To the disciples of Christ in the Cooperative:
As a new season in the church year begins with the start of Advent, our preparing for the coming of the Christ child at Christmas, I find myself thinking about why Jesus was born. Was he born for us and our church? Or, for the sake of the whole world? How we as a church answer that question actually shapes our churches ministry as we grow into what God has planned for us in this new year. It’s really about differentiating the churches ministry between Maintenance minded ministry-vs-Mission minded ministry. Perhaps the end of Matthew’s gospel says it the best for our churches, or is it a new beginning?
“Go make disciples of all nations…. baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matt. 28)
Every time someone said the word Mission Jim got really angry. It didn’t matter what context it was in, nor how you talked about it…he always saw it as a word that moved the attention away from where he thought the focus of his church should be…on his local congregation. Jim had a poor image of what mission really meant, but to be honest…now that I think about it… in some ways he was touching on the truth! Mission in its very essence draws us away from focusing on ourselves and encourages us to think about others near and far away. In thinking about the other we are moved to become a part of someone else’s life by sharing the life-changing Good News of the Gospel with them.
It’s been said that if a congregation wants to grow in faith and life, they have to be mission minded. But too often churches are approaching the task of growing from a maintenance way of thinking. Their thinking is, we are faithful to the gospel of Jesus Christ, and will grow, when we take care of ourselves first!
But take for example the frog story: A Mad scientist wanted to learn about the leaping abilities of frogs. To do so, he placed a frog on his laboratory table, stood behind the frog and shouted, “Jump, frog, jump!” The frog jumped. The scientist carefully measured the distance of that first leap. He consistently repeated this procedure a number of times to provide reliable and valid statistical research. He then surgically removed one of the front legs of the frog (I know. It is a bizarre story. Remember, this is a mad scientist!) Placing the frog on the table, the scientist once again stood behind him and yelled, “Jump, frog, jump!” Again, responding to the noise, the frog leaped forward and the scientist carefully measured the distance.
The scientist had the frog jump with three legs a number of times to gather his scientific data. He then surgically removed another leg of the frog and repeated the experiment. He repeated each step of the experiment, measuring the ability of the frog to jump with four, then three, then two, then one leg. Finally, the scientist cut off the last leg and surprisingly, the frog did not leap. The scientist yelled again but there was no response. The scientist finally stomped his feet, clapped his hands, and screamed as loudly as he could, but still the frog did not move. The scientist reflected on what he had seen and contemplated the meaning of this experiment. Finally, he sat up straight in his chair. And with an excited expression on his face that disclosed his discovery of new scientific insight, he wrote down, “Frogs without legs can’t hear.”
The intent of this story was to emphasize that simply having data is not enough to draw sound scientific conclusions. The tale was a caution against running wild with partial information. Obviously, the scientist in the story missed the point. He drew an erroneous conclusion because he had a poor image of what a frog is, assuming that a frog could jump without legs. The scientist apparently thought that it was enough to look like a frog to be able to jump like a frog; it was enough that the frog had a frog’s head and a frog’s torso. It was not necessary for the frog to have legs to be able to jump.
Too often we as the church think like that. We think it’s enough to focus on ourselves first…we work hard to take care of number one, and only after that is there the thinking that we should share the left-overs with others. But what often is the case, when a congregation is mission minded rather than maintenance minded, the congregation experiences the truth of Jesus earlier words in Matthew “…but strive FIRST for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matt 6:33)
If we as a cooperative of churches in the Kettle River Conference want to grow in faith and life then let’s take a leap of faith together into being more and more mission minded…we may be surprised at how God will grow us.
God’s peace and strong presence be with you and your family this Christmas season and as we grow together this new year in what being mission minded is all about.