1. FOCUS: The missional objective towards "all peoples" needs to be a continual mantra.
Without such the church will gravitate to a mono cultural missional ghetto objective (confit itself for cosiness, preserved in its own fat) or split into factions of missional priorities for different groupings (be several mono cultural factions working disparately).
We are called together to work together in different ways: The way of unity (Eph 4) is the way of diversity in the mission of Christ - this is how we maintain the unity of the saints and live "all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:28) by pointing to His Lordship and the majesty of His rule and provision.
2. TRAINING A TEAM: Future leaders are to be viewed and trained both through the lens of local maintenance and scattering expansion.
It is tempting when leadership is reliant on ourselves or a small group to gravitate towards any who show maturing faith as prospective leaders with willingness to take on ministry responsibility. Intentionality to train in leadership objectives which see the spread of the gospel to unreached areas and other people groups however is key. Without this the passions of future leaders (and their sign up to suffering and sacrifice) cannot be tested. The least this will produce is an understanding of who is naturally more" cut out" or "wired" for static leadership sacrifice in one locality for an extended period, and those who are geared for mobile expansion sacrifice and a scattering pioneering team ministry.
Some leaders will be a natural fit for a slow change and indigenous contexts of (slower) organic growth. Flexibility and sacrifice will be demanded in both contexts, but in different ways. One will sacrifice all that is known in comfort, the other the freedom to leave and be more flexible. The two needs/ types of leadership run parallel however when we are training a team for the future. If we only have static leadership settling into a community groove, the church becomes intransigent and immobile (early chapters of ACTS), but it we only has mobile leadership (evangelism, and flexibility to go creatively with the gospel, without life on life discipleship, discipline and leadership) the church never sinks deeper routes for sustainable growth. We need both, but characters may fall more naturally into one camp or the other. Balance comes from keeping unity together in mission. In the dream team all people can be (maturely) all things to all peoples.
3. OBJECTIVES AND INDUSTRY: The program of the church needs to have explicit and agreed intentional missional objectives and priorities. In short, new workers and ministries need to know what they are signing up for and fit in with God given priorities and objectives which are good for the role community and the development of scattering. Without this each new person who joins will have their own ministry passions and gifting and will gravitate towards what they love to do, without change. This may initially not seem a bad thing, we are instinctively ready to accommodate any who want to serve and lead in gospel industry, especially in an emerging frontier context, but if every new influential worker dedicates their attention to their own passions, the joint missional objectives and critical ministry areas for the good of the wider church and witness may easily be lost. Ultimately the worker will become frustrated at best as their ministry becomes isolated or under supported, and dissonant at worst as they tug at resources and lobby for priority. This is particularly true when so many ministries are up and running that the program is full, demanding and draining for the people of God. (This is what we may consider as the season of sustaining growth/ or what PLD often call the "awkward" staged church) . We are talking about the pivotal juncture when growth momentum is severely tested.
A critical point will be reached whereby the objectives need to return to common goals and rationalisation for expansive mission and the planting in other locations and cultures. At this point the unity may shatter if people are ultimately prioritising / living for selfish rather than united goals in Christ. Personal passion must submit to the greater submission of the good of the new community, and dreams for the gospel must be formulated by Christ, His kingdom, and the global good of gospel expansion.
4. STICKABILITY AND MATURITY: Pioneer and frontier stations (0.00% Christianity) by nature attract pioneering and creative believers. The same readiness which called them to your situation can easily call them away again or to another mission station when times get more tough and the season is primarily one of sustainability not initiation. Many frontier situations can often have a very small leadership team even as disciples grow in their hundreds. This is not sustainable or duplicatable, especially if some of that leadership group decide to go elsewhere for the mission of God, either for good reason (calling) or because they struggle with responsibility (and inevitable wisdom calls/ tensions) as leaders of a maturing new community. Any mission director or leader worth their salt spots the red flag of a mission worker who transports between contexts (like Star Trek transportation without a vapour) without displaying some growth in responsibility or maturity in stickability.
It may be an over generalisation, but this tension seems particularly true for those with an individualistic understanding of calling and the leading of the Holy Spirit which we might very loosely (lazily/ simplistically) call a "charismatic understanding." of missional calling. This is the idea that God can "hotline" call me to something without anyone else being party to what God is saying or be needed to confirm its wisdom or legitimately in gifting, timing, or appropriateness. Whereas those from a more conservative background may show a disobedience in their slowness to listen to a call, to go and get working / stuck into faith driven pioneering mission in the first place, those who individualise ministry and mission conversely may be quick to leave for "another perceived calling of The Spirit" and not stick the course to which they felt "called". In reality those most fruitfully called to apostolic like frontiers are very deep into accountability with mature missional leadership and accountability. A word of warning however - established church networks ("denominations") may miss this missional calling due to their intransigent missional trajectory.
Of course both perspectives (the wayward pioneer and the lazy Jonah disciple slow to "go") show an immature understanding of The Spirit at work in the people of Christ and the biblical global mission of God. One is slow to trust the immensity and flexibility of His power to sustain us and equip us for His purposes, and the other minimises His Lordship over our own perspective. Both extremes limit sensitivity to other believers in the frontier context who are living obediently, in accordance with the revolutionary gospel of love (John 13:35).
He unites us into one faith, one baptism, one Lord. Christ is the head of the church, and we are there to submit to His Lordship, objectives with mutual submission to other believers in that context. What HE reveals to us is never at odds with others who submit to His word (bible) which He also inspired and will never contradict. The same Spirit who gives us wisdom in scripture, gives others around us to test our understanding of our calling, gifting and purpose in the body. Clear missional separations / divisions (ACTS 15:36-39) can happen by His calling. My conscience and biblical reading however is that these are rare rather than the norm. Our encouragement in these verses/ instances is that Christ's Lordship and wisdom is bigger even than these things which are so unsettling and confusing to us.
Summary:
MOTIVES and OBJECTIVES MATTER: Many church plants seem to reach a pivotal (tipping) point in these things regardless of whether in frontier or more (safe) established contexts. The issue is always one of ultimate goal and both what the core team and body of new community have signed up for in the first place. We live for His kingdom and not our own.
It is therefore imperative that the original goal expressed (to be a biblical church which makes disciples who make disciples, and plants churches which plant churches in accordance with the global gospel mandate for all peoples (including unreached peoples)) remains the initial, primary and continuing objective. It is then clear that if people leave (to start another missional objective) they have done so on the basis of personal preference / instinct, or indeed it is The Spirit's leading (and they can be affirmed, supported, encouraged and appropriately sent by the church.)
BROKENNESS HAPPENS, BUT GOD IS BIGGER: Those who leave missional contexts on any unhelpful indivudalistic and disruptive basis hurting the church deeply, need to know that the principles and objectives of biblical mission and corporate unity in diversity are still the same. God's unchangeable objectives and character mean that in all these things we build on the faithful rock and foundation of who He is. We are prayerfully committed to doing our very best under his prompting and biblical wisdom, knowing that He is above, around and working through all macro and micro minutiae his perfect purposes without fail.
(Gen 2:1, Deut 32:4. John 1:3. Rev 1:8, 22:13, John 17:4. Phil 1:6, Col 2:10, James 1:4)|
ACTS 20:24
But
Praying for healthy, mature church leadership teams in frontier contexts, which will be the means to overspill His grace to all peoples and other unreached contexts.
No comments:
Post a Comment