“Mission” is the
watchword of the day in church circles. Bishop Katharine says, “The heartbeat
of the church is mission, mission, mission.” Ok, but what is it? Who made it
up? And why does it matter?
The word “mission”
has a lot of associations for church folks. It conjures up little Spanish
buildings like the Alamo. It reminds us of mission churches on Native
reservations. We think of mission trips to Africa. Mission has meant providing
life saving health care and economic development. Mission has spread the good
news of God’s love. “Publish glad tidings.” It has also been (usually
unwittingly) a stalking horse for exploitation and oppression. The saintly
Albert Schweitzer was followed by the colonial profiteer Cecil Rhodes. When
some speak of the “missional church” these days, they are likely to mean loose
associations of spiritual but not religious people meeting in secular locations
to engage in spiritual discourses and rituals that are intentionally and
emphatically “not Church, not religious, not institutional” etc. So when
someone says “mission,” I listen closely to sniff out what – if anything – they
mean.
That said, I believe
the word is vitally important. So what does it really mean? It may help to put
all our churchy associations with “mission” and on the shelf for a few minutes
and start instead with a military association (sorry pacifists). In the
military, the mission is what the team (unit, platoon, squadron, battalion, regiment,
etc.) exists to do. The mission holds them together. They aren’t together as
social friends. They share a common mission. Each member is willing to
sacrifice himself to accomplish it. The mission is a group goal that is more
important than anyone’s individual agenda. It is what must be done, no matter
what. Mission has urgency about it. We lay down our preferences for it. We work
with people we don’t necessarily even like for the sake of the mission.
When the Church
speaks of Christ’s mission, it means God is up to something in the world and
has entrusted the job to us. We are God’s agents. Right away, this challenges
some common assumptions about Christianity. A lot of folks think it’s about
individuals holding the right doctrinal opinions or experiencing the right
religious feelings, and as a reward they go to heaven instead of hell. That is
a very common view of Christianity. But it is surprising how little evidence
you can find for that brand of religion in the Gospels, the Creeds, or the
teachings of the Early Church. Instead we find a wealth of evidence that Jesus
lived, died, and rose again to usher in something he called the Kingdom of God.
The Kingdom is a radical reversal of the ways of the world, so that love
instead of money makes the world go round, the first becomes last and the last
first, the lion lays down with the lamb, the hungry are filled with good things
and the rich are sent empty away. The Kingdom is so different from our ordinary
experience that Jesus can only point toward it with provocative surprise ending
zinger stories (parables, “The Kingdom of God is like . . . ..” Even Jesus
could not say what the Kingdom is, only that it is like this or like that. But
it is like something surprising and joyful and utterly new. Being the vanguard
for a new way of living is a tall task. “If anyone is in Christ, look! A new
creation!” It’s a big, big deal.
When congregations
fall into a moldy habit of meeting regularly, just trying to keep the doors
open, offering each other spiritual support, but not engaging the world outside
their walls, they are apt to do little harm in the world – but they are not
engaged in the mission. They may be Christians in their beliefs but they are
deserters in their common life. As a result, not much happens in their souls. The
mission changes people’s lives by giving them a whole new purpose “to live not
for self alone but for him who lived and died for us.”
So just what is the
mission? My way of finding it is to take the Gospels and stack them up against
the on-the-ground situation in which we live. What does the Gospel tell us about
human trafficking, domestic violence, pandemics, poverty, environmental
degradation, the threat of genocide in the Central African Republic? We are the
Body of Christ. What does the Body of Christ do in the face of such things?
Karl Barth began each day reading the Bible and the newspaper – together. Not a
bad way to find the Kingdom mission.
For those who want to
have the answer spelled out a bit clearer in advance, we have some guides from
the Church. We might start with the Catechism. The mission of the Church is “to
reconcile all people to God and each other in Christ.” The world is spiritually
bleeding to death from the wounds of broken relationships. We have been given
the job of healing those wounds. Who is at odds in the world today? The Church’s
job is to bring them together and make peace. If we don’t know how to do that,
it’s our job to learn.
Another helpful guide
is the Five Marks of Mission adopted by the Episcopal Church and the Anglican
Communion:
1. Proclaim the
gospel (evangelism)
2. Baptize and
nurture new beliers (sacraments & education)
3. Merciful service
to those in need (charity)
4. Transform unjust
structures (advocacy)
5. Care for the earth (environmental care)
It makes for a good
checklist. A congregational meeting or a vestry might have a good World Café
style discussion asking two questions:
1.
What are we doing on each of the marks of mission?
2.
What could we do on each of the marks of mission that we are not doing now?
I suspect most
churches would find that they are already doing more on each of the marks than
they know. I am positive any church that dares ask these questions would find
interesting, even fun, new ways to go about making the path straight for Christ
and his Kingdom.
This may be a heresy
to the dogmas of modern management. But I don’t put that much stock in “mission
statements.” I don’t put that much stock in any strategic plan if it was made
over four months ago. But I believe everything depends on our asking earnestly
and often what we are doing and what we intend to do in the immediate future to
overturn the ways of the world with the ways of God. What are we doing to
connect people with Jesus? What are we doing now, this month, to teach people
authentic Christianity as distinguished from the imposter religion that has
stolen our identity and wrecked our reputation? Who is hurting that needs our
tangible material kindness? What injustice is hiding in the shadows needing to
be exposed and reversed? What part can we play in restoring balance to our God-given
eco-system? We may not come up with the right answers. We may not be able to
act on the answers we come up with. But we can at least ask the right questions
– ask them often and ask them seriously.
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