Being the Church: Are We A Dynamic Bridge to the World?

In the adult Sunday School Class I teach, we finished a study on the book of Joshua.  I called it:  Joshua: Leading Into the Promised Land, back in 2009. Because my church is seeking to be dismissed from our denomination, and will be doing that this month in January, 2011, I have seen this study through the lens of this process of seeking dismissal. 

In a previous blog post, I talked about how the crossing of the Jordan River was a missional statement to the entire world.  In Joshua Chapter 4, verses 23-24, we read:

 For the Lord your God dried up the waters of the Jordan before you until you had crossed, just as the Lord your God had done to the Red Sea, which He dried up before us until we had crossed; that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord is mighty, so that you may fear the Lord your God forever. 

In reading of this event in the book of Joshua, I realized that my own church’s “crossing the Jordan” is not JUST about the membership of our church.   There are many people who are not members of our church who depend on the community ministries God has called us to provide.  These range from child and adult day care, to K – 7th grade school, to language training for Burmese refugees, to sports ministry outreach, to global missions. 

With that in mind, my son and I spoke with church leaders about a year ago and asked about video taping some of these people to ask them what the ministries of our church mean to them.  Here is one of a man named Tony who participates in our men’s basketball ministry:

Tony and the other ball players are thankful about the ministry that the community of believers at my church have provided. Additionally, notice how he talks about the spiritual blessing that he, as non-church goer, receive from the ministries of my church.  This, I believe, is from God.  Our ministries are not the work of this or that individual (regardless of how important key individuals might be), but are a result of God’s Spirit working through a community of believers. Without a community consecrated to the work of the Lord, such ministries are simply not possible.

And, if there is no foundational sense of community, then individuals will go their own way and create fractures in these ministries. 

In Chapter 6 of Joshua, God instructs that no one may take anything from the destroyed city of Jericho for their own personal use.  As a community, all Israel promised to obey this command.  But one person, a man named Achan, violated this command.  Joshua Chapter 7 provides a lesson when the unity of a covenant community is broken.  That lesson is this:  If even one man sins and breaks the covenant, the entire community is affected.  When Israel had consecrated themselves and followed the commands of God, they met with great success.  But when one man broke that covenant, Israel’s initial battle with the city of Ai failed miserably. 

As we go forward in this effort, I think the study of the Book of Joshua raises this important question:  Do we have a community of believers united, consecrated and on their knees before God in prayer?  Or, are we a bunch of people who worship in the same building in several different services scattered on Sunday?

Like Tony in the video, there are many who are watching to see if we are “walking the talk.”  On the weekend when we held the vote to leave the PCUSA, we held a prayer vigil before, during and after the vote process.   This year, we’re beginning a discipleship program.

Whether it is my church or any other, I think it is important to ask one’s self “What does it mean to be a member of MY local congregation?”  Hold your pastors, your church elders and other leaders in your church accountable to lead the flock into a conversation about what this means.  As a leader in my church, I desire that accountability. 

When I taught my class on Joshua: Leading Into the Promised Land, one of the books I used was Gene Getz’s “Joshua: Defeat to Victory.”  One of the insightful lessons he provides in discussing Joshua 6 is that God has 5 dimensions to His missionary strategy.  Getz writes:

The first dimension is “being”.  What “we are” as a local body of believers is foundational to having an effective missionary outreach into our local community.  “Being” what Christ commanded and prayed for in John’s Gospel should serve as a dynamic bridge to the world.  Our love for one another (John 13:34, 35), bearing the fruit of righteousness (see John 15:8), and unity (see John 17:20-23) all attract non-Christians, first to us, and then to Jesus Christ, the One who has made us what we are.  In many respects this was also God’s plan for the nation Israel in the Old Testament.

Israel understood that its entrance into the Promised Land was a response to God’s missional calling on their lives.  They spent time to consecrate themselves, to be intentional about what they were doing, and to be united in response to God’s calling to reach out to the world around them.

And now, as then, God is inviting us to respond to that timeless call.

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Do you have a Bible Study that’s looking for new material?  Consider Think Like Jesus, Lead Like Moses: Leadership Lessons from the Wilderness Crucible You can find it at http://www.wisejargon.com/thinklead.htm

 

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