Mission Produces Community

I had a friend who once told me about his father who was a WWII bomber pilot. He had just returned from a 50^th reunion of his squadron and told my friend about how that within minutes of being together these old men were laughing and crying together. The takeaway? Those guys didn’t come together to form community. They joined together to fight a war and community "happened". So often church planters go out to "start a church"—that’s backwards. You go out on mission and community follows that. THOUGHTS?

Comments

[Rob Graham]

One of four founding principles for members of the Church of the Savior in Washington, DC, known for it's missional focus:

"Active, hands-on involvement, in response to God’s call, to address some area of need in our broken world"

They practice the ordination of EVERYone who becomes a member (keep in mind, typically a 2 year process or more). So many times we camp around ideology, methodology....and then the "splits" come over the same issues. The old adage still holds that front line troops don't back bite over un-essentials.

[jonsamp]

Absolutely. One thing I've seen with working with college students (and really anyone) - especially guys, is that people become 'bonded' much quicker when they have a task, a reason or a purpose.

Can it happen without these? Yes, but you have to be much more intentional. That's why people are most likely friends with the people around where they live, work, and play. They get to know the people they do stuff with, and it bleeds over into life.

I think it's a little more complex, though, then just going out on mission and community follows that. That's true for the individual Christian, but for someone who feels called to gather people to worship and serve Christ together, it's about living missionally personally, but it's also about creating opportunities for people who come into that walk with Christ to live missionally together.

[Rick]

What? You mean that guys don't bond by sitting around on plush couches sharing our feelings about the Bible verses we're reading?!? I'm confused! ;)

Seriously...guys bond in foxholes...or in the huddle...that's kinda' our motto. Our job is to find foxholes in the middle of a righteous fight and let nature take its course.

Great post, Lance. I wish more guys would "get it" in this area.