Tena tātou katoa e te iwi mīhana… (Greetings to all the people in mission),

This month’s whakataukī (proverb) is lifted from Philippians 1:30: “Kei a koutou hoki taua pakanga i kite ra koutou ki ahau” (you are going through the same struggle as me). I prefer how the New Living Translation phrases it, “We are in this struggle together”.

We cannot understand the New Testament’s epistles unless we keep in mind that they were written to communities being persecuted for their faith in Christ. Without exception the letters from Paul, Peter, John, James and the writer to the Hebrews were an encouragement to a people without (or losing) worldly power to hold fast to their faith and hold on to one another. The loving unified community of Christ-followers in the midst of abuse was (and is) the single most powerful witness to the world that Jesus was sent by the Father to reconcile all things back to God (cf. John 17:21-23).

We rapidly lose sight of this where Christianity has a hand in creating affluence. The terms “the West”, “economic or Global North”, “Developed World” or “First World” are no longer applicable. I prefer “Industrialised World” but even that begs further definition. No longer confined to geopolitical domains, we find affluence in every part of the world, and with it a misuse of power. When those who purport to follow Jesus are the affluent ones, we find the New Testament reinterpreted to affirm our progress, comfort and individual destinies. We miss the point and diminish God’s mission.

I have just returned from helping to lead a global Leadership Summit for the World Evangelical Alliance Mission Commission, where 60 missions leaders from 27 different passport countries met near Kuala Lumpur to discuss the future of the Commission. Bishop Efraim Tendero, General Secretary of the WEA, led devotions on our first day from Philippians 2:1-5, emphasising unity for the sake of the Gospel—not a unity enforced by centralised control, but one fostered by coordinated community/ies.
Bishop Ef. reminded us that the WEA aspires to see:

1. The fullness of life for every person
2. A healthy church for every people
3. An equipped leader for every congregation
4. The shalom of God for every nation.

Are these not objectives we can all work towards in our respective spheres of ministry in our nation and nations beyond? Are these not the objectives of mission? With all the distinctives, prioritisations and interpretations of Scripture that separate local and global expressions of the Kingdom of God, can we not at least agree to share these aspirations?

So long as we are concerned with retaining or increasing our little patch of power I do not believe we can. I am not suggesting we surrender our mana—the grace of God on our lives, communities of faith and ministries—but I am suggesting we need to freely make it available for wider witness, without the need for kudos, brand awareness, or some other sort of ‘return on investment’. That is the way the world thinks. That is the way of Mammon.

In our affluence we can too easily be concerned about influence. We can be less concerned for witness, unless it feeds back into our influence.

In our affluence we can too easily be concerned about influence. We can be less concerned for witness, unless it feeds back into our influence (bums on seats, money in the offering, people deployed, donations in the bank). For the early Church, witness was not something they did, it was something they were—as a community of generosity, spread over a wide geographic domain. External pressures threw them together, and internal conflicts matured them (cf. James 1:2-4). In the opening part of his letter, Paul acknowledged that the Philippians shared and experienced the same struggle as him and, based on that, he implored them to live in harmony in the midst of that struggle.

In my reading of the N.T. I see the people of God growing in maturity and numerically as a diverse fellowship of obedience, not concerned with their own interests but for the interests of others; first of God, then of one another, then of those who would join them because of their witness-in-community. A fellowship of obedience is one of generosity and hospitality and common commitment to the love of God and for one another in the midst of struggle.

Somehow we need to reclaim this sense of common struggle in our churches and missions. When affluence infuses our witness with condescension we do not help the Kingdom of God advance. It continues to advance, but the stories of great movements today are stories of communities struggling together in the midst of external pressures and growing together through the resolution of internal conflicts.

If we are to fulfil God’s call on our lives to see God’s kingdom come then we need to truly surrender power, embrace the struggle and join in solidarity with others in the struggle in order to #stayonmission.

Whakapaingia te Atua, to tatou kaiunga ki te ao whanui (Praise to God, who sends us into the world),

Jay