I stand with and am grateful for this affirmation of faith-Jacob Lee

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Missional Manifesto

Preamble

God is a sending God, a missionary God, who has called His people, the church, to be missionary agents of His love and glory. The concept missional epitomizes this idea. This manifesto seeks to serve the church by clarifying its calling and helping it theologically understand and practically live out God’s mission in the world today. Although it is frequently stated “God’s church has a mission,” according to missional theology, a more accurate expression is “God’s mission has a church” (Ephesians 3:7-13).

One of the goals of theology is to safeguard the meaning of words in order to uphold truth and articulate a biblical worldview within the community of faith. Redeeming the integrity of the word missional is especially critical. It is not our intent (or within our ability) to define words for others, but we thought it helpful to describe and define how we are using the term—and to invite others to do the same. A biblically faithful, missional understanding of God and the church is essential to the advancement of our role in His mission, and thus to the dynamism of Christianity in the world.

It is first necessary to be clear about what missional does not mean. Missional is not synonymous with movements attempting to culturally contextualize Christianity, implement church growth, or engage in social action. The word missional can encompass all of the above, but it is not limited to any one of these.

Properly understanding the meaning of missional begins with recognizing God’s missionary nature. The Father is the source of mission, the Son is the embodiment of that mission, and mission is done in the power of the Spirit. By nature, God is the “sending one” who initiates the redemption of His whole creation. Jesus consistently spoke of Himself as being “sent” in John’s gospel and subsequently commissioned His disciples for this same purpose (John 17:3, 8, 18, 21, 23, 25).  As the “sent” people of God, the church is the instrument of His mission (John 20:21).

A strong foundation in the gospel, obedience to Christ and posture to the world are critical components to both individuals and churches living missionally. A missional community is one that regards mission as both its originating impulse and organizing principle (Acts 1:8). It makes decisions accordingly, believing that Christ sends His followers into the world, just as the Father sent Him into the world.

The Church, therefore, properly encourages all believers to live out their primary calling as Christ’s ambassadors (2 Corinthians 5:20) to those who do not know Jesus. The ministry of reconciliation is applicable to both its native culture and in cross-cultural ministry throughout the world. In this sense, every believer is a missionary sent by the Spirit into a non-Christian culture activating the whole of his or her life in seeking to participate more fully in God’s mission.

Missional represents a significant shift in the way we understand the church. As the people of a missionary God, we are entrusted to participate in the world the same way He does—by committing to be His ambassadors. Missional is the perspective to see people as God does and to engage in the activity of reaching them. The church on mission is the church as God intended.

Affirmations

With this in mind we affirm the following:

1. Authority: As a revelation about the nature of God, we can only truly understand the mission of God by what is revealed through the Scriptures.  Therefore, our understanding of the missio Dei and the missional church must always be directed and shaped by, and cannot be contrary to, God’s revealed Word in scripture.

2. Gospel: We affirm that God, who is more holy than we can imagine, looked with compassion upon humanity made up of people who are more sinful than we will admit and sent Jesus into history to establish His kingdom and reconcile people and the world to Himself. Jesus, whose love is more extravagant than we can measure, gave His life as a substitutionary death on the cross and was physically resurrected thereby propitiating the wrath of God. Through the grace of God, when a person repents of their sin, confesses the Messiah as Lord, and believes in His resurrection, they gain what the Bible defines as new and eternal life. All believers are then joined together into the church, a covenant community working as “agents of reconciliation” to proclaim and live out the gospel.

3. Kingdom: We affirm that the gospel is the good news of God’s Kingdom. The Kingdom is the active and comprehensive rule of God over His whole creation. The sovereign reign of God brings righteousness (right relationships with God, others, and creation), restores justice, and brings healing to a broken world. The Kingdom of God has been inaugurated but is still “not yet.” It will not be fully revealed until Jesus returns. The church, birthed in the wake of the kingdom, serves as an agent of the King in the “already and not yet” of the Kingdom by proclaiming and spreading the gospel and living out its implications.

