Sustaining Missional Living

Our nation has changed.

Back in the 80’s a quick-fix invitation to a Christian event may have seemed like an effective missional approach.

This is no longer the case. We live amongst a generation who crave authenticity. If quick-fix solutions were ever effective, they certainly aren’t now. In our post-Christendom society we can no longer rely on people turning up at our church services because of a jazzy invitation to a jazzy event. This may occasionally happen, but it is not the norm.

I grew up in that event-orientated culture. “Evangelism” was something we “did”. It seemed unnatural, bizarre, embarrassing and completely detached from normal life. In the life of Jesus we can discover the keys to being who we are called to be, and doing all we are called to do.

What is the pattern of His life that we are called to imitate as we seek to live a sustainable missional life?

Jesus was Fully Dependent on the Father

In John 5: 19 Jesus tells his disciples “ I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the son also does. “

Jesus, in fully human and fully divine form, could do nothing by himself. He was completely dependent on His Father, imitating only what He saw His Father doing. How much more then do we, as fully human, need to depend on our Father as our source of strength and guidance for all that we do.

What might that dependence look like?

In Luke 10 Jesus sends out his disciples telling them to take “no money with you, nor a travellers bag, nor an extra pair of sandals.”

They weren’t sent with provisions, or a masterplan. They were sent out with hearts dependent on God, looking for the people of peace. When we are stripped bare of the earthy things we might depend on it is easier both to depend on Him and to see where He is at work.

What are the things, or the areas of our life, that we depend on instead of God? (knowledge, finance, strategies, relationships etc)

How can we actively choose to give those to God?

What does it look like to stop, look and listen to the Father?

Jesus Journeyed with a Community of Missional Disciples

Throughout history God’s people have lived as tribes, households and communities. Jesus picked 12 ordinary people to intimately share his life with. He ate, slept, journeyed, and ministered with a group of people. They were sent out, and returned, together in mission. They learnt together, prayed together, healed the sick together, ate together, partied together.

We see the same model demonstrated in the early church. In Acts the early followers met publicly together, broke bread in homes, shared possessions, saw people saved, healed people, persevered under persecution - all in the context of community. We cannot live a missional life in isolation.

Who are those that we mutually encourage, hold accountable, persevere, take risks with?

Jesus' Life was His message

I love the Message version of John 1: 14 “The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighbourhood.” God left the perfection of Heaven and came to our messy, broken world, in the flesh.

We can never be incarnate in the sense of being fully divine in flesh. But we are called to incarnate, to “embody” the life of Jesus in the environment we’re in. We are called to “go” to the people, to live amongst them, and be Jesus and speak his message to those around us. When we are distant, or removed, from those we are trying to reach, it is always harder to communicate the fullness of the gospel in love.

When "mission" is an “add-on” to our lives it is exhausting - an extra “thing” we can’t find time for. When it is integrated in our life, and we live amongst those we are called to reach, our life becomes our message. Jesus said in Matthew 5 “You are the salt of the earth… You are the light of the world” As followers of Jesus, that is part of our identity; we ARE the salt, and we ARE the light. We need to recognise, acknowledge, and choose to live that out.

How close are you to the people you desire to know Jesus?

How much do they see of your life? (and therefore of Jesus)

What, or who, does the message of your life speak of?