The Rhythm of Mission

It’s good to be with you this afternoon. I’m so glad to be here and worship with all of you. I think this is my first message here since I graduated, finished theology and started professional ministry. But look, I’m the same person, the same Jeremy.

What I really want us to capture today is the idea of mission as a church. One thing that’s been on my heart a lot lately is that mission isn’t something we turn on and off. Mission is our whole life, and each of us has a unique sphere of influence that no one else can touch. Often we look at people in professional ministry and think, these are the guys we pay to do ministry. But that isn’t the vision God has for the church, and it isn’t the vision Jesus had for his bride. Jesus saw the church as a dynamic movement filled with missionaries who would go out and make disciples wherever they go.

I hope I can leave you with something meaningful that helps you think bigger about what church is and what church can be, and that you’d see God wants to do something more than what we have right now. Let’s start by reading the text. I hope it reinforces what the children’s story already shared with us. Acts 17, verses 16 to 23, from the New International Version.

While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.

Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we would like to know what they mean.” (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.)

Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.”

— Acts 17:16–23

Father in heaven, you are a God on mission. We know that because you sent Jesus as an apostle into our world. Jesus was the first missionary, who shared the good news of the gospel and revealed a way of life that was abundant and filled with love. And you didn’t stop there. You gave that same calling to us, to go and make disciples wherever we go. I pray that we would be a church on mission today. May we think bigger and grander, and know that you are up to something in our midst. You are moving, because you are a way maker. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Church as an airport

My family and I travelled a fair bit when I was growing up. As you travel you see different sites and scenes and buildings, but one thing I really enjoy is checking out different airports. Airports are places of transit. You stop by, spend time waiting for your flight, and then move on to the next destination. There’s a big variety of airports, and two come to mind from opposite ends of the spectrum.

The first is Broome Airport, in the north-west of Australia. It looks more like an RACV caravan park. It has one cafe, or maybe just a vending machine, one runway, and a pickup bag section. It’s pretty ghetto and doesn’t have much going for it. You don’t want to spend too much time there.

On the other hand, you have Changi Airport, in Singapore. (I’m sure there are some patriotic people smiling there, thinking, my country is so good, it creates such good airports. Just kidding.) The airport is very futuristic. It has a waterfall, I don’t know why, but it looks cool. It has a garden, slides for the kids, massages, showers and places to sleep. You could stay in Changi Airport for a fair while.

But even though Changi does everything it can to be a place people want to travel through, it would be weird if they said, “Come stay with us. We’re the destination. Make us your home. Live in the hotel for a week.” Airports don’t serve that purpose. An airport is a place of temporary arrival and ongoing sending. And I want to suggest today that perhaps church should be seen like an airport.

Imagine if church was known not by how many people come to our church, or how many we seat, but by how many people we send for God’s mission. Sometimes we get fixated on how many people show up to our events and programs. I get it. It feels really good seeing people there, worshipping every Sabbath and singing songs. It’s a good feeling to have a full house. But Jesus didn’t care much about the crowds. People were drawn to him, yes, but he spent more time with the few than the many, because he knew that in the few there would be multiplication into the many.

I want us to capture the idea that church isn’t a building, a place, a program or something we attend. It’s a community of people living life together for God’s mission, disciples who make other disciples. That’s at the heart of what the church is all about.

I’ve been particular about the language I use for church. You can call me politically correct, but for me it’s a big deal. We often say, “I’m going to church today,” or “I’m just going to the church to pick something up,” or “We’re in Sabbath school now, and then we’ll go to church for the next hour.” That language doesn’t capture what church is. Church is a dynamic movement of missionary disciples who, whether gathered or scattered, bring the kingdom of God wherever they go. It isn’t about attending an event or a program. It’s about being missionaries. It’s a 24/7 thing, seven days a week, not a two-hour thing each weekend.

