Missio Dei Communities

I am convinced that one reason Christians get bored and apathetic towards mission is that we lose the context of what we are a part of.  We have a tendency to become myopic.  We zero in on the immediate, the now.  When we think about what God is doing, we start with what’s going on inside of me.  Maybe we zoom out to our Missional Community.  Perhaps we think as big as Missio Dei Communities, our church.  

None of these are bad.  But they become so much richer, bigger and filled up when you put them in the context of a bigger story.  Give me a few minutes and think about What God is doing in you in these larger contexts:

Historically:

1.  What God is doing now in your life and our church has it’s roots in Genesis 12 when God called and blessed Abraham.  This was the beginning of God’s mission strategy to bring blessing to all nations and restoration to His creation.  As we are blessed, and are sent to be a blessing, we can weave this all the way back to Abraham in Genesis 12.
What God is doing now in your life and our church is a direct result of what Christ did on the cross.  Jesus died on the cross to ransom a people for himself.  You are a blood-bought possession of God.  The cross if not just about becoming a Christian.  The cross is the power at work in your life now.  The things going on in your MC and in our church are happening because what happened on the cross.

2.  What God is doing now in your life and our church is a current expression of faithful followers of Jesus  being empowered by the Spirit and sent to the nations in Acts 1-2.  The Church was empowered and commissioned In Acts 1-2 and has been going further and further through the years.  We are the current torch-carriers of the message and power of the gospel.

Geographically:

 1. Globally.  God is at work across the globe.  Christianity is not an American or a Western Religion.  Christianity is universal.  You wouldn’t know it from hanging out in American Evangelical circles, but the gospel is alive and well across the globe.  The center of Global Christianity is no longer in North America or Europe.   It is in the Southern Hemisphere.  A friend of mine who is studying theology abroad says, “American Christianity is a virtual cesspool.”  By that he means that we sit in the waste of our own thoughts and methods.  We read each other’s books and blogs.  Go to each other’s conferences.  Podcast each other’s sermons.  And retweet each other’s thoughts.  What God is doing in Tempe, is only a small part of what He is doing throughout the globe.

2. Movement Networks.  The reason people love Missio Dei is that it is about something.  There is a robust gospel-centered theology which propels us to live radically missional lives.  We are not alone.  There are growing networks like Acts 29, Soma Communities, GCM, and others who are planting the gospel across the country and world with us.

3. Local Network.  Many people don’t know this, but you need to.  Missio Dei is a part of a growing network of young pastors and young churches who are working together to plant the gospel in our city. We are linked up with more established churches who are committed to gospel-centered missional ministry.  The network is called Surge.  Surge is a leadership training school that many of you have been through.  And it is a network of pastors seeking to lead a gospel-centered missional resurgence.