Christians must take the time and trouble to be good neighbours. If we are too busy running church activities to find time to be neighbourly, then we are too busy. (283)
Of course it needs to be read in a wider context. Don't beat yourself up because you don't know the names of your neighbours (although learning that at the very least is a good first step to take!) Rather the point is surely the focus of our attention in the sense that church activities crowds out missional engagement.
In the end, missional church life is a choice, it's intentionally focussed on an incarnational interpretation of what it means to be the church. We can probably end up being just as busy defining missional, describing it and debating it as we have been in the past with the legacy church. At that point, then once again "church" would take over from mission.
Maybe this quote reminds us that we need constantly to check the scorecard, the measuring stick, the metrics by which we assess how we are doing what we are supposed to be doing.
No comments:
Post a Comment