4. Mission: We affirm that the missio Dei is the mission of the triune God to glorify Himself. God does so in this world by redeeming sinful humans and, in the future, restoring corrupted creation. The Father sent the Son to accomplish this redemption and sends the Spirit to apply this redemption to the hearts of men and women. Included in God’s mission is the missio ecclesia whereby He empowers the church for witness and service that leads to witness. Believers are called to share the gospel with people so they can come to know Christ. Moving from God, through the church, to the world, God’s redemptive work results in people of every tribe, tongue and nation responding in lifelong worship of the God. Ultimately the missio Dei will encompass all of creation when God creates a new heaven and new earth.

5. Church: The church is a sign and instrument of the Kingdom of God, birthed by the gospel of the Kingdom and tasked with the mission of the Kingdom. The church is a covenant community of imperfect but redeemed believers living in our world. Followers of Christ do not live out their mission in isolation, but rather the Spirit of God enfolds believers into local Christian communities, i.e. churches. It is in and through such community their mission in the world is enhanced.

6. Christocentric: We believe that Jesus is the center of God’s plan. By extension, the church as the body of Christ is the primary medium of God’s mission to His world.  We affirm that while God’s work and presence is not limited to the church, nonetheless the proclamation of the gospel of Christ comes through the church and believers everywhere. Members of the church, living by the power of the Spirit, are being conformed into the likeness of Christ in their attitudes and actions.

7. Disciple-making: We believe that discipling of the nations is the essential aspect of the mission of God (Matthew 28:18-20). The gospel calls people to respond in faith and repentance to the good news of the Kingdom in and by the gospel’s power. The maturing of believers is inherent to the work of the church ushering those who place faith in Jesus from spiritual infancy to spiritual maturity (Colossians 1:28). This means the church trains its members to be leaders in deeds of justice and ministry to the poor, as well as live out the implications of their faith in business, the arts, in politics, the academy, the home, and in all of life. As the church makes disciples, it equips them to bring their faith to bear on every area of their lives, private and public.

8. Duality: We believe the mission and responsibility of the church includes both the proclamation of the Gospel and its demonstration. From Jesus, we learn the truth is to be proclaimed with authority and lived with grace. The church must constantly evangelize, respond lovingly to human needs, as well as ”seek the welfare of the city” (Jeremiah 29:7). By living out the implications of the gospel, the missional church offers a verbal defense and a living example of its power.

9. Universality: We believe God’s mission, and thus the mission of His people, extends to every people, nation, tribe and tongue; to persons of every gender, age, education, social standing, and religious persuasion (or lack thereof). Thus a missional church will intentionally embrace diversity locally and will cross social, cultural and geographic barriers as agents of the missio Dei. God’s mission furthermore universally encompasses every aspect of life: personal, familial, social, cultural, and economic. This is grounded upon the universal authority and lordship of Jesus Christ.

10. Application: We believe the mission of the church continues in multiplying and maturing the followers of Christ (discipleship), increasing the number of congregations (church planting) dedicated to God’s kingdom (living under His lordship), extending God’s fame throughout the earth (worship), and doing good in the name of Christ (works of mercy).

Because we believe these things, we are compelled to action. We urge God’s people to align around the lordship of Jesus, the missional nature of His church, and the reality of His kingdom. We invite the body of Christ everywhere to see people and the world through the lens of God’s kingdom, to live holy lives as Jesus’ disciples, and to intentionally represent Him together as the church. We affirm that Jesus was sent to fulfill God’s purposes in the world through His perfect life, substitutionary death, and physical resurrection so that redemption could be made available to us. With Christ as our focal point, His kingdom as our destiny, and His Spirit as our empowerment, we accept the privilege and joy of His mission.

“It is Friday but Sunday is Coming!”

Be encouraged by this short video. Jesus died for sinners, like me, and was raised from the dead to give sinners, like me, new life. Oh what a Savior!

