Refinding Mondays mission in a Sunday Sociey

So one week I'm driving out of the church parking lot and I go to engage my wife about the weeks message. I start speaking generally about the message only to realize I was going in circles because I had forgotten the main points. In reality, I only caught enough in my memory as I listened to barely even muster a cute platitude. Well I left good enough alone and proceeded to ask where we were eating lunch. After all that is next on the ritual list and something I will remember and tell others all about (even if they don't care).

Has this ever happened to you?

I guess if I wanted to I could have blamed the Pastor for not grabbing my attention, the worship team for not playing the kind of music that prepares me to receive, or even my kids that morning for fighting the whole way to church, but was that really it? Are these true reasons for my lack of Sunday absorption or was there something deeper?
I really had to think about it because it kind of made me sad to think I could come to "church" and leave with nothing more than a a good feeling that would dissipate as soon as I came into contact with Monday morning! What was I missing? Then Paul's words came into my mind,

"For He Who motivated and fitted Peter and worked effectively through him for the mission to the circumcised, motivated and fitted me and worked through me also for [the mission to] the Gentiles."

Galatians 2:8

These two men of God weren't sharing a common ritual or practice, but in fact were sharing the same commander/leader/Lord! Although they're missions were different, they were receiving marching orders from the same King. Am I missing something every Sunday? Is there more to that day than coffee, "fellowship", and some good music and speaking? Where is my mission? Where are my marching orders? I began to see this is what I missed on this particular Sunday and maybe every Sunday before that!

Paul talks many times about the faith and living it out as a soldier. He says of the life of a Disciple of Jesus,

"SO YOU, my son, be strong (strengthened inwardly) in the grace (spiritual blessing) that is [to be found only] in Christ Jesus. And the [instructions] which you have heard from me along with many witnesses, transmit and entrust [as a deposit] to reliable and faithful men who will be competent and qualified to teach others also. Take [with me] your share of the hardships and suffering [which you are called to endure] as a good (first-class) soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier when in service gets entangled in the enterprises of [civilian] life; his aim is to satisfy and please the one who enlisted him."

2 Timothy 2:1-4

I thought it interesting to think about the life of a soldier and I began to realize something, If you ask someone you know about the life of a soldier, I bet you would find someone who has given over their life for a cause and a mission. They no longer belong to themselves, but to the branch of service they have joined.

I think if you watched a soldier in Afghanistan, you would see a person focused on the mission at hand. You would see a person who would walk into a mission briefing ready to absorb the information needed to accomplish the goals set before them. Even more so, I can see them at times checking in through out the mission to verify targets, directions, and any new information since departure.

Can we begin to look at Sunday as a briefing for the week? Can we begin to listen for the objectives for Monday to Saturday with an anticipation for God's mission? Can we be like Paul and Peter knowing our mission?

YES!!

Let's listen, learn, and begin this next week with a soldiers view of mission? What has the King given your General this week? Are you ready to stand in battle with him?

Are you in prayer and reading of God's word for daily field updates? We'll leave that for the next blog :-)

Be blessed!

So this is where I am.........

I have searched over the summer for clarity on what it means to live a life centered on Christ. I've heard from the mystics of Christian culture trying to introduce things of the spiritual past (sometimes sadly mixed with occult teachings), from the traditionalists in the middle just trying to hold on to church as they know it, and the almost gnostic new counter culture of the emergent church. Wow are there a lot of opinions of where the church is and where it's going.
So where have I made my line in the proverbial sand? That's complicated. I think they all have a piece of it. Each position, in my opinion, carries some truths but must face some misdirections in their current formation. What I have found most in my search this summer is the older generation and the traditional form are holding on to something comforting yet not fully relevant to how we communicate today so they throw out the new in the hopes of keeping the known. The younger generation in similar fashion finds the traditional (and for these folks contemporary is included here) to be obtuse, unengaging, and just does not speak to their current life situations. In the need to make a comfortable style, they begin to throw out the old to "make room for the new". The "super spiritual" new mystics are doing neither. The are attempting to strategically pick from scripture to produce a new Christianity entirely! They have deceptively amalgamated a mixture of true Holy Spirit gifting with occult concepts to produce a new spirituality.
This leaves me in a place to believe in spite of all the far reaching extremes, there is a primary conclusion I can come too. The main focus of this Christian life is this...........Christ. My response to an aging generation unsure of this next generations "way of doing things" is can you say it centers Christ as the fix point from where everything comes from? If yes, then add wisdom to their energy and creativity. We need a unique and current model of how to engaged a generation very different from the one Billy Graham faced.
For the younger generation so bent on fordging a way of their own, stop and take stock of the rich history of the church. not that it will all be something that will function in current culture, but you'd be amazed what still does. Realize that your church history didn't start when your Pastor started the church in your city, but 2000 years ago (roughly LOL) and that the discussions, councils, disagreements, and grand achievements are all valuable to us today!
For the Mystics, there is a great reality that we are gifted by the Holy Spirit and empowered to see the Glory of God impact lives. We can believe in the idea that we can see His kingdom come on earth as it is in Heaven without taking dominion of a world by what every means necessary. We can study the Word of God and be filled with all it has without studying from a conference the color and type of Angelic armour. We do not have to make it bigger than it is..........God is big enough on His own merit and word :-)

So I have found we need to:

• Live a life of honouring the moves of God from our history without being held captive to yesterdays methods.

• We can press forward to what God is doing today without losing perspective and the wisdom that came from our yesterday.

• We can live a life of miracles, signs, and wonders empowered by the Holy Spirit without distorting or drawing from imagination without biblical foundation.

Most of all if one thing could be made most important, I would choose LIVE OUT THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN EVERY BREATH, EVERY STEP, AND EVERY THOUGHT. If we are to engage this world, they must see Christ first and then see a person honestly living that life out daily with integrity and compassion!

Be blessed,
This is still just the beginning :-)