We talk a lot about being “missional.” “Missional” means being where God sends us, with the people he is calling us to love, doing what his Word calls us to do to actually love, all for his glory and honor. From this list one can see that a lot of activity is involved in our conception of “missional.” Which is cool in the sense that it helps us to be counter-cultural in a world (especially a church world) of “cheap talk” and marketing slogans. At the same time, it can be deceptive in that it lends itself to the trap of things in the Kingdom of God being boiled down to technique, method, or recipe. Which it never is.
This fact has hit me over and over again over the past weeks and months as I see all that the Lord is doing in our midst. Sure, we sold a building and moved to a poorer part of town, we made whole-sale changes to vision, mission, strategy, structure, etc. We’re working hard on our weak areas and trying to implement improvements in music and small groups. We have lost a lot of people and gained different ones. We have seen miracles and salvation. The Lord’s work in us includes techniques and methods and organization. But these are not keys, they are the result of keys. The keys are people. People who respond to God and his word with creativity, devotion, and energy. To quote EM Bounds (I don’t remember the source):
“God’s plan is to make much of the man, far more of him than anything else, because men are God’s method. The church is looking for better methods; God is looking for better men. The Holy Ghost does not flow through methods, but through men. He does not come on machines, but on men. He does not anoint plans, but men. It is not great talents nor great learning that God needs, but men great in holiness, great in faith, great in love, great in fidelity, great for God.”
In the case of our journey as a church we would have to say that women (as well as men) are God’s method.
In the stories that I have posted about our “adventures” you will find that they are mostly about people. I didn’t realize it at the time, but the risks, the generosity, the hospitality, and the forgiveness that is starting to describe who the Lord is making us into all comes about in, through people responding to God-given opportunities.
I say all this by way of preamble to the next post I want to write. But I didn’t want to get this next post imbedded in this one. As you will see it needs to stand alone. But this post is my slap to the forehead reminder to myself (and to anyone else who ever reads this stuff) about what is most important when it comes to actually following the Lord in obedience (being missional). It means believing in, listening to, supporting, challenging, learning from other disciples: people, especially people of character.
