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I've been thinking lately about our mission. What is it? Are we here to just be here and hang out with each other or are we supposed to be doing something else? Well, I think we're supposed to be doing something. Jesus did something. The apostles did something. People aren't called to start communities of faith or "churches" simply to "be there." I don't think they are anyway. What is Christianity about? OK, sort of a long answer... here's part of it - maybe the core: it's about God loving the people that He created, seeing that they had become something far from His original intention (which is not good, not healthy, harmful, etc.), and His doing what it took to bring us back to where we are supposed to be - that we, through what Jesus did, can be fully transformed into the kind of people God created us to be. That's basically what it's about.
Now, does God want that for some people and not for others? Big theological question. What do you think would make sense of a loving God? ... Yip, I thought so - that's what I think too - of course not! He wants us all to be what we're supposed to be. So, here's where the earlier question comes in. "What is our mission as a community?" I think, simply, it is this: to continually be and do what belongs to being a part of that transformational process - of being recreated in the image of God - AND to "invite" other people to walk this same journey of transformation with us.
Being and inviting others to be as well. Inviting more by example, by living naturally our transformed lives around others, by loving as God loves, and yes, by talking about this new life that we have. I hope someone who is not a "Christian" sees this. I hope you get in touch and tell me why you have read this and what you think about it (positive or negative). That's it for now.
| posted by + Alan | 10:10 AM | |