Subscribe now for automatic email notifications when a new post is created:
Evangelicals are coming under increasing public scrutiny. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Increasing exposure can create healthy accountability. But we’re also being judged by the moral standards of liberal secularism. These are atmospheric changes we need to account for as we fix our eyes on our ultimate destination.
More than a few social commentators reckon that we are seeing the dissolution of the neo-liberal globalisation project in the wake of the global pandemic, increasing inflation and a Russia-Ukraine war. Opinions are fracturing and hostilities rising, but it should not be so for those us in-Christ – and this is an opportunity for missions.
Our English-language concepts of love can be woefully inadequate, but we need strong concepts of ‘merciful loving kindness’ to lead us into effective Kindgom witness. God’s mission is always accomplished through loving sacrifice and there is no better time to remember that than through the Lenten season.
Resource follows prioritisation, which follows vision. Vision comes from inspiration and inspiration can be a very personal phenomenon. We all need a fresh vision of resource sharing as we move forward together on God’s mission.
What could mission look like in the mobile digital world if we were to ride the coattails of commerce as missions has done since Paul and the Roman roads? We need to better engage with new technologies for God’s glory.
Mission is not a task to be accomplished, it is a relationship journey, and the minute we reduce it to a quantifiable goal we objectify the very ones God wants to embrace. We need a blessing-orientation, to make loving relationship our priority.
We need to be people of empathy, a form of identification where we enter into and share the burdens of another. Without it our mission activity is nothing more than condescension, and our Christian life becomes pitifully parochial.
We make too little of reciprocation in missions strategies. We arrogantly think that we engage in mission to only give, out of our superior surplus. We need a big dose of humility, acknowledging our need and being open to receive.
Courage has many resting places and the call of mission comes to us with new views if we stop long enough to see them. We would do well to foster a posture of exploration in mission, being open to new possibilities, daring to move into them.
Every nation manifests a unique deposit of God’s grace on them as a people/s. We need to recognise that and allow each other to be all that God has created us to be. The way ahead for mission will be greater unity in validated diversity.
The whole world seems to be in something of an identity crisis at the moment, New Zealanders among them. Nations are wrestling with who they are in light of globalizing forces. This provides a great opportunity for missions.
Nehemiah provides us with a model for expansion. He not only strengthened the walls but extended them, and with them the size of the city. There is much to be gleaned for mission and God’s Kingdom advance from this perspective.