As I sit down to write this article, my mind is full of all the last-minute arrangements that are yet to be completed for our 2023 District Gathering in New Braunfels, Texas. Yet as many of you read this, the Gathering itself will already be in the rearview mirror. I am praying for a wonderful Gathering that inspires and empowers God’s people to be SENT by Jesus to be his witnesses in the world!
Our theme this year is SENT and is derived from Jesus giving the Great Commission in Acts 1:8, “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” It is my firm belief that the church is defined by its mission. We do not simply occupy space in this world while consuming resources. We are SENT by Jesus for a mission! The challenge is for each person, and every congregation to discern what that looks like in your day-to-day life in your community and context.
I would like to invite you to take inventory of all the activities that occupy your day-to-day life, both personally as well as for your church. Typically, our lives are filled with those activities that could be broadly categorized in one of three groups: activities required to sustain life, the things that we enjoy, and then everything else! While it may be worth analyzing the stewardship of all three categories, it is this third that needs our greatest attention.
Here we may identify things that we do because of others’ expectations, or traditions that simply haven’t been broken or updated, and even things that we have no idea why we do them! It is tempting to replace these activities with more things that we enjoy. But I would suggest that we focus instead on pursuing mission, our God-given purpose. This third category ought to be filled with God-directed and empowered activities of purpose connected to what Jesus SENT us to do and be!
For example, churches often adopt patterns of ministry that were designed with a mission to reach their communities with the Gospel of Jesus Christ generations ago. Many churches still fill their time and expend their energy trying to maintain these same activities that were once integral to the church’s mission but stopped being effective decades ago. Sometimes we need to pause and rethink what we are doing and both why and how we are doing it. Is this how Jesus is sending us to be his witnesses to our community today?
I am excited for our Gathering because we gather for a purpose. Just like Jesus’ first followers in Acts 1:8, we gather to be encouraged, inspired, empowered… and SENT by Jesus to live with a mission and on purpose in our communities.
