We have been answering three clarifying questions with the goal of seeing the people of our congregation participate in accomplishing the mission of our congregation consistently and frequently, over and over again. The questions are as follows:
What is the mission of our congregation?
What does it look like for our people to participate in accomplishing the mission?
What is the discipleship process that prepares our people to participate in accomplishing the mission as a daily lifestyle?
We unpacked the answer to the first question HERE. What is the mission of our congregation? Simple. It is the mission of God. And the mission of God, according to God, is to get back the world He so loves. All of it.
The mission of God, of course, is God’s alone. It’s His to do. It’s His to work out. And He is the only One who can accomplish it (see Colossians 1:19-20). We can’t save the world. Only God can. But He does invite us to join Him. It is part of His plan for accomplishing His mission that we be His body, His hands, and His means in the created world (Genesis 1:26-27, 1 Corinthians 12:27)
Which brings us to question #2: What does it look like for our people to participate in accomplishing the mission?
In other words, if you as the leader were watching your people participate in accomplishing the mission as part of their daily lives, what would you see them doing?
This is an incredibly important question to answer clearly and simply because if we want our people to participate in accomplishing the mission, they have to know what to do.
On the other hand, if we as leaders can’t clearly and simply articulate what it looks like for our people to participate in accomplishing the mission, then the people will not be able to take action and participate. They will be stymied. They will be benched. They will sit passively in the pew week after week, but never have the fun of participating in the mission being accomplished.
Can you imagine going to church for eighty+ years and never being a part of the real action? (A lot of people can.)
So, what does it look like for the people of our congregation to get off the bench and fan out into the nooks and crannies of their neighborhoods, workplaces, and schools to participate in accomplishing the mission?
According to Jesus (and the rest of the New Testament writers), the answer is simple: It looks like our people putting the abundant love they have already received from the Father into action for the good of others.
Love. In. Action.
Jesus then works through our love-in-action (our service, our words, our presence) to accomplish what only He can accomplish: redeemed and restored lives.
Paul puts it this way in Ephesians 5:2, “Live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us.” See how simple that is? Participating in accomplishing the mission is no more complicated than living a lifestyle of love. We presume it must be more complicated than that because…well, it’s always been presented to us as somehow more complicated than that, right? But look at what the Bible actually says about love:
Galatians 5:6 says the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
Matthew 22:37-40 says the entire Bible hangs on love.
Romans 13:10 says we fulfill every law when we love.
Galatians 5:22 says the fruit of the Spirit is love.
1 Corinthians 12:31 says the most excellent way is love.
John 13:34-35 says the way people will know we are disciples of Jesus is by how we love.
Here’s how it works:
Our people receive the Father’s abundant love and forgiveness, which He has already freely given them through Jesus, and,
They then freely offer that abundant love and forgiveness to the people around them who need it so badly.
1 John 4:7, “Love comes from God.” Matthew 10:8, “Freely you have received, freely give.” 1 John 4:19, “We love because He first loved us.”
Therefore, that is what we disciple our people to do:
To live in the abundance of the Father’s love and forgiveness which they have already been given through Jesus;
To then freely offer that abundant love and forgiveness to the people around them who need it so badly.
1 John 4:10-11, “This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”
This is who we are. This is what we do. We are people who live in the abundance of the Father’s love and look for others who need it too.
Everything good and healthy in the human heart flows from the love of God being freely received, fully trusted, and freely given to others. It’s a beautiful circle of abundance and generosity. And we get to participate by including others. From God, to us, through us, to the people around us who need to experience His love so badly.
That’s what participating in accomplishing the mission with Jesus looks like. Doesn’t it sound like more fun than what we have been settling for?
And as the people of your congregation do this consistently and frequently, over and over again, you will see God accomplishing His mission consistently and frequently, over and over again, too.
God is getting His world back, and He is working through our love to accomplish it. Let’s get off the bench and into the real action.
And that leads us to our third question, which we will unpack next time: What is the discipleship process that prepares our people to participate in accomplishing the mission as a daily lifestyle?
Need help crafting a plan for your congregation?
To help you craft a plan for your congregation, I offer leadership retreats in St. Paul, Minnesota. Your leadership team arrives on a Tuesday and on Thursday you leave with a clear, simple, biblical plan for making disciples who accomplish the mission. Need to do it over a weekend? Let’s talk.
To start the conversation, contact me via the button below.
My book, “Joining Jesus on His Mission,” is another helpful resource to gain insights about what it means and what it looks like to participate with Jesus in accomplishing His mission.