In my years of pastoring and church planting, I have found something of a rift between varying Jesus tribes that often goes unspoken. The rift I am referring to runs between those churches and movements that primarily focus on that which happens in the community of God and those that primarily focus on that which happens through the community of God.
In the first you'll hear lots of emphasis on things like prayer, worship and abiding.
In the second you'll hear lots of emphasis on things like mission, justice and neighbor.
I don't like the dichotomy I am painting here but stick with me. This exists. And chances are there are leaders, churches and/or networks that come to mind when you think of each.
If you know me, then you probably know I have spent much of the past 10-15 years in the second group. With that being the case, allow me to speak from that perspective and to what some of us in the missional tribe are learning along the way.
The Missional Rub
For those of us who swim in the waters of missional thinking and practice, we have long mourned how rarely a focus on things like worship, prayer and exercising the gifts have translated into missional faithfulness.
We have often wondered: Why do so many churches seem unconcerned with issues of justice? Why isn't love of neighbor emphasized in the same way as other commands? Why aren't more followers of Jesus practicing hospitality where God has them? How can so many churches go about their in-house business when so many around them are struggling to find community and meaning just outside their walls?
As a result, much of our focus often centers around missional theology and praxis.
We long for the church to recapture a vision for what God is up to in the world. That his kingdom is breaking in. That He is taking every square inch of creation back. That He is committed to making all things new. That He is taking all of creation somewhere. And that we, as Jesus's church, get to play a role in all of it.
It is unthinkable for us to consider a life of following Jesus that never gets around to responding to His commission to "go."
This is the gift of the apostolic, evangelistic and horizontally-oriented prophetic types among us who keep this commission and invitation in front of us at all times - something that has been sorely missing in various Christian tribes in our lifetime.
However, in our missional fervor, I fear that we can focus so much on going that we neglect the equally important call to being.
It is quite possible for us to get so caught up in what we are doing for God that we can begin to miss what God desires to do in us.
As a result, we missional types can sucketh at things like prayer, operating in the gifts and abiding in Jesus.
However, at risk of stating the obvious, let me point out what many of us are learning and relearning as we go: if we are going to see a fresh move of God in our lifetime, we cannot afford to focus on one and not the other.
The Both/And Jesus
In the life of Jesus, of course, we see both.
Jesus embodied the mission of God in his very life. He spoke of this mission constantly (Jn 10:10 ; Mark 1:38; Lk 4:16-21). It was the driving purpose of his life. And when his earthly ministry was coming to a close, Jesus spoke clearly to his disciples of the mission they now would be called to step into (Mt 28:16-20; Jn 20:21).
Mission is at the heart of Jesus and his movement.
However...
Despite his special divine status, Jesus made abiding in the Father a central and constant priority of his life and ministry.
He was steeped in the scriptures. Like his peers, he grew up studying and memorizing the Torah.
As he grew older, he regularly quoted the law, Psalms and the prophets by heart.
As his ministry grew, we regularly find him pulling away from the crowds to pray and recharge with his heavenly father.
We find these things true of Jesus all the way to the end.
Which leads us to a question every follower of Jesus must ask themselves:
If Jesus needed to actively abide in his heavenly father in order to fulfill the mission to which He was called, how much more true must this be of us?
So here Is what I AM Relearning IN THIS SEASON…
As our life, ministry and responsibilities grow wider, our rootedness in the person of God must grow deeper. If we are to make it, we must learn to drink deeply from the well of living water. We must learn how to rest in the arm's of the Father, as Jesus did. We must grow ever more familiar with the ministry and moving of the Spirit, lest we lose our way.
It is a fool's errand to think we can continually participate in the mission of God without at the same time growing deeper in our abiding in Him.
A life of participation in the mission of God requires far too much of us to not be continually sustained by The One who is far greater than us. If we are to continually pour ourselves out, we must constantly be filled by the one who first poured Himself out for us.
We desperately need the ministry of His presence.
We need it moment by moment, everyday.
This is where every significant move of God begins. It begins not with public mission, but with worship in both the private closet and with the people of God.
Any work that seeks to push back the darkness without firmly rooting itself in a lifestyle of abiding is bound to fail.
This is where I believe our friends in other tribes than our own can be a profound gift to us. We have so much we can learn from one another.
God has been incredibly patient with me in this regard. He continues to bring people into my life who are gifted in ways that I am not to help me press deeply into practices of abiding.
This, of course, is the gift of the body of Christ, if we will receive it.
The truth is the dichotomy I began with is a false one.
Worship and mission were never meant to be separated.
Worship without mission inevitably misses the heart of the Father, shortcuts our discipleship and causes us to miss so much of what God is up to in the world. Mission without worship inevitably becomes another form of works-based religion, devoid of the Spirit's power, sustenance and transformation.
Each is a necessary part of the same whole.
You cannot truly have one without the other.
And we were never meant to try.
The Next Chapter
It's no secret we live in a time of seismic shift in the Western church. Much of what has passed for cultural Christianity is being discarded by those who once largely propped it up. Many who are leaving our current church expressions are not doing so in rejection of faith, but rather in search of it.
Some have grown tired of a church that seems to have no discernable purpose outside of its four walls. Others have found plenty of initiatives and activity but have struggled to experience the presence of the living God there.
It seems this generation longs for something deeper and more real than much of what has been passed down to them. Theirs is a desire for something deeper and more true to the Jesus they’ve read about.
This I can relate with.
I am increasingly convinced that those who will shape the future of the church in the West will be men and women who have been both swept up in the mission of God and who cannot get enough of the presence of God.
They will see these things not as competing commitments but as two integral parts of the same whole.
Their focus will not be an either/or but rather a both/and.
And as they step in to lead and create new expressions of church in the years to come, I think the categories with which we started will no longer be separate, but one.
And that gets me really excited for what is to come.
Some Potential Next Steps:
Begin by taking a "fearless moral inventory" of these two areas of your life. If a stranger could observe your calendar, rhythms and relationships, what would they conclude you really care about?
To quote Alan Hirsch, remember "there is nothing sacred about your ecclesiology." It's okay to be passionate about your form of church, but don't make the mistake of thinking it is the one true way. The bible doesn't give us a blueprint for exactly how the church must express itself in every time and place. God has given us immense freedom (and a lot of grace too, I think) in this. So we too need to be gracious to one another as continually form and reform together. Chances are there is much we can learn from expressions that look very different than our own.
Help those you serve to understand how love of God (worship) and love of neighbor (mission) are commands made inseparable by Jesus. We cannot rightly have one without the other.
Help them catch a vision for how living on mission (i.e. sharing the gospel, serving the poor, practicing hospitality, working for justice, etc) and abiding in Jesus (i.e. praying, meditating on God's word, lifting one's voice in praise, etc) are both spiritually formational practices.
Be careful not to use language that suggests living on mission or practices of abiding are strictly solo endeavors. Both are most powerfully experienced in the context of loving community.
Spend some time reflecting on your group, ministry or church. Which side of the spectrum do you tend to lean? Where is there room to grow? What might you need to focus on in this next season?
Ask yourself whether there are tribes or guides that can help you grow in the areas you are weak. Over the years we have brought in friends and leaders who are further down the road than we are on both sides of the spectrum. Some have helped us grow things like the act of neighboring, having spiritual conversations and organizing for mission. Others have helped us grow in things like developing a worshipful heart, listening prayer and hearing the voice of God. Both have been a tremendous gift to our church family.
This article was originally posted at www.commonpastor.org. Aaron Loy serves as founding and lead pastor of Commonwealth in Knoxville, TN. He also serves as a founding movement team member of the Creo Collective.