdom “on earth as it is in heaven.” He showed this most tangibly to us by becoming one of us, in Jesus, and demonstrating in every way how to make this happen: through proclamation (“Repent! The Kingdom of God is at hand!”), through teaching (“The Kingdom of heaven is like...”), through relationship (“Love one another as I have loved you.”), and through action (“Whatever you did for the least of these you did it unto me.”). As God’s MISSION is lived out and embodied by us, His Church, God’s Kingdom is established, both now and for eternity.

This is our reason for being, as the Church! We are to be a “sending” body too; sent to proclaim “good news!” To reach out to people and lead the way back to the Lord. To confront evil and sin, death and the devil through acts of compassion, mercy, and justice. To bring about relationship between God and people, and one another. To participate in God’s Kingdom-building work right here, right now, “on earth as it is in heaven.” To actualize God’s complete MISSION!

Unfortunately, this concept of MISSION has often gotten re-defined, reduced, and re-configured so that the fullness of meaning, and of what is involved in MISSION, has gotten lost. We want things simple! We want formulas! We want to measure things. This is what we’ve sometimes done with MISSION, with redemption and the “good news,” and with the Kingdom of God.

Here at Hilmar Covenant, we are trying to recover the real, rich fullness of MISSION as we move forward into the future. We are trying to re-capture the larger, truer, biblical reality of MISSION--and our congregation’s participation in this very essential attribute of God Himself.