September 2, 2007 - Risk-Taking Mission & Service

Pentecost 14
September 2, 2007
Crescent Hill Baptist Church
Louisville, Kentucky
W. Gregory Pope

RISK-TAKING MISSION AND SERVICE:
A CHURCH FOR THE WORLD

Joshua 1:1-9; Hebrews 11:32-38

“To be and make disciples of Jesus Christ in authentic community for the good of the world.” So Brian McLaren says is the mission of the church.1

We have worked our way through most of this definition over the past few weeks as we’ve been considering five practices of faithful and vibrant congregations. We’re seeking authentic community through Radical Hospitality. And we’re striving to offer Meaningful Worship as one of the primary practices God uses to shape souls and transform lives. Last week we talked about Intentional Spiritual Formation, being and making disciples of Jesus Christ.

Today we talk about why. And the reason is this: We seek to practice Radical Hospitality, Meaningful Worship, and Intentional Spiritual Formation so that we might truly be the body of Christ, risking ourselves in mission and service for the sake of the world.

There are two primary ways of understanding the church2: One is to see the church as “the place where certain things happen” - worship, teaching, fellowship, meetings. You “go to church” much the same way you might go to a store. You “attend” a church the way you attend a school or theater. You “belong to a church” as you would a service club with its programs and activities. It’s a place where certain things happen.

A different understanding is to see the church as “a body of people sent on a mission.” It’s what is being called today, “the missional church,” as opposed to “the institutional church.” Unlike the “institutional” church as an organization with facilities and activities for its members, the “missional” church is conceived as a community of disciples brought together by a common calling and vocation to be a “sent people.”

The difference between these two understandings of the church comes in the question: Is the church a people sent or is it a vendor of religion? I think scripture is overwhelmingly on the side of the church as a people sent.


The Bible teaches that we are created in the imago Dei - the image of God - for the missio Dei - the mission of God. Our God is a missionary God, a sending God. The church is a missionary people, a sent people. Jesus says, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”

The mission of the church is the mission of God. In Christ, scripture teaches us, God is reconciling the world back to God. God’s purpose is to restore, reconcile, and heal creation.

A missional church has a global vision and its ministry is incarnational. It puts flesh and bone to the life and ministry of Jesus, and by doing so extends God’s mission in the world. It is a community of people who are committed to follow in the way of Jesus. And they invite others to follow Jesus as fellow disciples. They seek the kingdom of God and serve the kingdom of God above all else, embracing the sufferings of others and identifying with the poor.

The missional church makes mission its passion, not tradition and the past, not success and the future, not its building, not its music, not its preaching and not its program. It is not building-centered, pastor-centered, or program-centered, but community-centered, ministry-centered. It’s passion is the mission of God - the kingdom of God in Christ reconciling and recreating the world.

Theologian George Retzlaff talks about “prepositional theology.” He says Jesus gave himself FOR others, poured himself out FOR others, lived and died FOR us.

So we are the church, the Body of Christ, when we are a people FOR others, a church FOR the city of Louisville, all parts it, and for Nada and New Orleans and Morocco and Thailand and everywhere else God might be calling and sending us.

So the question we must always be asking is: Where is God calling us? What is God calling us to do?

When you look at the stories in scripture of God calling people to do something, there is a pattern.

This morning we heard God’s calling to Joshua to be the successor to Moses and lead the Israelites out of the wilderness and into the promised land - a risky, daunting task. There are some similarities in the ways in which God called both Moses and Joshua.

There is the calling to a task:
“Moses, go tell Pharaoh to let my people go and lead them out of Egypt across the wilderness toward the Promised Land.”
“Joshua, Moses is dead. I need you to lead my people out of the wilderness into the Promised Land.”


Following the call to a task, there is almost always an objection by the one being called. Moses says he can’t approach Pharaoh because he’s not a good speaker. He is like many of the other prophets who are called by God. They don’t want to do it because they feel they can’t. They don’t believe they have the resources to do what God is calling them to do.

But we can never determine our response to God’s calling based on the resources we have. “What are our resources?” is not the question to ask. The question to ask is: “What is God calling us to do? Where is God leading us?” And as we follow God’s leading it’s up to God to provide the resources.

Moses, Joshua and all the great saints of the Bible were afraid their resources would not match God’s calling. But it is the testimony of God’s people that God did provide what they needed.

And what God called them to do was often bold and costly. Listen to how the writer of Hebrews describes people who say yes to God:

I do not have time to tell about . . . [those] who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies . . . Others were tortured and refused to be released . . . Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword . . . the world was not worthy of them (Heb 11:32-38).

And some of you are afraid to teach children or youth in Sunday School or spend time in the nursery. I promise you: we do not give them stones or saws or swords! But there is always a risk of some kind when God calls.

As you listen to that account from Hebrews, tell me, how high a value would you say God places on making sure people who follow him lead comfortable lives? It seems that God wants to use us, wants us to grow up, wants us to be strong and wise and courageous. God doesn’t appear to be terribly interested in making sure we’re comfortable. As John Ortberg says, God would not make a good flight attendant.3

Whenever God calls someone to do something in scripture, rarely is the response, “Wonderful! What an opportunity! Fabulous! What a great challenge!” No. Almost always the response is fear.

