5 Reasons the Mission of God is Indispensable for our Church Life

Thinking further about the missional nature of God, we discover through the sweeping redemptive arc of the biblical narrative, the story of our culture, the story of our self, and the story of our faith communities that the mission of God:

1. Gives us a dream.  God includes us in his dream for the world.  We are invited into and commanded to be about God’s will to redeem humanity and the world and its freedom from every oppressive situation. Or, as I sometimes say, to restore the world to its intended wholeness.
2. Brings focus.  Staying attentive to the mission of God requires that we keep our hearts focused on God and not the material concerns that can often keep us from seeing God as a God-for-people.
3. Relieves the pressure to produce.  When we let God’s dream for a whole world reign in our priorities for action, we concern ourselves with our faithfulness first rather than our productivity.  What if our absolute best intentions aren’t enough?  Does that mean we weren’t effective?  Where does our faithfulness to the mission of God fit in to the equation of “success”?  The world isn’t ours to win, it’s God’s.
4. Provides the structure for participating. Look around.  Can you see God at work?  If not, look again.  If so, how are you joining in what God is already doing?  No need to scurry around and look for something to do, it is right in front of you.  What is right in front of you?  God’s will to redeem the world is right in front of you.
5. The mission is the message.  The mission of God provides the freedom to take hold of God’s hope and healing through repentance and conversion.  There is not a need to create your own message. The message of the mission has already been given to us . . . “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

What other reasons might you give to the indispensability of the mission of God in our church life?