Please continue to remember to pray for South Sudan!

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Celebrating Passover In Sudan — Remembering Slavery, Liberation and Freedom

By Tony Sayegh and Ellen Ratner

Published April 18, 2011

| FoxNews.com

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/04/18/celebrating-passover-remembering-slavery-liberation-freedom-sudan/#ixzz1Jyh0LbEF

One of my heroes of the faith is Jonathan Edwards. Through his writings and life I have been inspired to spread the fame of Jesus to the unreached!

I am very grateful to Jacob Abshire for putting together The Resolution Poster. This poster contains the 70 resolutions of Jonathan Edwards. They are great exhortations for me.I have purchased the largest one  and will post it at my desk and take it with me to Africa. All profits go to support Ligonier Academy.

“Being sensible that I am unable to do anything without God’s help, I do humbly entreat him by his grace to enable me to keep these Resolutions, so far as they are agreeable to his will, for Christ’s sake.” ~ Jonathan Edwards

 

 

 

As one who is passionate about missions it is so easy for me to leave the gospel of grace and move to works oriented motivational techniques to stir peoples hearts about getting the gospel to the unreached. This is short sighted on my part and is something I need reminding of often. Only the gospel of grace motivates rightly and for the long term!

Through the message below the Lord was gracious to me once again…may the gospel be first and foremost in my heart and words. Let us press on together to keep our gaze upon Jesus…the rest will follow!

Thank you Joel Brooks and Gospel Coalition!

 

Itchy Ears Want Works

By Joel Brooks

I can remember the exact place where I was standing, the music that was playing in the background, and seeing the group still praying and weeping by the side door, when I heard words that knocked me off balance. It was 10 years ago, and I had just finished preaching when a young woman came up to me and asked if we could talk. She was emotionally moved from the sermon, but what she said surprised me. “Joel, these past few weeks I have never felt so challenged and stirred, but after listening to you, I feel that if I don’t go on the mission field or go and do something wild for God, then I must not believe in the gospel. Is that what you’re saying?”

I was devastated. Her words crushed me. I said to her, “No, of course not! We are all saved by grace through faith alone. That is the gospel by which we are saved. God is never impressed with our efforts.”

I reassured her the best I could, but once she left, I quickly went over the message I had just preached. Did I say those things? Where did she get that idea? Yes, I had stepped on a few toes and said some things about not giving in to the American dream and how we all need to get up off our pews and live for the Lord, but I never said that we weren’t saved by faith alone. I thought, Of course we are saved by grace through faith! Of course our works can never justify us! Every Christian knows that! But was I faithfully preaching this? Was this my focus? I couldn’t get this question out of my mind.

Tempted by Apathy

When pastors plead for their congregations to shake off their apathy and finally take action, this attempt to motivate can lead us to abandon the gospel if only for a moment. I have sought the Lord to repent of my own misplaced emphasis on what we need to do to prove ourselves as real Christians. I need to constantly remind myself of the gospel. Daily I struggle to put to death the desires I have to show myself as wild for Jesus and the impulse to do something great for him in order to win his approval. Romans 4:5 is the medicine I take daily—“And to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness . . .” (italics mine).

What powerful, life-altering words these are! What lavish grace! Paul is saying that the one who does not go on the mission field, does not give to the homeless, does not tithe, does not throw away his TV, does not tutor at an inner-city school but believes in Christ who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness. Belief is all that is required for the ungodly. How amazing is that?!

This is the medicine we all need and what I must constantly preach from the pulpit—to Christians and non-Christians alike. Otherwise, no matter how strong my words are, they will only inspire people momentarily, never sustain them. I can guilt people into giving or use inspirational stories to move them, but without the steady drumbeat of the gospel, I am leading people into a works-based righteousness no matter how good my intentions. And sure, good works will follow, but not out of a heart of gratitude and worship to Jesus.

