Finals, papers, etc. for the seminary semester are finished, so I can turn my attention to writing that won’t be graded. (At least not by professors…)
A few weeks ago I introduced the paradigm shift our church has undertaken. We’ve been moving from a “come and see” paradigm to a “go and tell” paradigm. Check out my last post for some elaboration on this idea. This post and the ones following, unlike the first, will do more constructing than deconstructing. I’ll be fleshing out our ministry philosophy through five distinctives that we think should characterize the life and mission of local Christian churches.
This post will consider the first distinctive: We live as a family of missionary servants.
This first distinctive pursues the heart of what it means to be a local expression of Christ’s body; it deals with issues of identity and self-awareness. It is not intended to be an exhaustive definition of the church. Unlike the other four, this language is not original with us, and I do not claim it as my own. We’ve borrowed this phraseology just about verbatim from Jeff Vanderstelt. His content (much of which can be found here) has been tremendously helpful over the last year. With that said and appropriate credit being given, let’s briefly unpack what it means to be a family of missionary servants. If you’re interested in a more thorough explanation, listen to week one of our 5 Distinctives sermon series.
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit… // Matthew 28:19
It may seem simple, but I think it’s significant that we’ve been baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. I think it can teach us a lot about who we are. Paul, in his epistle to the Romans, uses similar language when he speaks of being baptized “into Christ Jesus.” Ritual cleansing, washing, and baptism have long carried with them this idea of entry into something, particularly a community. John the Baptist administered a baptism of repentance and faith, but claimed that Jesus would bring a baptism far greater than his. With Christ’s baptism comes entry into Christ’s community – his Church – the promised New Covenant community composed of people from every tribe and tongue across time and space.
Now, remember your baptism. I’m going to argue that, being baptized into the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, we have become a family of missionary servants.
Being baptized into the Father, we are his children. Jesus, our big brother, has conquered the sin enemy we never could. He has settled the debt that kept us from our Father and given us a spot in his family. Christians have intimate access to God the Father. As Tim Keller has famously said, no one can wake the king in the middle of the night to ask for a glass of water. No one except, of course, his beloved children. The church, as my Theo. II professor loves to say, is the family of God. Families love each other. Families take care of each other. Families show grace to one another. Families multiply.
Being baptized into Christ, we are his servants. Jesus has purchased us with his own blood, and we are no longer our own. A servant is not above his master. We’re called to be a paradoxical people. We find our lives by losing them. We find freedom in servitude. We serve Christ our king, and in the pattern of Christ the servant king, we serve the world around us. We must understand that servants of Christ are servants of others. We must take a posture of servitude in all of our relationships.
Being baptized into the Holy Spirit, we are his missionaries. 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 teaches that we are ambassadors for Christ – that God is making his appeal to the world through us. We’ve been filled with the Spirit of God. What an incredible truth! God is making his appeal to the people in your life through you. God, the Holy Spirit, dwells inside the Christian for just such a purpose. The depths of this truth would take eternity to mine, but suffice it to say that we could accomplish nothing of significance on our own. In God’s infinite wisdom and goodness, he has chosen to adopt us, purchase us, and even indwell us, giving us wholeness, belonging, and purpose.
The church is not fundamentally an organization that dispenses religious goods and gathers for public lectures and concerts. Fundamentally, we are a family of missionary servants. We don’t live up to this reality as much as we ought, but by God’s grace, we’re getting there. A family of missionary servants is just the sort of counter-cultural community that can turn the world upside down. After all, it’s the only thing that ever has.
MB
