Lately I've felt the need to cast vision for The Mission. We've founded this house church on being the church, not attending a church. We've called ourselves "The Mission" because we want to always be reminded that we are missionaries, and that we have a mission.
But, how are we, in practical ways, living out this calling to be in the world but not of it? How are we actually carrying out Jesus' commands to love our neighbor as ourselves or to go as far as to love our enemies?
I've realized that we need to start in the center of our lives and live out our faith in concentric circles of compassion and love for others.
First, we need to spend time purposefully learning to love and to serve and to bless our own family members. We need to show them love in very real and sincere ways. Not in any programmatic fashion, mind you, but slowly, intentionally building a habit of ongoing service and demonstrated compassion to those closest to us.
Next, we need to add to this the practice of loving our brothers and sisters in Christ. Here in the Mission, as well as other Christians in our area. We need to actively, pursposefully, develop an ongoing habit of loving our brothers and sisters in Christ.
After this, we can begin to love our actual neighbors. Those people who live next door, and across the street from us. We need to learn to listen to others. To value them as human beings. It's like learning to relate to other humans as another human being, not as a Christian.
Once we've begun this process, maybe then we can work together to demonstrate the love of Jesus to the poor among us and in our community. The homeless. The elderly. The forgotten. The children with cancer in the hospitals around us.
In the past, I've centered much of my focus on starting with the poor and the broken and the forgotten. This is good, but if we do not first learn to become people who know how to love others, we're wasting our time.
It's like when Jesus says we need to become good trees so that we can bear good fruit. Sometimes we think it's the other way around, that if we bear good fruit we'll become good trees. Jesus is clear that we must first be transformed from within, by His Spirit and His Love before we can have that fruit in our lives.
He is vine, we are the branches. We need to start at our own roots and learn to love our family, our co-workers, our neighbors, our poor.
This is my vision for The Mission in 2007.
Please Lord Jesus, help us to follow You in this process of becoming more loving. Transform us into Your image by the power of Your Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Keith
http://www.keithgiles.com
