After a wonderful final Learning Community immersion (“Establishing Centers of Mission”) with the 3DM team, I’ve been thinking about mission a lot. Not mission-as-project or mission-as-event, but real kingdom-of-God stuff: people becoming disciples of Jesus and joining with him in his work. What is necessary for real kingdom mission to flourish? What hinders it?
This morning I was reading Andrew Murray’s wonderful little prayer primer With Christ in the School of Prayer, and came across this gem of a quote, which deserves a slow, careful reading, because the implications for mission are astounding.
Now that Christ was leaving the scene and could only work through commissioners [his disciples], it might have been expected that the works would be fewer and weaker. He assures us of the contrary: “Verily, verily I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do he shall do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father” (John 14:12). His approaching death was to be a breaking down of the power of sin. With the resurrection, the powers of the eternal life were to take possession of the human body and obtain supremacy over human life. With His ascension, Christ was to receive the power to communicate the Holy Spirit completely to His Body. The union–the oneness between Himself on the throne and those on earth was to be so intensely and divinely perfect, that He meant it as the literal truth: “Greater works than these shall he do, because I go to the Father.”
The most profound implication here is something that is emerging as a core value in our church plant: The Holy Spirit is not optional. I get uncomfortable when the missional conversation drifts toward talking merely about structures, strategies, paradigms, and models. It’s as if we believe that if we can just get our thinking straight, we could bring the kingdom on the strength of our elegant structures and radical models. We give lip-service to the Holy Spirit in that we assume he is working in and amongst all our planning, but I wonder if we need to make it a more explicit element of our practice.
If we are the truly the Body of Christ, then learning to operate every day in cooperation with the Head ought to be one of the first, most basic elements of training people to join with Jesus in his mission. The simple fact is that Jesus told us we could do nothing without him, yet we so stubbornly insist on trying! Because Christ has “gone to the Father,” he is able to communicate his power and presence “directly to His Body.” This is the only fuel for mission: the power of Christ. As we abide in him, we learn to allow his power to flow through us, and this is what changes the world.
Let’s admit it: we’re uncomfortable with this part of life in Christ, for a variety of reasons. We’ve seen it done badly. We don’t want to look foolish in front of others. We have more confidence in our intelligence than we do God’s power.
But we need to grapple with this issue and learn to flow in the power of the Holy Spirit every day, because even when we have the most elegantly-designed engine in the world, it won’t make anything move unless there is a constant supply of fuel pouring in. So yes, let’s design better structures. We need them! But let’s not forget that the fuel of mission is the power of God.
Great thoughts again Ben!
my favorite sentence from your post: "It’s as if we believe that if we can just get our thinking straight, we could bring the kingdom on the strength of our elegant structures and radical models". What a challenge it is then to "marry" our God-given talents and energy to the power of the Holy Spirit so that the two become one! I'm not very good at that!
Yes it's an interesting journey for us to learn to become "contained" enough that our flesh doesn't get in the way, and weak enough that God's power can flow through us without us clogging things up with our "strength."
Jesus spent so little time here and His words are so precious and few it is a shame we don't take them more seriously. I am guilty of trying to bring the kingdom in my own strength and this is after some of the most amazing things in our ministry have been birthed outside of my “elegant structures and radical models”!
Thanks for sharing Steve! I think we all probably have to admit trying to bring the kingdom in our own strength (and perhaps it really isn't God's kingdom we're building then anyway!).
Jesus gave us the rather simple solution to the flesh getting in the way and gave us the focal point that powers the transformation to servitude… "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."
U Timmy, I agree that serving others makes for a great spiritual discipline to enable the kind of "death" we are looking for. But we can also very easily attempt to "love our neighbors" in our own strength and ability.
Possibly, if self is still predominant in our lives. But the commandment asks would we want others to determine for themselves using their strength and ability, to determine what was best for us? Not likely, So therefore should we then not do what we don't want for ourselves. In other words, as needed, not as seen by ourselves as a need. What of this earth, other than good will and justice, would we wish to inflict upon others? What of any other people or nation would we want them to inflict upon us if not the same? With this firmly entrenched in our daily lives it becomes difficult to inflict self over selflessness. Would I want this done to me or determined for me is a great commandment and of course the will of God. 🙂
I think you are on to something Ben and this is something that has been missing from this conversation.
And, this is one of the reasons I'm am intrigued with 3dm. I heard and saw the Holy Spirit engaged and talked about in a way I haven't in the past when I engaged the "missional" discussion.
This is definitely something about 3DM that I haven't seen in any other part of the missional discussion, and it's also why I think their stuff is bearing so much fruit and gaining so much traction.
In many ways I think Mike Breen and 3DM are a kind of organic extension of Wimber and the impact he had, especially in the UK. If you ever want to chat about it all, Jason, contact me!
Mike and I had a little chat about that in Chicago. I will give you a call I'm sure. I gotta get another week behind me. Thanks….
Good stuff! Hope to talk soon.