imagining how the church can reorient around mission

You should know Dr. Haley Jacob, a notable theologian who was supervised by the renowned N.T. Wright during her Ph.D. studies. We are so fortunate that she is a member of our church community and on our preaching team at Immanuel. Her research on Romans 8 is unique, even groundbreaking, and needs to be heard by every Christian. I am not exaggerating. It will set you free to imagine following Jesus in a new, IMHO, more beautiful way. In fact, I was so moved by her teachings that several times during the presentation, I physically gasped. Trust me; you don’t want to miss out on what she has to explain.

This is part 3 of Immanuel’s Theological Vision. You can find part 1 by clicking here and part 2 by clicking here.

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If you’re not aware of it, you may as well be brought into the circle. I have an apostolic calling. OK, relax. Some of you are thinking what does he think he is, one of the 12. The only “12” I’m a part of is a huge fan of the Seattle Seahawks. No, not a big “A” apostle, but I have an orientation that finds its greatest fulfillment in multiplying these reconciled communities that are populated with restored people.

A brief history of my pastoral experience is after pastoring a small rural church, I planted a church in Wenatchee WA, which, by the way, was a miserable failure. A humbling experience is almost always an efficient but austere teacher. From there, in 1991, I planted a church in Spokane called New Community, which in turn launched six other churches. After 17 years in the role, I took a job as the president of an international church planting organization called Christian Associates International. Its sole mission is to plant churches in Western culture. And now, at 59, I have planted another church called Immanuel. I think it is fair to say that it is far from a phase in my life. At 59, I am way past the normal age of church planter. By and large, church planting belongs to the young. Nevertheless, it is really a part of my orientation, to extend the work of Christ into the nations.

I am persuaded that this ministry of reconciliation takes place best through the multiplication of communities of faith.

Here’s a question: how did the gospel get to Spokane? When you consider the distance and challenges that stood in its way it is amazing. Jerusalem is 6707 miles from Spokane. How did the Gospel get all the way to us? Well, it got here as courageous believers who experienced the life of Christ and believed that they were supposed to go beyond their local context, left friends and family to take the Gospel to the nations. In our case it crossed language and cultural barriers and geography, even an ocean, to finally get to a place where we are today. That is precisely why Jesus says in Acts1:8, “For when the Holy Spirit comes upon you in power, you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, and to the very ends of the earth.” There is a concentric progression to extending the gospel into the nations. We cannot have a mature missiology without a firm conviction and vision of taking the gospel to the nations. That starts here in Spokane and goes as far out as God allows us.

Additionally, I believe this reproduction must be a part of every aspect of our ministry. It has to include what we do with kids, with our Life Together Groups, and ultimately with churches. Each leader should be giving his or her life away to someone else. It is the idea of working yourself out of a job. It is epitomized by Paul’s words to his mentee, Timothy.

“And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.” 2 Timothy 2:2

It is really a perpetual succession plan. You receive from God and in turn you willingly and joyfully give it to someone with the expectation that they will pass the baton of faith and leadership on to someone else.

I have always felt strongly that my main calling in life is to give my life away to young men and women, to help them live into what God is calling them to do. I read a poem years ago that had a line in it that went like this, “I don’t want to be a king but I want to be a kingmaker.” That is what it means to be reproductive.
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Your kingdom come, your will be done in Spokane as it is in heaven.

In Spokane as it is in heaven! That is how I always pray the Lord’s Prayer in regards to our church.

So, what is it like in heaven? What will that be like? I think each one of us has the ability to conjure or imagine what it might be. Fortunately for us we get glimpses into what that might be like in the latter portion of the book of Revelation.

 “I saw Heaven and earth new-created. Gone the first Heaven, gone the first earth, gone the sea.  I saw Holy Jerusalem, new-created, descending resplendent out of Heaven, as ready for God as a bride for her husband. I heard a voice thunder from the Throne: “Look! Look! God has moved into the neighborhood, making his home with men and women! They’re his people, he’s their God. He’ll wipe every tear from their eyes. Death is gone for good—tears gone, crying gone, pain gone—all the first order of things gone.” The Enthroned continued, “Look! I’m making everything new. Write it all down—each word dependable and accurate.” Revelation 21:1-5 (Message)

Really that is my vision for Immanuel. To live into that… In Spokane as it is in heaven.