Synagogue and marketplace

I believe Paul captures this really well in Acts 17. He reaches out to people who are very different from him. In verses 16 and 17 he’s waiting in Athens, greatly distressed to see the city full of idols, so he reasons in the synagogue and in the marketplace day by day. Paul is the kind of person who can’t sit around and do nothing. He’s proactive. He’s provoked by the idolatry all around him. He reasons with the Jews in the synagogue, but notice he doesn’t stay there. He goes into the marketplace and reasons with Greeks and Gentiles, an environment where people don’t share a common language, experience or belief system with him, where there’s a range of competing ideas and he can’t use religious language so much anymore.

What that shows me is that Paul doesn’t see mission as something he switches on and off. Mission is his whole life. Whether he’s waiting or in active ministry, he always has a mindset of mission, looking around and asking, “What can I do to share the love of Jesus?”

I was once asked, “Life is so busy. Church programs are so busy. Family is so busy. How do I add mission to my life when so much is going on already?” I thought about that, and here’s what I realised. If mission is something we switch on and off, it will always be one more thing. But mission isn’t something we add to our lives. It’s a reorientation of our minds for the things we’re already doing.

Three spaces

We have three spaces in our lives: our family, our workspace (or study space), and our community space, which might be hobbies like rock climbing, mountain biking or soccer. In these three spaces we’re rubbing shoulders with people and connecting with them.

Here’s a confession. My fellow pastors and I don’t have a workspace where we rub shoulders with people who don’t know Jesus. Our workspace is sitting around cafes talking to other pastors. (Just kidding. We do more than that.) But for most of you, I’m very jealous, because you spend more time at work than in any other space, apart from sleep. That’s a unique opportunity to share Jesus and make disciples.

That’s why I’m a big believer that the church needs to get out of the mindset that we just come to an event, attend something, and then life is good. I’m sick of going through the motions of church and religion, showing up and doing the same thing over and over. There’s nothing wrong with gathering. It’s important. But we need to think bigger. Church is more than a building, a place or a program. We need to engage in mission at all times and reorient what we’re already doing.

There’s a book I love by Sean Brayton, The Table I Long For. It says:

Making disciples is not about putting any additional stuff into your schedule. It’s about simply being intentional about what you’re already doing. It’s about being aware that as you go you are inevitably making disciples, and choosing to be intentional about making disciples in the image of Jesus.

“As you go, make disciples.” That’s how you can translate the Great Commission. In the Greek, “go” in “go into all the world and make disciples of all nations” is a participle, which means it’s continuous. A better translation is “as you go, make disciples of all nations.” Mission and discipleship aren’t something we add to our lives. We can be missionaries right now, in the spaces God has put us. God has put you in a unique space for a specific reason. You have a unique fingerprint that no one else has. I think it’s God’s little way of saying, “You can touch the world in a way no one else can.” You have a unique sphere of influence that nobody else can reach.

So often we divide our lives into the sacred, the synagogue, and the secular, the marketplace, when in reality all of our lives should be sacred and part of God’s domain. God is just as interested in your Mondays as he is in your Saturdays. Don’t make church something you switch off. Live your whole life for the kingdom of God.

The word “church” appears 114 times in the New Testament, and never once does it refer to a building. Every time, it refers to people. The church isn’t an “it.” It’s us. We don’t go to church. We are the church. My friend Marcos Torres writes in his book Hidden, which really opened my mind about the church:

We are no longer living as disciple makers, missionaries and ambassadors, or a kingdom of priests leading all within our reach to an encounter with the heart of God. Instead, we live as members of spiritual clubs that promise to cater to our needs with well-designed, well-executed programs and events.

We make church a program we go to once a week, and when it’s a program there’s no need to live missionally at all. We become spiritual consumers who feed off the next program, and nothing changes in our lives. We need to get out of that consumeristic mindset where it’s all about what the church can feed us. There are people God has placed in our communities and spheres of influence that we’re called to bless, to share the love of Jesus with, and to engage with respectfully.

