Mission: Incarnation, Practice, Hurting, Healing and Learning
About the Series
Throughout the past three weeks, we have been exploring and beginning a conversation around Mission. Tonight we will offer some space to reflect and discuss ideas from the whole series. Next week we will pick up in the Gospel of Mark in parallel with the Sunday teaching.
In this short series on Mission, the five areas of focus were incarnation, practice, hurting, healing, and learning.
Let’s review the first three topics:
Mission as Incarnation. God did mission “incarnationally” through Jesus, the Word made flesh. Jesus had a body and a job, lived in a family and had a group of imperfect friends. He took care of the sick, fed people, welcomed strangers into relationship, and taught curious minds. He did great things, but as a body, he was also inherently limited. Jesus was the first “missio,” or sending. The Holy Spirit was the second missio. The Holy Spirit was also sent into a “body”—a group of real people, like you and I, the body of Christ. And so, the Church is also inherently limited. But this is a gift. This is the counterintuitive way of the Kingdom.
Mission as Practice. We are the Body of Christ, the “Incarnational Mission of God,” but we are also very much not Jesus. We are the Body of Christ to the world, but that doesn’t mean we are any good at it. We are disciples, life-long learners. We are invited to begin where we are, engaging in events that serve as practice. The Practice of Mission is the intentional decision to set aside our own comforts and preferences to engage with and receive others with humility and compassion, ready to demonstrate the kingdom of God and share its availability.
Mission as Hurting. Part of this short series is naming where mission has been harmful. Short-term missions efforts have far-too-often marginalized the very people that we intend to serve. We tend to resort to Western solutions to fix global problems. Sometimes that causes more harm than good. Teams come and projects start, but then they leave and never return. In reimagining short-term missions, we must embrace relationship as the primary marker of success. Efforts must embrace the culture, wisdom, and skills of local communities. We are to come and see God already present and at work in local communities. We are to witness God through the eyes of somebody else. With that lens, prioritizing mutual relationship, any projects will be more long term, locally led, and sustainable.
This Week’s Sermon recap
This week’s focus calls our attention to reimagine short term Mission as Learning and Healing:
Mission as Learning. When we engage in mission it can be easy to assume that we are the experts and that “they” need us. But that is simply not true. We need those we serve—whether that’s to learn how to shop for groceries or to learn about God in a way we never could on our own. Our discipleship is tied to one another. A question to ask is: Do I believe others have something to show me about the gospel? We all, missionary and “mission field,” together rely on God to be our teacher and savior. As we do, we often learn profound things about God through the eyes, culture, and life of those very different from us.
Mission as Healing. There exists a transformative power in sharing our losses and hardships in the context of mission. Through vulnerability, we minister to one another, allowing God to be ultimate the agent of healing. Like “Doubting Thomas,” Jesus invites us to “stick our fingers” in our pain. Paradoxically, this can pave the way toward restoration. As Katie said, “By witnessing one another’s pain, we are healed and can believe again.”
Practice for Tonight
Let’s work through the following questions together:
What stood out to you from this week’s message on Mission as Learning or Mission as Healing?
What has stayed with you from the previous Sunday’s teachings on Mission as Incarnation and Practice and/or Mission as Hurting?
Are there any connections within your own life experiences of Mission that you’d feel comfortable sharing to acknowledge hurt, seeking forgiveness, need of healing, or lamenting that have come to surface from these teachings?
How might God be calling you to respond to this reframing of mission?
(Leaders: In closing your time, you may wish to read through John 20:24-25 together. Give 2-3 minutes for members to offer any thoughts or questions to the group (allow these to be spoken aloud without offering fixes or answers).
We are going to close in prayer. Let’s take a few minutes to offer prayers of gratitude and petition.
Practice for the Week
This week, set aside some time to reflect, pray, and mediate on one or more of the focus points below. You may wish to journal or write down any thoughts or scriptures that come to mind throughout your week as God speaks to you.
Ideas for reflection from the series:
God promises us, He will never leave us empty
God reminds us that He will fill us in unexpected ways through the faith and friendship of unexpected people
The faith of the global church will shape us if we let it
How is God inviting you to believe again in or embrace mission?
