There is a lot of talk about The Missional Church, even though precisely what “missional” means is still up for grabs. I assume it has to do with our charge to “Love our neighbor as ourselves.” We have been told that such a mission can’t be left to just another church program. Everybody seems to have a new answer. Pastor Tim Keller believes it has to do with an attitude toward the non-believer:
As I read the Bible, I hear of the People of God, but I see mostly individuals doing the work. Of course, Jesus sent his disciples out two by two, but after that I read of lone apostles proclaiming the Kingdom, or healing, or baptizing. And Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan was about a lone Samaritan, not about the Samaritan Missions Group.
As I see the Kingdom working, it does so as quietly as yeast growing in bread, and as unobtrusively as a mustard seed:
                        in words of encouragement to a painfully shy thirteen year old Junior Hospital Volunteer
                        in listening empathetically for the umpteenth time to an 87 year old man’s lone memory of his deceased wife
                        in giving a free bottle of water to a sweating teenage skateboarder
                        in visiting an invalid parent even though every bone inside screams to be doing anything else
                        in yet again forgiving your child for not calling home…again
                        in being the only one in your group not laughing at the risqué joke, or badmouthing the supervisor
This is how I see the Kingdom of God working day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year. Without fanfare. Without a six-part tape series on how to introduce such things into your congregation. Humbly. Relentlessly. Often with pain, ridicule, and sacrifice. But following the Savior nevertheless, just doing it, as unconsciously as taking breathe, until He returns in glory.
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