Mission

Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.

Colossians 4:2-6

The Earliest Call to Follow Jesus was a Call to be "Fishers of Men"

When Jesus began to pull people around Him, He gave a unique set of orders. He didn't say, "Follow me and I'll help you grow"  He didn't say, "Follow me and I'll give you a happy and safe life."  He didn't even promise that people who followed Him would be respected for thier piety and personal holiness.  Instead he said, "Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men."

The call to follow Jesus is not one of Study

The call to follow Jesus is not one of Comfort

The call to follow Jesus is not one of isolated community

The call is to follow Jesus on His mission to reach the lost and broken of the world.

At Church of the Good Shepherd, We Believe that Followers of Jesus Are In Debt to People Wandering Away from Jesus

Romans 1:14-15 says: "I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome."

This obligation (or debt) came about in a unique way. Imagine you gave a friend $50 and asked him to give that $50 to neighbor. If your friend spends the $50 on a new X-Box 360 game, that friend now has a debt ... not to you, but to your neighbor. He might owe you an apology, but he owes the neighbor $50!

The debt we have to the world is to share the Good News of Jesus. We have been given the priviledge of having peace with God through Jesus, and this good news is given to us for the world...for people who are currently wandering away from Jesus. If we don't fall in step with Jesus' mission, the debt we owe to the world increases.

Because of Jesus' clear commands, because of our debt, because the love of God controls us, we will do whatever it takes to follow through with this mission. The mission will define us. The mission will be the adjective that qualifies the nouns of our life and our church. We will be missional.

What does it mean to be missional?

• a church "for" the culture engages the culture in order to transform it.

Bottom-line it means:  We are a church "for" the city/culture/people where God has placed us-Seattle-Lynnwood-Bothell-Snohomish-and through it the world.

Some churches are "of" the culture.  They so embrace the culture that they lose their distinctiveness.

Some churches are "against" the culture.  They so oppose the culture that they lose their relevance.

And some churches are "above" the culture.  They so "super-spiritualize" life that they lose their point of contact.

On the other hand, a church "for" the culture engages the culture in order to transform it.

The following commitments are based on Tim Keller's paper entitled "The Missional Church" (June 2001).

Church of the Good Shepherd's Commitments

1. We resolve to learn and speak the language of our culture.

We resolve to avoid speaking ‘Christianese', 'holy-huddle' talk, pious prayer language, in-house 'jargon', and ‘super-spiritual' talk.

We resolve to avoid technical theological terms, unless we explain them.

We resolve to avoid ‘we-them' language, language that belittles people of different political, spiritual, social positions, or is disrespectful of people who we disagree.

We resolve, instead to engage people by humbly admitting our weaknesses and failures, while demonstrating the joyful difference the Gospel makes.

We resolve never to talk as if non-Christians weren't present.

We resolve to do this not as an out-reach strategy but as the fruit of a Gospel-changed heart.

2. We resolve to sincerely listen to people and their ‘stories'.

We resolve to understand, love and respect them unconditionally, and serve them by showing them how the Gospel meets their deepest longings.

To do this we resolve to have a knowledge and appreciation of the culture's movies, books, music, etc., in order to understand the culture's hopes, dreams, stories, and fears.  So, we can show people that only Jesus can fulfill their greatest desires.

3. We resolve to be a Christian community that is counter-cultural/intuitive.

We resolve to show the world how radically different a Christian society is with regard to relationships, sex, money, and power.

Regarding relationships: We resolve to celebrate diversity and cultivate unity-to radically love each other-so that the world will see the difference Jesus makes.  We resolve when there is conflict we will not just walk away but we will actively work at reconciliation with one another.

Regarding sex: We resolve to avoid the extremes of idolizing sex and fearing sex.  Instead we will hold a glorious view of sex in marriage as a pointer to intimacy with Christ.  We also resolve in regards to people whose sexual lifestyles are different than ours, that we will show love rather than hostility or fear.  

Regarding money: We resolve to be radically generous in our giving of time, money, skills, and relationships to working for social justice and caring for the poor, weak and needy. 

Regarding power: We resolve to share power and build friendships between different races and classes.

We resolve to be more involved in deeds of mercy and social justice than traditional liberal churches and at the same time more involved in evangelism and church planting than traditional conservative churches. 

4. We resolve to live out our Christianity in our work and recreation. 

We resolve to learn together how to think, do, and be distinctively Christian in our work and recreation.

We resolve to learn: a) what in our culture is good and can be enjoyed and celebrated, b) what in our culture is anti-Gospel and must be rejected, and c) what in our culture can be renewed and adapted for good.

We resolve to encourage and celebrate Christians who are advancing the "kingdom of God" in the public square.  

We resolve to show Gospel love and tolerance toward those with whom we strongly disagree with.  One of the biggest criticisms of Christians is that we are intolerant.  But since we are saved by grace, we should be the most humble, tolerant people in society.  And so we resolve to be.

5. We resolve to demonstrate the unity of the church in the world.

We resolve to celebrate what God is doing in other churches, instead of criticizing other churches.

We resolve to develop alliances with other like-minded churches in order to serve our city together.

We resolve, beyond that, to cooperate and develop meaningful relationships even with congregations much different than us.  Although this will raise some areas of tension, we will continue to head in the direction of cooperation.