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

This month’s whakatauki (proverb) is: “Whāia te māramatanga.”  (Seek enlightenment).

The Bible refers to light in a number of ways. Most obvious is the light that helps us see physically. There is also a type of symbolic light, something (or someone) that acts as a beacon to guide the People of God in life and well-being. Then there is spiritual light, that we too often dismiss as some sort of esoteric mystical force that requires special knowledge to fully comprehend.

Far from such Gnostic tendencies, the Bible sees spiritual enlightenment as wisdom that comes from understanding the knowledge of God, and in the Biblical book of Proverbs we are urged to seek it passionately. Such light illuminates our mind as a result of growing in our relationship with God.

We come to understand the knowledge of God in the same way we come to understand anyone. In a recent lecture at Laidlaw College, Dr Curt Thompson defined the mind as, “an embodied and relational process, emerging from within and between brains, that regulates the flow of energy and information”.

Our whole being is a mind, that God transforms as we worship.

Our whole being is a mind, that God transforms as we worship (Rom. 12:1-2). The more we commune with God, the more we should come to appreciate God and the Holy-Three’s heart for creation and the people that inhabit it. This is core to having ‘the mind of Christ’ (1 Cor. 2:16).

Of this we can be certain: God, in Christ, is reconciling the world to Himself (2 Cor. 5:19). This is the essence of the mission of God and the co-mission of God’s People. The only thing that will cause this not to be is its completion at the return of Christ and the consummation of the ages (1 Cor. 15:24).

So when we hear of missions (plural) shutting up shop and traditional missions resources diminishing, we need to hold on to the fact that mission (singular) continues and will ultimately succeed. The shut down of Wheaton College’s 52 year-old Evangelical Missions Quarterly (EMQ) has now formally been announced. I dealt with some of the implications of this in the GMI article in Missions Interlink’s May’s BULLETIN.

Rather than despair about the end of an era signified by such things, we need to look out to the frontiers and see what the innovators are doing in mission. Simultaneously, we must seek enlightenment from God about such things to discern how each of us, called to mission, should adapt and act. That takes a great deal of energy and effort.

It is new territory, but be of great courage for the Lord is with you and goes before you towards the consummation (cf. Deut. 31:6, Matt 28:20). This is the hope embedded in the hastag I am fond of: #stayonmission. Furthermore, as we interrelate on mission, we can positively regulate the flow of energy and information for mission—for God’s glory.

#stayonmission. 👊🏼

Ma te Atua e manaaki koutou (may you all experience the very best things from God),

Jay