Together on Mission

The large third component that shapes our story is…

Together on Mission…

Again, several of you have asked me questions about this part of the conversation. This is an evolving journey that we will explore and fine-tune other. Here are some guidelines going forward:

1.   Mission is in the very nature of God - he is a sending God who sent his Son who sent his Spirit;

2.   Missio Dei [the mission of God] is "renew all things";

3.   Jesus in turn calls the church to "disciple all nations" as our part of the missio dei;

4.   This includes discipling individuals, creating discipleship cultures, discipling nations…

5.   Added to this, there is a clear call to make every believer a 'missionary', every church on mission, whilst establishing a missional culture in each,

6.   The E4 gifts are there to both lay these foundations as well as equip and empower each church on their own journey,

7.   Every church must be responsible for the enactment of their mission / lampstand,

8.   However every church cannot achieve all that God calls us to do alone , so "together we can achieve more" [to quote Terry Virgo]

9.   Every church is to maintain the integrity of her mission, yet also find that God space that can only be achieved together [2 Cor 10]

10. This could mean pioneering new situations - planting on new shores, raising funds together to finance planting, creating new doors of opportunity in new nations, working together with the poor or social justice, certainly in prayer - mutually covering each other. This passage in 2 Cor 10 is very helpful to frame this part of the conversation as is Agabus coming to Antioch and prophesying about the coming famine, followed by the other churches raising money toward that end…

Mission of Multiplication:

1.  A major component to our mission is [like Jesus] to identify emerging apostles, invest into them,

2.  In due course [Gal 2] initiate them into their own apostolic adventure / sphere,

3.  They will be celebrated out, with clarity of calling, definition of doctrine, participation of partners,

4.  It would be wonderful if they wanted to keep connected, although on their own story, there will be no obligation,

5.  Genesis as a name of an apostolic sphere will end with Meryl and me, as the multiplication would already have taken place. 

This is as we see it now, but God has a way of bringing increasing revelation the further we grow. I was listening afresh to a prophetic word that Julian Adams gave us almost 2 years ago. It is amazing how much the Father has done since then.