About a few years ago now, we did a multi-part series reflecting this idea entitled “The Reconciliation of All Things.” We tackled subjects of kingdom misalignments in our city, such as broken relationships, racial tension, class discrimination, gender inequality, the environment and several other culturally significant (and charged) topics. We brought in presenters for each topic who were considered “experts.” It was an attempt at the very least to sensitize us to the misalignments in our world and in the best case, equip us to be agents of shalom in our city.

The reality is we live in a world that is disjointed or as the theologian Jürgen Moltmann would say, “…out of order.”

If this is our vision then, how does it work itself out in mission? At least part of the answer to that question would be, our mission is to vigilantly observe where the misalignments are and locate ourselves into those places as people and as a community of reconciliation.

That is our calling.

In II Corinthians 5:16-20 the apostle Paul writes,

“So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.”

It tells us that God has committed to us the message of reconciliation and that we are his ambassadors.

So what I’d like to lay out in this short essay are the four forms that this reconciliation occurs in the context; Immanuel Church, the West Central neighborhood and the larger city of Spokane.

RESTORED LIVES

I use the word restored not to infer that everyone was once Christian and just fell away. It is more to help capture the idea that there is a Gospel story or narrative if you will. See, the Gospel doesn’t begin with bad news, but with good. It is a narrative of God’s loving gestures to us that culminates in the Christ event. In other words, the Gospel didn’t begin the last days of Jesus’ life and in his resurrection, but rather it began in Genesis 1. You know the story. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. In that creation event, we see that each creative act God performed was described as good. In fact, when it describes the creation of humanity, it is described as very good. It says that humanity was in a perfect environment. Eden. If you are familiar with Scripture you know that that did not last though. What comes next is what is described theologically as the Fall. It’s found in Genesis 2:15-17.

“The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.’”

It says “death” will come upon humanity if disobedience happens. So restoration, if seen through this lens, would be for people to be moved back into right relationship with God. Restoration means, to be sure, a rescue from estrangement from God to life eternal, but also must include the idea of being healed of our brokenness, made whole…having the potential to experience God’s shalom through Jesus Christ.

My hope then, is that people would be restored to that right relationship to God. Or another more straightforward way to say it is, I want to see people become Christ followers. The sad fact is in Western culture we do not see many people become Christians. Not long ago I surveyed 10 or 12 different local pastors and asked them if they had seen any type of conversion growth in their church at all in the last year. I allowed them to define what conversion was in their own terms, whether it was as following Jesus, or getting saved, or converting or some other descriptor. The sobering results, though nonscientific, were that few of them were seeing anyone become Christian. Now, it must be stated that these leaders are some of the strong leaders in our city. They’re the good guys. Trying to do church in a way that reflects Jesus. Yet, none of them were seeing anybody (or at least very few) become Christian. I believe this is endemic in the west. The sobering fact is when we see churches that are growing, though there are exceptions, almost all of them are experiencing what we call “transfer growth.” In missiological circles, we call this “rearranging of the furniture on the Titanic.” If this trajectory continues the church in the west is headed toward obsolesces.

Looping back to the text we just read from II Corinthian’s, Paul makes it clear in verse 14 that “…it is Christ’s love that compels us.”

That really is my story. I became a Christian in my early 20s, but the seven or eight years just prior to that I lived a significantly self-destructive life. When I encountered Jesus, when I realized that I was loved and that there was a purpose in life, it changed everything. I could no longer go on living the way I once did. And, I fervently wanted others to know about this love.

Our love for Jesus inspires us to fulfill our mission. Everyone matters to God. God loves every person who has ever been born. God made some people that I don’t love. I can go further, God made people that I don’t even like. But God loves them. The most dreadful human you can imagine is still loved by God. And because God cares, it follows that we must care as well.

I think the missionary theologian Lesslie Newburgh put it best. He writes,

“Anyone who knows Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior must desire ardently that others should share that knowledge and must rejoice when the number of those who do is multiplied. Where this desire and rejoicing are absent, we must ask whether something is not wrong at the very center of he church’s life.”

We, Immanuel, must resolutely and unapologetically be about the restoration of all people to a right relationship with God, through Jesus Christ.

Peace to each of you!

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"The Church is not to be defined by what it is,

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