I was thinking this morning about the church in general and the church of which I'm a part in particular. I was thinking about how the ethos of the church and the stated vision and purpose of the church are so often quite different. And I was wondering how you get to the point where you see that clearly and you take responsibility to change whatever needs to change in order to move to where God is calling you to be as a people seeking to follow him.
This thought struck me. The problem is that we don't see. We don't easily perceive the truth and our, sometimes long, histories have generated ways of thinking that obstruct our ability to see. We need fresh eyes.
Here's my fresh eyed simple take on one issue in church life:
Mission doesn't happen because the church exists, the church exists because mission happens.
You see, it seems to me that we've got ourselves into a mindset that says that mission should be a result of the church becoming the active organisation where every member is engaged in sharing their faith with as many people as possible. And it becomes possible therefore for the church to continue to exist even when it doesn't engage in mission because the church comes first.
But maybe, just maybe, we need to remember that the church is born in and out of mission. In and out of incarnational involvement. In other words, the church can only exist as a result of missional engagement. No mission, no church.
Whether the proverbial chicken came first or the egg doesn't matter, because as far as the kingdom matters, it was mission.
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