Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy that was set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Hebrews 12:1-2 (NIV)

As we consider what means to be a missional church, I want to ensure that we do not deviate from the foundation of all that God is building, our cornerstone Jesus Christ. It is important that we keep our eyes fixed on Jesus and regularly examine ourselves and all that we do to ensure that nothing distracts, entangles or hinders us in our mission.

I have taken much of these thoughts from Alan Hirsch and his book on mission “The Forgotten Ways”. He very helpfully focusses on the Lordship of Jesus as central to church mission and says:

God is ONE and the task of our lives is to bring every aspect of our lives, communal and individual, under this One God, Yahweh.[1]

Hirsch speaks about Christian movements that have seen incredible growth and concludes that “at the centre and circumference of every significant Jesus movement there exists a very simple confession ….. “Jesus is Lord!”.”[2] We need to start here; everything that we do must be in the context of the Lordship of Christ

The Israelites lived in a culture of polytheism – many gods. Gods of the fields, gods of the rivers, gods of fertility, gods of war, etc.,  each having to one approached in their own differing way. It was a very superstitious world. In the midst of this Yahweh revealed himself as one God. He is the God of all creation, sovereign over all kings and rulers. Israel therefore had only one deity to worship who was Lord over everything, Yahweh.

When God came to earth as man, in his son Jesus Christ, this did not change this monotheistic truth. There is one God and he is Lord. Jesus is Lord. When the early church proclaimed “Jesus is Lord” they were declaring the sovereignty of Jesus over every area of their life and we themselves standing against the same polytheistic culture but the gods in their time were different gods, the Greco-Roman gods of Venus, Diana, Apollo etc. The Roman conquerors let each of the conquered nations keep their religion and gods, as long as they declared that Caesar was lord over all, he was after all their conqueror. However the Christians refused to submit to this, and the declaration from Christians that Jesus is Lord became subversive and effectively undermined Caesar which led to great persecution

We today need to submit to the declaration that Jesus is Lord. The gods that we come against are again different for our time and culture, but still very real. Gods of wealth and consumerism, individualism, relativism etc.  Are we willing to place the Lordship of Christ over everything? No sacred and secular divide in our lives, but everything under the rule and reign of Jesus. Bosch says that the rule and reign of God is “undoubtedly central to Jesus’ entire ministry” and that God’s reign is the “starting point and context for mission”[3]. We must keep Jesus central in our lives and in our church, as the reign of Jesus is indeed the context for all of our mission.

Our church vision statement starts with the words “As passionately involved disciples…”. We are disciples of Jesus passionately in love with Him and caught up in His mission. A final quote from Hirsch which says:

At its very heart, Christianity is therefore a messianic movement, one that seeks to consistently embody the life, spirituality and mission of its Founder. We have made it so many other things, but this is its utter simplicity. Discipleship, becoming like Jesus our Lord and Founder, lies at the epicentre of the church’s task. It means that Christology must define all that we do and say. It also means that in order to recover the ethos of authentic Christianity, we need to refocus our attention back to the Root of it all, to recalibrate ourselves and our organisations around the person and work of Jesus the Lord.[4]

David Bareham