Church on mission is definitely a popular saying that is everywhere these days. the idea that we are required to title places of worship, missional, has for eternity been strange to me. please, shouldnt all bodies of Christ be missional in their very core? all churches, at its very core, yearn to engage their culture and city with the message of Jesus as a missionary would in a foreign country? Isnt what the bodies of Christ is encouraged to do in the sending out by Jesus in Matthew 28:19? Our own hometown begs for this type of church. North Austin church is slowly gravitating to what Jesus instructed in the Gospels.
The messiah gives the challenge in Acts 1:8 saying, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Acts 1:8 explains this idea as, right before Jesus Christ leaves to go to Heaven, He directs the disciples on a exploration that would begin right in their individual community. He begins with their local place of Jerusalem, and then expands the call to the many parts of the creation.
As disciples of Jesus, we are not moved to privacy, but to be missional persons who are actively going out and going to areas right where they are with the message of Jesus. We have observed this throughout history: God moved Abraham on a mission to exit his country and his people and go to the city that God would show him (Gen. 12:1), God urges Moses on a story to renew an enslaved people and lead them to relationship with God (Exodus 3:8-10), God sends Jesus on a journey to world to reconcile all things to Himself through the cross (Colossians 1:20). And now God is sending believers on a exploration to engage homes, cities, people groups, and even nations with the story of Christ(Matt. 28:19 Mark 6:7 Luke 10:1 John 20:21 Acts 1:8). If we abandon this motivation and continue to perceive the places of worship like a invite only country club ” urging that people clean up their performance, pay their money, and drive to our building God will continue His story without us.
