I want to share something with you that flows from the
sermons I’ve preached recently. It’s
something that can help build encouragement and godly desire within each of
us. You see, the Lord has a unique
calling and set of gifts (this combination is often called a “charism”) for
each congregation. MAMA Church’s
charism, from the very beginning, has been intercessory prayer and
contemplative prayer. That’s the core of
who we are as a community. The
unanswered question for us has been, “How does that fit with the great
commission (God’s call to make and grow disciples of Jesus Christ)?”
Since we are not allowed to abandon the charism the Lord
gave us, we are given the task of discerning the ways in which he is leading us
to participate in his great commission.
But here’s the catch: Discerning the will of God is NOT the same as
brainstorming and coming up with ideas.
We’ve gone that route before, and the Lord did not prosper it. We will not go that route again. As we read in Proverbs: “There is a way that
seems right to a man (or woman), but its end is the way to death.” If we are attempting to build a community of
believers that will last beyond us, it must be built on the foundation of God’s
will alone.
What God’s will is for our outreach is, as yet, a mystery –
and we must approach it as a mystery.
While I cannot say what it is will be, I can say that it will not be at
odds with the charism he has already given us.
He will not contradict himself and confuse his children. He will build upon what he has already
brought forth within our community. So,
however he chooses to deepen our charism, it will be a natural outgrowth of the
good work he’s already begun within and among us. Our existing mission of intercessory and
contemplative prayer will play a vital role in this next step, it won’t be
jettisoned by it.
As we begin to seriously discern how the Lord will deepen
our charism into evangelization (the sharing of the Good News of salvation with
others and letting the Lord use us as a means of bringing people to faith in
Jesus) and the ministry of mercy (ministering to the spiritual and corporal
needs of others), we need to ask him a vital question: “Am I a believer who is
fit for mission?” After all, when we ask
ourselves whether we are qualified to do a certain job, we ask whether we have trained
ourselves sufficiently for the task at hand.
The question of what “job” the Lord will give us is intrinsically tied
to what we have allowed him to teach us.
For example, the call to intercessory prayer should be
filling us with a longing to see people come to faith in Jesus. It should be filling us with a desire to help
bear the burdens of those for whom we’re praying. Likewise, the call to contemplative prayer
should be filling us with wisdom about how the Christian life is to be lived. It should also be filling us with a spiritual
maturity that makes us uncomfortable with things or attitudes or practices in
our lives that are not of the Lord. On
top of that, it should be filling us with a deeper knowledge of God’s Word and
his priorities – that’s why we read (and contemplate) the Scriptures daily.
When answering the question “who is a believer fit for
mission?”, there are some questions we need to ask ourselves. When faced with someone who does not know
Jesus as their Lord and Savior, would I know how to introduce him to them? When someone asks me why I’m a Christian,
would I be able to share my testimony with them – would I be able to convey to
them how Jesus has changed and filled my life with his presence? When someone asks me a difficult question
about God’s way of doing things, would I be able to start them down the road of
seeing things from a Biblical point of view?
Have I scared you?!
That’s not what I intend!! What I
do intend is to lead us into some serious “training” to be sent out as
missionaries – that we take what the Lord has already done in our lives and
link it up with what he wants to do next.
That’s why I want us to seriously engage in “The Purpose Driven Life” –
so that we will come to know what our particular calling is and how it can find
expression in ministry to others. That’s
why I want us to read books like Lee Strobel’s “The Case for Christ” and
Phillip Yancey’s “The Jesus I Never Knew” – so that we know how to answer the
questions that will come to us. That’s
why I want us to look into Dr. James Kennedy’s “Evangelism Explosion” – so that
we’ll learn how to lead people to Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
In one sense, we need to be more qualified in order to
answer God’s call to evangelistic ministry and the ministry of mercy. In another, much more important sense, God
will qualify us as he sends us. So, in a
very real sense, YOU ARE the believer who is FIT for mission. God does not call the qualified, he truly
qualifies the called. And it’s my job as
your priest to equip you for the work of mission. I am called to be your teacher and to serve
you as an under-shepherd. I am called to
challenge you and to make sure that you are stretched. And then I am called to set you loose in the
world – a world that is ripe for kingdom harvest.
Some of us may think “I’m not someone the Lord can use in
ministry to others; I don’t know as much of his Word as I should and I haven’t
learned to hear his voice in my life.”
To that I say, “Great! That’s why
we’re engaging in this time of discernment and equipping. You’ll learn as you go!” There may be some of us think “This stretches
me too far. I’m not comfortable with
this.” To that I also say, “Great! Now you’ve accepted the fundamental truth
that there are limits to what we can do.
This is the only way we can come to know why ‘I can do all things
through Christ Jesus who strengthens me!’ (Philippians 4:13)”
You may as well know this right now: You have been called
and you are being qualified. And there’s
no getting around this central point: Because you have persevered in your
relationship with Jesus, he wants to use you (and your testimony) to help
others do the same. So stay tuned for
further information about the “who, what, when, where, and why”! You already know the “how” – his name is
Jesus!
Praying for God’s blessings in your life,
Father Todd
