This cartoon is from a video clip called "The Parable of the Sea" which you can watch here and we showed today in our Sunday gatherings as part of the sermon. We are in a series at Vintage Faith Church right now about what does a disciple of Jesus look like according to Scripture. It's broken into 3 week segments and we just started part of the series about how mission is a major part of being a disciple. So we are describing mission and what a missional disciple looks like. Not according to tradition. Not according to denominations. Not according to personal preferences of what we feel church or Christians should be like. But according to what we see in Scripture.
The more I am studying and being aware of the "church" at large I realize how easy it is to put tradition, personal preferences, style, and denominations over mission. I am not talking about historic, orthodox theology or doctrines over mission as they actually determine the need for mission. But I am talking about the passion to make changes and do whatever it takes (provided it does not compromise Scripture) for the sake of the gospel of Jesus impacting people's lives. Personal preference, tradition, or denominations are not bad in themselves. Tradition and denominations do have history, richness and beauty to them. But if they get in the way of mission and people's lives being impacted by the gospel - then they no longer are beautiful or rich as they lost their original purpose. They can even be death.
We started the teaching today in the 3 gatherings by reading Scripture when Jesus spoke about Him being the way of experiencing life to the full (John 10). I opened it up for people to share how they have experienced this "life to the full" if they have put faith in Jesus. Incredible stories were shared as they expressed how their values, lives, understanding of God and care for people have changed. I then said how we must never forget that our lives have changed and these beautiful stories because so many do not experience this. As a church on mission we must do whatever possible so others can experience these beautiful ways Jesus gives "life to the full". It is the Spirit of God who does the wooing and convicting of someone's need of Jesus - but we have a part and must never forget of the urgency there is out there. As long as we are not compromising Scripture, then we must never be afraid to make change or break out of systems that bind or prohibit "rescue" (as the video clip uses the metaphor) from happening.
I showed a clip called "Parable of the Sea" as part of the sermon to illustrate this. You can watch it here - and it illustrates the sad story of how the church can forget about our mission. I look forward to the next two Sundays on this topic leading up to Easter Sunday. Jesus came for mission. The resurrection was about mission. Thrilling to think about.
