The Mission of God

For those of you who may not have known this, I recently began working on my Doctor of Ministry degree. The program is in Congregational Mission and Leadership. And I must say that I am pretty excited about it. Needless to say, you can expect to get a few blogs on ideas that have crossed my mind as I have been doing reading and course work. Thus the blog for today.

I read a great book The Ministry of the Missional Church by Craig Van Gelder. The premise for this book is that the Church being the church is not and should not be separate from the church being about the mission of God in the world. In other words you cannot separate church from mission, because in order for the church to be church, the church needs to be about mission. That is the premise. So what is the mission of God?

It is simply that God is seeking to bring back, to reconcile to himself, all of creation. Cool, huh? And so the church needs to think and operate according to this. How does_______ (fill in the blank) participate, contribute, is a part of the mission of God? This is not to say that whatever you filled the blank in with is necessarily bad, but I think that it provides us with a different framework for how we think about the things that are done as a church.

Have you ever had the feeling that the point of church was survival? We have to keep on keeping on. Or maybe perhaps that the activity of the church was limited to a local congregation? What this "mission of God" kind of thinking does is to challenge the local congregation to think a little more big picture. In other words, God has placed us in the very specific community that we are in, because he is about reconciliation, and we are to be about the work of reconciliation in this place. It isn't about merely surviving or feeling stuck in a location. But it is about being part of something that is bigger that we are, and being able to make a real, genuine difference. It is about thriving and living and experiencing life the way that it was meant to be lived.

This is such a very exciting topic. But at the same time is is very simple. It is the will of God that all people be saved. It is the mission of God to reconcile those people to himself. It is through the church that God works to bring that about. What an amazing and awesome privilege we have to be a part of that. Not even the angels get to partake of this great honor. God's blessings to you this week and always. I look forward to your comments and responses.

Sincerely,
Pastor CJ

Confirmation

Having completed the list of questions that I was handed months back, I figured I would take this week to share some of my thoughts on a very important day. For fifteen of our 8th graders, this Sunday is confirmation day for them. That is the day that the faith given to them in baptism is confirmed in them.

They have gone through two years of classes, worked on projects that expressed their faith, participated in service events in the community, and now they get to go through this very special day.

And yet, even though there were many requirements that needed to be met, confirmation is not a graduation. It is not the end of the road, rather it is the beginning of the journey. So during this confirmation week, I would request your prayers. Please pray for these confirmands, and that this day would be a launching point for them into the greater life of the church.

Also, think about topics or questions or things that you would like to have addressed in this blog and we will move forward. God bless you this week and give you his peace in Jesus. God bless our confirmands, and all confirmands.

Sincerely,

Pastor CJ

Really?

Is God Really ALWAYS with You?

The answer is yes. God is really always with us, and nothing will change that. The presence of God in the midst of his people is unlike anything else that you will see in other religions. There, there is a different relationship with their gods.

For us, our God became a human being, Jesus. He lived with us. He died for us. He gives us his Holy Spirit. So we are never ever without our God. He will never ever leave us or forsake us. He will never ever abandon us. He promised to always be with us and we can be sure and certain of that wonderful hope.

Not only is he with us, but he cares for us and loves us. He will always provide us with all that we need to support our bodies and lives. And he gives to us a life with him that will never end. He is present as we read his word. He is present as we receive his body and blood in communion. He is present as we serve others. He is present as we spend time with his people and grow in love with them.

To be sure, there are times when it does not feel like God is around. Or we ask, "If God is here, why is he allowing this to happen?" And yet, even in the face of the most awful things we can imagine, our God does not leave us alone. He will not always let us in on why he is allowing the things to happen in our lives that are happening. But he will never abandon us or forget us because of them. Check out Romans 8.

May you always find comfort, strength and joy in the good news that are God is really and truly always with us.

God's peace in Jesus.

Pastor CJ