Gospel Foundations

The apostle Paul understood this. Writing his letter to the Romans, he addresses those who were already Christians, yet he still painstakingly walks through the gospel at the front end of the letter—not the end. At the end of his letter in chapter 15, he finally mentions that it is his hope that they help him in his mission to Spain (Rom 15:24). Do you see the flow of Paul’s letter? First, it’s the gospel—we are not saved by works, but by grace through faith alone. This then becomes our fuel for service. Once this gospel has been chewed on, every need to perform has been crucified, and every potential boast has been buried, then the end result will be living a missional life. The foundation of our service must be the gospel. Otherwise we serve with false motives.

The messages that concern me today are often filled with inspirational stories about people exercising extreme faith and enjoying miracle after miracle. But these have almost a propaganda feel and can be terribly misleading on many levels. They lead people into thinking that anyone who wishes to “aspire to live quietly, and to mind you own affairs” (1 Thes 4:11) is living a sinful life. Or to give your life towards being an honest accountant for the glory of God isn’t worthy service for Jesus. These stories can sometimes mislead people into thinking that the greater the act, the more intimacy with Jesus you will feel and the greater glory Jesus receives.

I have known quite a number of missionaries who have returned home defeated and discouraged after serving only a couple of years on the field. Several of them have told me they returned because when they initially decided to do this mission work, they assumed their faith would grow exponentially. They thought they would become spiritual giants and have a closer relationship with God. But after two years of giving up everything and exhausting themselves with service, they realized how mistaken they were. These actions didn’t bring them any closer to Jesus. Yes, they were missionaries, but they had built their lives on the sinking sand of works and not the gospel. They didn’t understand that Jesus loves them fully because of what he did—not because of what they were doing. As a result, after a couple of years, these missionaries had nothing that could sustain them. Service had become their idol, and now it was demanding its sacrifice. They returned home broken and burned out. I fear that some modern preaching is actually pushing people to serve with this type of false motivation.

Yet this is what so much of preaching today aspires to be, and preachers are reluctant to change because it works—at least it temporarily inspires and draws crowds. Perhaps this is what Paul warned Timothy about when he wrote 2 Timothy 4:3: “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions.”

There are many ways to scratch itchy ears. Most usually assume that itchy ears want nothing more than a feel-good easy religion that is soft on sin. Yet this has not been my experience, and it rarely was Paul’s. Paul spent much time and energy fighting anyone that would add a single work to his gospel. He fought the party of circumcision, the legalists, and anyone else who would add anything to his gospel of grace. The itchy ears of his day wanted law. They wanted to be told what works they could perform to make God love them, or what they could give in order to pat themselves on the back and distinguish themselves from nominal Christians. Both Paul and Jesus saved their harshest rebukes for people like the Pharisees, the respected radicals of their day who were so righteous they’d even tithe their herbs!

Beware Results

I confessed earlier that there were times in my past that I preached works while just assuming grace. The results that I saw from this were substantial. People loved it! I first thought that sermons like this would turn people off and drive them away, but how wrong I was. Especially younger Christians cannot get enough of it. It grieves me to look back and think of those times I looked out at the masses, got caught up in the moment, and briefly abandoned the gospel in order to scratch some itchy ears.

I am probably not alone in this. Pastors, do not forget the gospel in your call for discipleship. I know you believe the gospel, but make sure you never stop preaching it. Make sure you never add anything to this gospel no matter how much you want your people to get up off their pews and do something. Make no mistake: I am not saying that you should let your congregation keep on sinning in order that grace may abound. In fact, I hope you passionately stir up you congregation to give to the poor, serve on the mission field, or give up their American dream. I preach this almost every Sunday and will continue to do so. What I am saying is that we must make the gospel of grace central to this message and resist any urge to add a single work in order to stir up our apathetic congregation. We have to work hard to guard the good deposit of the gospel given to us. Remember what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4:

I would remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.

Joel Brooks is the pastor of Redeemer Community Church in Birmingham, Alabama.