Community and Mission result from doing what Jesus says
The title of this post comes from a great blog post by Felicity at “Simply Church: A House Church Perspective.” Her article is called “Mission versus community? 3 random thoughts.”
Lately, Felicity has been writing about both community and mission from the perspective of simple or organic church, and this article falls within that context.
Her three “thoughts” are all very good, but I want to focus on the third “thought”:
Both community and mission should result from listening to Jesus and doing what he says. Jesus lived in community with his disciples–they shared the ups and downs of everyday life together. Â But Jesus was compelled by love–the heart of the Godhead–to reach out to the world.
When I read the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ life, I can’t help but notice exactly what Felicity points out. Jesus demonstrated both community and mission, and he taught the importance of both mission and community.
When we look at our lives, we should see both community and mission. If not, then we are either not listening to what Jesus says, or we are not living what Jesus taught.
Of course Jesus’ reached “out to the world” in his ultimate mission to sacrifice his life to save us all. On a daily basis, however, I get the impression that he simply reached out to the person immediately within reach.
Alan Hirsch talks about “communitas” vs “community” as different kind of group. A “communitas” would be a “community on a mission”(you can see some explanation here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETN67tbrvX4)
and I think he got a point here.
Chris,
Yes. I think our community and mission should start with those closest to us… i.e., the people immediately within reach.
Tommy,
Thanks. I’ll look at Hirsch’s article.
-Alan