On Mission Together
So, we have looked at the foundation of community through Jesus's prayer in John 17. The foundation is Jesus' longing for us to live unified as he is unified with the Father under his Lordship.
The framework of our unity is devotion to living our biblical togetherness (Acts 2:42-47), God's Word, mission, and prayer. It is a togetherness as revealed in Acts 2 through the Greek word koinonia (a description of the church which means to share and to participate). We share and participate in the gospel's transforming power, reinforcing that it isn't a solo faith; it is a communal faith, a part of a larger spiritual family.
This is important for us as we begin to explore how to live practically within community and live God's mission together. How do we show up for each other and those in our lives who have not yet experienced the true hope of Jesus?
A crucial part of our mission is the world's ability to see how we love each other, a love that is a powerful testament to God's transforming power. This love validates God's power and gives people tangible evidence that God is who he says he is and that he has the power to transform, enabling them to see Jesus as their true hope. Click here or watch below and consider this simple but powerful video of why the mission is lived and accomplished together.
We each have lives where we rub shoulders with others and have the chance to build relationships with them, such as at our workplaces, neighborhoods, or families. What if we lived intentionally and built a connection with them and then:
We invited them to a party with our believing friends. I mean, Christians should be the best partygoers, right? We do have access to the good news!
We served each other's neighborhoods or co-workers as a missional community in their time of need.
The point is that we are not meant to live out the gospel of Jesus alone. Church isn't a place where we simply get information to share with the world. It is a place where we build a deep, vulnerable, confessing community to live the mission of God together in our world.
Because of Jesus, you matter, but you aren't meant to be alone. An old African proverb says, alone, we go fast, but together, we go far. We need to go far in our mission of living as ambassadors to our world to personally reveal the true hope of Jesus to them!
The plan of God is for us to live loved so we can love each other and the world around us can see and experience God's love for themselves. Let me ask you, who are you living on mission with?