Mission and Community

The question I ask is does God have a mission? I think he does and it goes back to Gen.3 where god steps up to the plate and says he is going to get back what satan has just robbed him off, his relationship with man. It has always been his mission and Jesus has invited us to be a part.

If you take two examples, Peter and Paul, Peter in Acts had 3000 in one day, Paul in Acts 17 in Areopagus had a few .. "A few men became followers of Paul and believed."

A friend pointed out recently that he thought Peter was a cheater because he had a pool of religious people he was drawing from whereas Paul went way outside the box, to those way out people you might even put in the postmodern new age category, the talking heads, emerging churcher's not unlike most of America who philosophize about truth.

If the statistics are correct those in the pool are leaving, more and more they are not going to church. By the year 2040 there will be a whole generation who's primary experience with God in America is from watching Oprah and TV Church. Kinda scary. So the pool of religious churcher's is getting smaller. The ocean of others is getting bigger.

If our mission is the same as God's where are we going to fish? Paul fished in the ocean, way outside the box in Aeropagus. His community developed from there, a few who followed him.

I disagreed with a friend who said the twelve accepted a call to a mission with Jesus. They didn't have a clue what they were doing. They accepted Jesus, accepted a relationship with him and in Lu.9-10 went out and healed people, casting out demons. They didn't even have the Holy Spirit yet. One who was healing people was his traitor. They were following a man. They had no clue about mission. Their community was because of a man.

Most people will form a relationship with us or follow us because we are interesting and not because of mission. They may not even understand God but have a belief that we know what were doing and follow us first, then get to know him.

Community is the relationship we have with others on this journey. But I submit the Mission is and always has been the same. Community is what happens along the way.