This early morning I had the wonderful privilege of enjoying a quiet drizzly morning at my favorite park. Since summer is quickly approaching, I realize this may be the last time in the next several months that I’ll have this experience. As I walked in the near silence, small details grabbed my attention. An older […]
During our visit to Huntington Beach, I noticed this very small cluster of sand, perhaps the remnants of a footprint. The silhouette cast by the setting sun made it look like a miniature castle. Moments after this photo, it was gone, swept away by the waves. James 4:13-15 states, “Now look here, you people who […]
Easter 2020. Because of COVID-19, the places we would normally see and hear the joyous signs of Easter are vacant and silent. Freeways are virtually empty of travelers. Churches, normally filled with exuberant worship and preaching, are closed. Parks are empty of children playing and families celebrating. But just like the large stone sealing Jesus’ […]
Could you enlighten me a little more on the meaning or rather your understanding of missional community – does this extend to worship – ie…do we see our worship as missional? We are just starting to wrestle with this in my community – check us out at http://www.sparlingexperience.blogspot.com
Hi Scott. Simply put, a missional community is a group of people who have made it their life priority to be Jesus’ apprentices — becoming by grace what he is by nature. By doing so, we enter into the mission of God as depicted throughout the Old Testament narratives and freshly and fully climaxed in Jesus. As Jesus’ apprentices, we are sent just as Jesus was sent. This means far more than just missional activity. It means we are to continue Jesus’ incarnation as his his body on earth.
In that light, everything we do should increasingly flow from what we are becoming as Jesus’ apprentices. This would embrace worship along with every aspect of life. Jesus was engaged in his Father’s mission before he was baptized and released into public ministry. Jesus was as much engaged in his Father’s mission while eating or sleeping as he was when actually doing missional activity. That’s because mission is first and foremost incarnation — being God’s presence on earth. It’s definitely more than that, but not less than that. Because from being God’s presence, a missional community should also be demonstrating and announcing God’s presence as well.
So I would say worship is missional, not necessarily as an activity to primarily “do” mission (although that’s possbile). It’s missional because it is part of the overall embodiment of God’s presence on earth through his people and thereby it is part of the spiritual formation of God’s people and eventually fuels various forms of missional activity.
I remember hearing a pastor say it this way: You know you’ve worshipped not because you had an emotional or intimate time with God. Rather, you know you’ve worshipped because you emerge from that intimate time in God’s presence and started feeding the poor and loving people with God’s love.