Kingdom Mission
I am convinced that the Cross of Christ is the solution to all the decay in this world. I don’t think it is just the means by which we can escape the earth to the safety of heaven whilst it descends into hell. I think Jesus died to redeem us, to fix us, to cleanse us from sin, heal us from pain, fill us with love, and make us what we were made for - beings that glorify God. This is the “missio dei” or “the mission of God”.
As part of this I have moved beyond thinking of our role as Christians as being merely that of evangelism - to convert people from one idea to another; and have come rather to think of us as participating in what is known as “Kingdom Mission” - the transformation of our lives, our communities, and our worship in real, meaningful ways. This is what being missional is all about and why I have the “friend of missional” link on the side of my blog.
In thinking about Kingdom Mission I have found it helpful to split it into two parts: being in places where it is dark and then bringing light to these places. Contextual and Incarnational Living.
Contextual Living
I have written on this before. Contextual living is nothing more than “being there”. It’s the first rule of evangelism: show up.
I can’t remember where I saw it but I once read a quote that goes: “You can’t change what you don’t see.” It’s terribly true. There is so much pain, loneliness, hopelessness and evil in this world. But it’s ‘out there’. It’s not sitting where it is comfortable for you to reach it. It’s very tempting to sit back and church and wait for God to dump an easy opportunity right in front of us that is nice and easy and doesn’t require any dear grace on our part. In fact, this is what charity does. Charity is great but it is dangerous - it allows us the ability to feel good about ourselves when really we have placed a proxy between us and the people who need us. We must invest with more than money, relationships are needed also.
I grew up in the religious ghetto. I was born into a Christian Cult called Revival Centres (aka Christian Assemblies). They were extremely wary about any contact with anyone outside the church. Fortunately, my parents moved on whilst I was still quite young and we started going to AOG churches. Now there is a very strange thing about growing up in Church - it separates you entirely from the culture around you.
See, when you get heavily involved in Church you end up devoting all your time to Christian activities. I would go to church on Sunday, Have prayer on Monday, Youth Leadership team meeting on Tuesday, Bible Study on Wednesday, might take Thursday and Friday off, and have Youth on Saturday. Many Christians never have contact with non-Christians, and if they do they rarely develop deep, meaningful relationships.
Church’s would do much better if rather than engaging their congregations in endless spiritual activity they cut back and encouraged them to spend one day a week spending time in a ‘3rd place’ with non-Christians. 3rd places are where people play. A 1st place is somewhere like home, a 2nd place is work, a 3rd place is a bar or sports field. People relax and open up in 3rd places. It’s where relationships are formed.
We have to be very intentional about meeting darkness head on in this world. Weather that means going next door to confront the loneliness in our suburbs or heading to Africa to fight starvation amongst children. Do anything short of sin to get where it hurts in people’s lives. If that means swearing then swear. If it means disruption then disrupt. If it means giving then give. God came all the way across the universe to live in our gutters and our suffering and the result was our eternity.
Incarnational Living
Then once we are in dark places it is our duty to bring light to those places. To transform these places and drag them into the kingdom of God. Go into darkness and bring with you the light. Go and Do. Heal pain, show love, teach truth. This is where we get to be Jesus and introduce people to Him.
Incarnational Living looks differently in different situations. To the waiter’s union in inner-city Brisbane it means holding problem solving sessions for issues in the community and then revealing to people they chose and successfully implemented where following the principals of Christ. For Mother Teresa it meant serving the poorest and most helpless in the community. For Martin Luther King it meant confronting social injustice head on. For xxxchurch it means going into sex shows to tell porn stars that Jesus loves them. For Shane Caliborne it means holding a juggling act when the kids in the community start a fight. For someone else it may mean cooking a meal for a sick neighbour, taking in a young girl who chose to have a baby rather than an abortion, mentoring a high-risk kid, or daring to pray for a sick work mate.
All these actions shine light into dark situations. They deal with the real problems and effects of sin in practical ways. None of them are easy but this only serves to make them more significant. Whilst the ways God works are various can think of a few things we should all be doing: Praying, Sharing, Fasting, Teaching, and Celebrating God’s work.
Incarnational Living serves to introduce people to a concrete, present-day Christ, not an abstract, 2000 year-old, dead guy. As lives are transformed they’ll be swept up into the arms of God as well. Let’s “Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.” (1 Peter 2:12)
Reach into the Darkness
“Dare to reach out your hand into the darkness, to pull another hand into the light.” - Norman B. Rice
We’ve been told to be in this world but not of it (John 17 - Contextual and Incarnational Living), but so often I feel like we Christians are of the world but not in it. Like we have wrapped the world’s addictions to safety, comfort, greed, pride, dishonesty, and loneliness in new religious garb whilst also retreating to safe spaces surrounded by holy walls. I’m as bad or worse than anyone.
Yet I believe that the Cross of Christ is the solution to all the decay in this world. I believed that God, the king of history, reached into our darkness - even surrendering himself to the disgrace of death by torture just to give a hand that pulls us into the light. I look at much of the darkness in this world - the hunger, the wars, the greed - both right in front of me and a million miles a way. But Christ died to give us hope of something more and it is our duty to share that hope with people who need it most.
God created this universe. He flung stars into space. He spins galaxies on His finger tips. There is nothing He cannot do, no life He cannot save. Our arguments and fears mean nothing in the light of His glory. He merely needs us to go. Go and be Truth and Love.
Change the world.
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