You might say, “Jeremy, there’s no one in the spaces I have.” But even when it feels like there’s nothing there, God is up to something. Think of Paul, in an environment so different from his and so far from the gospel.

Athens and Melbourne

Two schools of thought are mentioned in Athens. The Epicureans believed the primary purpose of life was pleasure. They believed gods existed, but not that those gods were active in the world. The Stoics were the opposite: anti-emotion, all about self-control, and very pantheistic, with God in everything. Paul is standing among people who don’t share a single assumption about reality with him. And I believe Athens is quite similar to Melbourne, a marketplace of ideas and beliefs, in a very post-Christian world. Here’s a bit of history on why.

• The premodern era, the age of the cathedral. The answers to life were found in the institution of the church. People went to the clergy for answers, and truth was believed to be found in religion. But that led to a lot of spiritual abuse and injustice. Think of the Crusades. In the name of God, people killed.
• The modern era, the age of science. In reaction, people said maybe the problem is religion, and if we cast it out and find answers in science, we can build a better place. Science did result in a lot of good, with advances in medicine and technology. But it also produced weapons of mass destruction, like the atomic bomb.
• The postmodern, post-Christian era. Religion has failed and science has failed, so maybe the problem is truth claims altogether. Maybe the problem is the arrogance of believing there’s absolute truth. Most people today don’t believe truth is objective. It’s a subjective construction you develop on your own terms.

That’s why around 50% of people in Melbourne now say they have no religion or are secular, and that percentage keeps increasing. The church no longer has the authority on truth in society. But the text we read gives me hope. Even when it feels like there are no bridges to engage the culture, God has a way, and Paul had a way.

In verse 22 he stands up and says, “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown God.’” He studies the culture by walking around and learning its beliefs. And look what he doesn’t do. He doesn’t condemn. We often do that as Christians. We look at the news and say, “These people are so anti-God.” There may be validity in that, but it’s not what Paul does. He’s provoked by the idolatry, but he begins with a compliment: “I see that in every way you are very religious.” He looks for common ground.

You don’t reach people by starting with condemnation. You look around and see where God’s fingerprints are already active in people’s lives. Here’s a definition of evangelism: evangelism is participating in a conversation the Holy Spirit is already having with someone. God is already working on people’s hearts and already talking with them, and you join hands with what he’s doing. It isn’t about having the most convincing arguments or knowing everything. We don’t draw people to Christ by discrediting what they believe and telling them how wrong they are and how right we are. We show them a light of God so lovely that they want to spend their whole lives knowing its source.

Investing in one

Jesus knew how to build bridges. He goes to the woman at the well, someone he has no common ground with whatsoever, and starts talking about water, about living water, and uses that as a bridge to engage with her. He sees her as a person of peace, someone whose heart the Holy Spirit has already prepared, and by investing in this one person he reaches a whole Samaritan village. Jesus could have spent his time with the crowds. He was attractive, and people came to listen to him teach. Instead, he decided to invest in one person. We multiply into many as a church by investing in one. Don’t underestimate the power of a single conversation. By being present with someone, you can open up gateways of new possibilities.

Paul speaks their language. He starts with something they can agree on, a divine being who brings order to the world and brings things into existence. What’s notable about his speech is that he never quotes Scripture once. It’s infused through his language and it shapes his theology, but the only thing he quotes is one of their pagan poets. That’s Paul looking for the fingerprints of God in their culture, and speaking in a way that means something to them. When I say speak their language, I’m not saying water down the truth. I’m saying contextualise the truth in a way people understand. Look at the doctrines the church believes, and see how those truths can be contextualised for the people you meet every day.

I believe we all have the same calling. We often look at pastors and think, they have a special calling that’s different from mine. While I believe there’s a calling on my life, I believe we all ultimately share one calling, found in Matthew 28:19–20: “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” That’s the general calling. There are specific ways it’s fulfilled. For some of us it might be working as a church leader. For others it might be teaching, or being an optometrist or a radiographer. I know a fair few of your occupations. If you go to work, use it as a space to make disciples. If you go to uni, use that as a space. There’s so much power in that.

