Recovering a Sense of Mission

“The North American church is suffering from severe missionary amnesia.
It has forgotten why it exists.
The church was created to be the people of God
to join him in his redemptive mission in the world.
The church was never intended to exist for itself.”
-Reggie McNeal
in The Present Future: Six Tough Questions for the Church.

 

It began with the smallest spark. The Rev. Robert Fain recalls that Good Shepherd, Augusta, was using an annotated Eucharist booklet. The side column of text noted at the peace:

“In the early centuries of the Christian Church, unbelievers could not stay for the rest of the service. Visitors would be asked to leave at this point as only baptized persons who took part in it could see the Eucharist. After the visitors left, the Christian would greet each other with the kiss of peace.”

The rector began to wonder at how far the church had gone from being so exclusive about who may even be in the room during the Eucharist to some churches inviting the unbaptized to receive communion. What happened? Answering that question led Fain to explore the changes in culture as we have moved from Christendom-when we could assume most people we come in contact with to be baptized Christians-to our 21st Century reality in which many of those we see every day may have only nominal information about the Gospel we hold dear.

This journey led Fain to gather some other clergy in the Diocese of Georgia who wanted to share in the discussion. The group read and studied Reggie McNeal’s book The Present Future (quoted above) and reflected on what it means to be the church today. In short, this has led to an emphasis on mission, sometimes referred to as being a missional church. For as McNeal writes,

“The key is the presence of mission. Missionless religion that calls itself Christianity is an affront to God, however it styles itself.”

This emphasis on mission means we need to be much more intentional about two things: 1) teaching those in the church, 2) taking the church out into the world.

Teaching Those in the Church
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Each month they also post online weekly reflections on the Sunday lessons. These Emmaus Bible Studies created by the church staff are found online here: Emmaus Study The Emmaus studies this fall will shift to the Old Testament lessons. All of this is aimed at laying the ground work for better understanding and sharing the Gospel.

Taking the Church Out into the World
Nurtured by more intentional discipleship, churches should then institinctively want to be more involved in reaching out to their communities in love. But once again, this should not be left to chance. We should actively seek ways to find where the gifts of our congregation intersect with the needs of our community. McNeal writes, “The church that wants to partner with God on his redemptive mission in the world has a very different target: the community.”

This will involve not just things like an after school program or a short term mission trip. We also need to be involved in sharing the Gospel. Fain says, “We have been doing evangelism implicitly, but we are going to need to start doing evangelism explicitly.” In support of this, Bishop Benhase created a one-day session on sharing faith, which is working its way around the Diocese. The goal is to discover the ways God has been present in your life and to find ways you feel comfortable sharing those stories when the spirit leads you to do so.

All of the Above
When all of this comes together, we are supporting those in the church, serving those in the community and sharing the Gospel. Robert Fain created a visual of this for Good Shepherd: COGS Mission

However you picture it, imagine your congregation both growing in discipleship and serving its community while sharing the Gospel. Have a story of this taking place? Let me know. I will be sharing more from around the diocese in the coming weeks.

The Rev. Canon Frank Logue
Canon to the Ordinary

 

Note: All of the photos above are taken from the Church of the Good Shepherd website.

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