In fact, if there is a challenge in front of you, or in front of us as a congregation, a course of action that could cause us to grow spiritually and that would be helpful to the people around us, but we find ourselves scared about it, there’s a real good chance that God is in that challenge.4


God knows people get scared, so God makes them a promise. God said to Joshua, “Have I not commanded you? Have I not placed a mission before you? Go and do not be afraid or discouraged, but be strong and courageous, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” And every time God makes that promise of presence and provision God comes through.

So what is God calling us to do?

At the heart of what God calls all of us to do is to be bearers of the good news of the gospel.

And what is the good news of the Gospel?

The Gospel is that in Christ, God is on a mission recreating, renewing, reconciling, and restoring a broken and fallen world. And we are invited to join God in that mission.

Robert Schnase has been a helpful resource to me in thinking through these five sermons on congregational practice. Risk-Taking Mission and Service is his phrase. He says we call it Risk-Taking Mission and Service because of what is opposite Risk-Taking - things like Safe, Predictable, Comfortable, Certain, Convenient - words that do not describe the ministry of Jesus who said, “For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it.” (Luke 9:24).

Risk-Taking Mission and Service includes the ministry projects, efforts, and work people do to make a positive difference in the lives of others for the purposes of Christ, whether or not those we serve ever be a part of the community of faith. But failure to practice some form of Risk-Taking Mission and Service will result in a deterioration of the church’s vitality and ability to make disciples of Jesus Christ.

The practice of Risk-Taking Mission and Service reminds us that congregations are not ends in themselves. Our goal is not to preserve and perpetuate ourselves. We are simply resources God uses to change lives and transform the world.

God places congregations in a world troubled by many challenges. Schools struggle to provide basic education, and many children fall through the cracks. Criminal justice systems are overcrowded and do little to restore people to functional, positive participation in society. Medical services are overburdened and unprepared to serve unmet needs, especially of the poor, the uninsured, and the unemployed. Immigration issues and environmental threats intensify fears. Drugs, alcohol abuse, gambling addictions, family violence, and overwhelming poverty rob people of hope. A majority of the people with whom we share the world live with incredible uncertainty because of poverty, hunger, illness, and war.

As followers of Christ, we cannot live as if these things have nothing to do with us. Christ moves us closer to suffering, not farther away. We cannot walk around oblivious to suffering, ignoring it and denying it like those who preceded the Samaritan down the road to Jericho. We can’t moan about how somebody ought to do something. We cannot just pray for those who suffer, asking God to do for us what God created us to do for God.5


God didn’t tell Joshua just to pray about. God told him to be strong and courageous. We have to be courageous enough to do something. To get involved with our community and our world. To call our government to its task and stop the immoral amount of money being spent on weapons and war to obtain a security that will never come, and instead spend a trillion dollars taking care of the living who are sick and poor, and whose children go to schools with inadequate resources.

We are called to Risk-Taking ministries that push us out of our comfort zones to make a real difference in the lives of people. Ministries that require hands-on, face-to-face engagement with the needs of people we might ordinarily not come to know. Outreach ministries that make the greatest impact on the lives of people in our community who are not a part of our church. Service and friendship to those in our community who have the least power - the poor, the unemployed, the stranger, the hungry, the homeless, the abused, the addicted, the immigrant, the victim of violence.

There are many opportunities to reach out through the ministries of our church. We touch people’s lives through United Crescent Hill Ministries, English as a Second Language, Divorce Recovery, and Choices homes for women and children. And there are many more ways in which we can participate in God’s mission for the world. Our task is to pray and discern where God is calling us.

What really matters when God calls people to do something is not whether we feel inadequate. Of course we will because we are inadequate. That’s why God promises to go with us. What matters is our decision. Only people, only churches, who say yes to challenge, demand, and risk are ever fully alive.

Missional Christians and churches will be people of great joy and hope. We will not give in to cynicism and despair because we have discerned the mission of God in the world. We see with the eyes of the heart that God in Christ is at work in the world reconciling, redeeming, recreating and renewing. Our strength is in the conviction of God’s mission and in the promise of God’s presence with us. Our delight is in being a part of it.6

So: Are we willing to risk ourselves and be a church for the world? Prepositional theology. Christ gave himself FOR the world. Will we risk ourselves FOR the world? It begins in your heart and mine. Will we offer objections and excuses? Or will we say yes and follow?

___________________________

1. Brian McLaren, A Generous Orthodoxy, Zondervan, 2004, 107
2. Darrell L. Guder, ed., Missional Church, Eerdmans, 2001, 80-83
3. John Ortberg, When the Game is Over It All Goes Back in the Box, Zondervan, 2007, 141
4. Ibid., 142
5. Robert Schnase, Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations, Abingdon, 2007, 83, 100
6. Daniel Vestal, It’s Time, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, 2002, 30

QUESTIONS

1. How has a mission/service project shaped your own life? What is the most unexpected place to which your faith in Christ has taken you in order to make a difference in someone else’s life?
2. In what ways would you like to see CHBC take a risk in mission and service?
3. What are you unwilling to give up or change about CHBC in order to see 100 new people under the age of 40 over the next three years become involved in the life of our church, seeking to become followers of Jesus?