Engaging the Missional Mandate T
HE WORLD IS NOT what we have known, and the church is not like the one in which we grew up. Traditional mod- els of family and community are breaking down. The past is attractive because that’s where we felt safe: family was important and stability prevailed. People were hardworking and trustworthy. However, change is forcing us to abandon some of the mainstays of the past and to grasp new realities facing us as individuals and as the Church of God.
With the rapid advances in technology and communication, change today is now global rather than merely local. In the past, if a person did not like what was going on in his community, he simply moved away. Now, changes affect all communities. Not only is change global, but the rate of change is supersonic. In Death of the Church, Mike Regele says, “Any organization or institution that continues to behave as if we had all the time in the world to reflectively consider the full implications of modern change will be trampled by change and cease to exist.” The Church’s missional mandate remains Jesus’ words to His disciples prior to His ascension: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:19-20 NKJV). To engage this mandate, we need to be aware of the changes that are reshaping our world and the church, and to respond to those changes rather than trying to isolate ourselves from them. However, this is easier said than done. Complicating our response is that the pace of change is so fast that there is little or no time to reflect on the appropriate actions to take. The complexity of change and its many ramifications are also difficult to understand.
6 EVANGEL • JULY 2010 What Is God Saying?
“Jesus summed up what God is calling us to do in two simple words: ‘Follow Me.’ This challenge has not changed and will not change no matter what happens in our world.”
In this climate of rapid change, it is most important that we take time to hear from God. Hebrews 12:25 warns us, “See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven” (NKJV). Sometimes we get so busy that we just go with the flow, and the rush of life catches us up in motives, methods, and ends that we did not plan or intend. We are like a small piece of wood driven by the torrents of a fast stream. We lose control of self and become captives to what is pushing and shoving us. God wants each of us to slow down enough to listen to Him and to commit ourselves to a life that lines up with His will. When we look closely at the ministry of Jesus, we see how He constantly withdrew to private places for prayer. He prayed in the wilderness, in desert places, on mountaintops, and in a fishing boat. Some- times He withdrew alone, sometimes He took along a few intimate friends, and other times He took all 12 disciples.
Jesus spent a night in prayer before choos- ing the 12 disciples (Luke 6:12-16). He with- drew to a place of prayer before every great decision and at the height of every crisis. His ministry had a rhythm to it like the rhythm of
The comprehensiveness of change affects every area of life. Final- ly, change is becoming more and more unpredictable, making it harder and perhaps even impossible to anticipate the changes we will face even in the near future.
In these end times amid this chaotic pace of change, we must settle on exactly who we are as a church. As a part of this process, we need to ask several strategic questions.
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