Addition and multiplication

I want to finish with an illustration of the power of multiplying disciples. I called two people up to the front. One preaches and runs evangelistic seminars, speaking to many people. The other isn’t one to preach to thousands but is very good at building relationships. (This is only an analogy. I’m talking about the character, not the person.)

To reach people, the evangelist starts by putting on an event, a prophecy seminar. These events are effective, and people make decisions for baptism. So he went out and brought back three people. The relationship-builder can’t speak like that, but he knows how to build friendships. He invests in one person, pours into them, gives his life to them, and shares Jesus through the life he lives. So he went out and brought back one person.

The three people on the evangelist’s side have made decisions and know Jesus, but they’re not discipled. They continue to attend church and consume, so they can’t go and make disciples themselves. The evangelist has to put in the work again. He’s getting tired, so he starts another campaign, and three more people come to Jesus. On the other side, the person who was discipled has grown, and now wants to pour into someone too. So both of them go and bring one person each. Now there are four people on this side who are disciple-makers.

The evangelist is getting more tired, because the people he’s reached attend worship every Saturday and get fed by his great preaching but can’t invest in others yet, because they’re still spiritual babies. He goes out and gets two more people, burnt out. Meanwhile the other side is growing and making disciples, each investing in one person every time.

You get the idea. People are giving their lives to Jesus and knowing him more on both sides. But the evangelist is going to burn out and tire and die one day, so he can’t keep doing it. On the other side we have a movement, people giving their lives to Jesus and becoming disciples who make other disciples. That will eventually overshadow the other side, because here we have addition, and here we have multiplication. There’s an initial reproduction where you reproduce yourself, and then there’s exponential growth, through creating a discipleship culture. And this model can be replicated by each and every one of you, because you all have the ability to build relationships with other people.

I wanted to share that because, as you think about church planting and mission as a church, you need to prioritise what really matters: the things of Jesus, which is discipleship, multiplying to many by investing in one or two. Be a church that isn’t restricted to a program, to two hours of the week, but a dynamic movement of disciples who make other disciples. Think bigger about church. Don’t just follow the status quo of doing things how they’ve always been done. Dream big. God has called every one of you to do amazing things.

I want to see church not restrained here but be the church in creating spaces and communities in universities, schools and workplaces where people can experience the love of Jesus. It isn’t just about coming to our event, but about going out into the world and making disciples and following the Great Commission. As we do, we become everything Jesus created us to be. It’s a calling that isn’t restricted to me or to the other pastors. It’s a calling all of you have. Are you going to answer it today? Will you be a disciple who makes other disciples, a leader who makes other leaders, a church that plants other churches? Can you think that big about the kingdom of God, not just about our little worship service that we attend week after week? There’s nothing wrong with it, but God wants to do more. God wants you to be a movement, not a static institution.

Prayer

Father in heaven, you are up to something. In Ezekiel 37, Ezekiel looks around at all the dry bones and wonders, can these bones live? And you know that they can. We look at the culture around us and see dry bones. Sometimes we see a world that doesn’t know you, or is even against you. But we know you’re not done, and we pray and hope and believe that your church will once again become what it’s meant to be, especially in Western culture, in Australia, in Melbourne.

I pray for this church as they think about what church can be and should be according to the Scriptures. As they think bigger and dream bigger, I ask you, Holy Spirit, to come and empower them to be the disciples they’re called to be. I know that as they start living out their calling, they’ll become a church that is a movement, a church that one day makes other churches. May the size of our dream be the size of you, God. May we stop putting you in a box, saying this is how you’re supposed to work or how church should be. May we dream bigger and think about everything you’ve called us to be. In Jesus’ name, amen.