Comments on: The Mission of the Kingdom 2/3 http://stopover.ca/2008/12/17/the-mission-of-the-kingdom-23/ Migrant Worker | Foreign Correspondent | Mark Crocker Fri, 20 Apr 2012 16:32:03 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.5 By: mark http://stopover.ca/2008/12/17/the-mission-of-the-kingdom-23/comment-page-1/#comment-315 mark Tue, 23 Jun 2009 05:19:36 +0000 http://stopover.ca/?p=292#comment-315 Great thoughts! I tend to think that the message of Jesus, when boiled down, tended to be a simple message of relationship. Initiating and growing a healthy relationship with God and others (Love God, Love Others). If all of Jesus' words and works are viewed through that lens, then that helps me focus on the activity of mission. Mission for me is engaging with equals in such a way that we can share our existing, relevant, real and authentic relationship with God. No ulterior motive or agenda. It is 'love, care and mercy' ... but those terms cannot exist in a vacuum. They do not exist as concepts or mere words, they do not exist when merely spoken. As nouns they are not truly real, but as verbs ... Incredible! Love care and mercy must be practiced. In the various Missions that God inspires us to join him in, sometimes sharing our loving and authentic mission will take place while using our words (proclaiming a message) urging people to the cause! At other times, Mission exists only through our actions (the fruit of our lives), engaging in issues of injustice, humbling ourselves, taking less so others may have some. Mission is never simply social work, nor simply articulating a theological standard in such a way that people cannot argue their way out of a brilliant thesis ... Beautiful Mission tends to be far more holistic, organic, and relational (but maybe that is just the West Coast speaking ..) Attempting good international mission is not for the faint of heart, nor the lazy. Failure in this IS an option, and in fact, is a fairly common reality. For every story of bad mission you can tell me, I could tell you 10 more, it is time to take this seriously and promote some best practices. Mission preparation is of course what I spend my life doing. I value it incredibly, and I know that I help people out when I do so. Still, I would rather see the poor, uneducated, inappropriate, awful first attempt, than to hear the excuses that keep people from trying. Even Mission that fails is still often uncommonly beautiful in the attempt IF it is attempted in humility. Great thoughts! I tend to think that the message of Jesus, when boiled down, tended to be a simple message of relationship. Initiating and growing a healthy relationship with God and others (Love God, Love Others).

If all of Jesus’ words and works are viewed through that lens, then that helps me focus on the activity of mission. Mission for me is engaging with equals in such a way that we can share our existing, relevant, real and authentic relationship with God. No ulterior motive or agenda.

It is ‘love, care and mercy’ … but those terms cannot exist in a vacuum. They do not exist as concepts or mere words, they do not exist when merely spoken. As nouns they are not truly real, but as verbs … Incredible!

Love care and mercy must be practiced. In the various Missions that God inspires us to join him in, sometimes sharing our loving and authentic mission will take place while using our words (proclaiming a message) urging people to the cause! At other times, Mission exists only through our actions (the fruit of our lives), engaging in issues of injustice, humbling ourselves, taking less so others may have some.

Mission is never simply social work, nor simply articulating a theological standard in such a way that people cannot argue their way out of a brilliant thesis …

Beautiful Mission tends to be far more holistic, organic, and relational (but maybe that is just the West Coast speaking ..)

Attempting good international mission is not for the faint of heart, nor the lazy. Failure in this IS an option, and in fact, is a fairly common reality. For every story of bad mission you can tell me, I could tell you 10 more, it is time to take this seriously and promote some best practices.

Mission preparation is of course what I spend my life doing. I value it incredibly, and I know that I help people out when I do so. Still, I would rather see the poor, uneducated, inappropriate, awful first attempt, than to hear the excuses that keep people from trying.

Even Mission that fails is still often uncommonly beautiful in the attempt IF it is attempted in humility.

]]> By: anonymous also http://stopover.ca/2008/12/17/the-mission-of-the-kingdom-23/comment-page-1/#comment-314 anonymous also Tue, 23 Jun 2009 04:32:13 +0000 http://stopover.ca/?p=292#comment-314 Maybe the reason the mission failed was due to its implementation, not its motivation. A mission can still fail even with wanting the full success to go to the glory of God. Perhaps going to a country, money in hand, facing language barriers and other frustrations are due to lack of preparation. The acts of researching with other churches/NGO's/business for the right partner on the field, building trust with that partner before arriving and of course, having a translator to better understand what kind of organization the money could be left with would have met with better success. Money isn't the way to get people's attention to turn to God. It's a quick fix that nations will depend upon and even at times pretend to appreciate if it provides a means to obtain basic necessities, better health and less disease. Love, care, and mercy, shown through direct and constant interaction, will reveal God. Maybe the reason the mission failed was due to its implementation, not its motivation. A mission can still fail even with wanting the full success to go to the glory of God. Perhaps going to a country, money in hand, facing language barriers and other frustrations are due to lack of preparation. The acts of researching with other churches/NGO’s/business for the right partner on the field, building trust with that partner before arriving and of course, having a translator to better understand what kind of organization the money could be left with would have met with better success.

Money isn’t the way to get people’s attention to turn to God. It’s a quick fix that nations will depend upon and even at times pretend to appreciate if it provides a means to obtain basic necessities, better health and less disease. Love, care, and mercy, shown through direct and constant interaction, will reveal God.

]]> By: Anonymous http://stopover.ca/2008/12/17/the-mission-of-the-kingdom-23/comment-page-1/#comment-265 Anonymous Tue, 23 Dec 2008 03:47:20 +0000 http://stopover.ca/?p=292#comment-265 I would say that the mission is always 100% for the glory of God and for nothing else. If Missions become a way of fixing a social problem and not about glorifying God things will go very wrong. I have a friend who found that out the hard way, bringing money to a third world country that was given to them by people who wanted nothing to do with the gospel only to give money as a charitable donation. The money ended being used for something else. There was a language barrier and there was huge misunderstanding. In the end the gospel was not preached and a horrible discovery found that this organization was exploiting and abusing women and children in order to get money from people in America. The hardest thing was realizing that even though social justice was being done, it was void of the message of Jesus. those are my thoughts. I would say that the mission is always 100% for the glory of God and for nothing else. If Missions become a way of fixing a social problem and not about glorifying God things will go very wrong. I have a friend who found that out the hard way, bringing money to a third world country that was given to them by people who wanted nothing to do with the gospel only to give money as a charitable donation. The money ended being used for something else. There was a language barrier and there was huge misunderstanding. In the end the gospel was not preached and a horrible discovery found that this organization was exploiting and abusing women and children in order to get money from people in America. The hardest thing was realizing that even though social justice was being done, it was void of the message of Jesus.
those are my thoughts.

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