We are an Outwardly Focused Church

"Therefore go..."

-Matthew 28:19

Jesus did not say "wait and I will send those people to you who I wish you to minister to."

Christ sent the disciples out. They were to "go." The church has been sent out into the world and we want to reflect that sentiment in our actions.

We want to be a church that has been sent.

What does this mean?

It means that we are going to be outwardly focussed--that the target of our time, energy and affection cannot terminate on ourselves, but must be constantly seeking further into the world for those unloved people for whom Christ sent us. We want to be looking outside of our body, our family-- yes even getting up out of our homes and church buildings--for people to love.

We want to be a church that sends. We want to mirror Christ by empowering those people in our midst to go. We can do this by equipping and empowering each and every member in our church community to minister, teaching them that when Christ said "go", yes, He was talking to you too. No one escapes. We are all on the move in this world looking for those lonely hearts that Christ longs to make a home in.

These ideas have a number of practical implications for us. Just like we are a church plant that has been sent out into a new community, we will also be sending people out from us into new communities, perpetuating this cycle of the sent sending. Our ministries will have an outward focus, lavishing our attentions on the needy of our community. We will have a visual presence in the community, not with media and sign-age, but with our loving actions and real tangible presence.

This is even the reason why we do Home Groups.

By meeting in each other's homes we are sending a message that this church pours out past the walls of any one building. It is out there in the world, in your homes and in your lives. And when we do have a building, it will be located in the middle of the city, not on its outskirts. We don't want to set up shop, open our doors and say "we are here, now come to us," but instead we want to communicate that we have come here to be with you.

This is part of the vision of Vineyard Church BCS, to be an outwardly focussed church.

We are not Hungry, We're Busy

At our last home group we read John 6:1-15 , one of the most famous stories in the bible.

In the specifics Jesus takes a handful of fish and loaves and uses these few things to feed a huge multitude of hungry people. A general look at what happened is that the disciples had resources which fell pathetically short of the needs which were facing them.

The resource of food, or the need for food, can be hard concept for us to connect to. We are not a society that, in general, worries about our next meal. Who are, however, a society of people who often find our resources lacking relative to an abundant need.

And the resource i think most of us find in the shortest supply is time.

We are surrounded by masses of people who need our time: our jobs ask us to cover more hours, and our debts demands that we listen; our friends need help moving, or painting, or just someone to talk to; our families are understanding, but they need us to be there also... and then there is church.

There never seems to be an end to how much they ask for: Sunday morning, and night, the bible study mid week, that outreach once a month, or the Saturday church work day; womens group, mens group, youth group, worship teams prayer ministry... etc.

This list goes on and I can feel myself, and everyone reading curling up into the fetal position and rocking back and forth.

So what is the solution?

Well I think there is some application from this story for this modern shortfall in time.

When Jesus asked the disciples to begin distributing the food, there was just a little bit of food. It would have been nice if he had waved his hands and made a mountain of fish (yum!) and bread, but he didn't. When the command came to begin the work, it seemed imposable, but the disciples began to do it anyway.

I think there are two important points here:

1) the disciples heard a command from God:

I think many of the things that demand our time may not be Gods desire for our lives. They all seem good, and int the right context the may be, but I think it is important to allow the Holy Spirit to order our lives so that we are not wasting our resources in areas which are not ultimately productive for the Kingdom.

2) The miracle of multiplication occurred AFTER the disciples obeyed. For us I think that we want to see God multiply our resources first, and then we want to ask him what to do with the surplus. But the model we see here is simply hear-obey-multiply.

I think these two things can help us with our time management. If the Holy Spirit leads us to commit our time to something, God will provide for us the resources we need to accomplish that task.

I pray that God gives us all grace to identify those things that He is asking us to commit to, and that we would find both the faith and the discipline to do those things even when it seems like our resources are too few to meet the task.

Jesus Heals the Official's Son

In the 4th chapter of the Gospel of John Jesus heals an official's son. As with most things in the bible this story works on many levels.

In just a straight forward sense we see Christ snatching a life from the jaws of death. He is able to display his authority over the universe. His deity is further illustrated by the great distance which is breached by His power--though the boy lies ill miles off, he is still subject to the hand of the almighty and omnipresent God, whose incarnation has said "go, your boy will live." All of these things serve to advance John's consistent goal to establish Christ as a deity equal in every way, and in fact synonymous with, Yahweh.

An analysis of the recipient of this miracle may shine some further light on what John was communicating to us. This man is said to have been a "religious official." Galilee, at that time, was under the rule of Herod Antipas. Herod was a Gentile, and was generally despised by his people. It would only make sense that these feelings would be communicative to those who officiated on his behalf.

Why is this significant?

Well let's take a look at all those who Jesus has rubbed shoulders with so far: 1) Galilean commoners at a wedding feast; 2) Jewish religious crowds at the temple; 3) Nicodemus; a highly respected religious authority; 4) a triply despised Samaritan/woman/adulterer; and now a, in all likelihood, despised political official, the symbol foreign rule in Israel.

Jesus got around.

We are just starting and he has addressed his message and miracles at the low and the high; the admired and the despised; Jew, gentile, half breed--rich and poor; week and powerful. He is God not for the few, but for the many, not for some, but for all.

The final point which jumps out at me (though by no means the end of possible themes or applications) touches on the exchange which takes place between the official, Christ and those standing around. After being begged to heal the Officials son, (who lay some 20 mi. off) Jesus makes this statement, that "Unless you people see miraculous signs and wonders, you will never believe."

This is followed by the dismissal of the official along with the promise that his son would live.

Now what is strange about this is that there were none in that moment who experienced anything particularly miraculous. The servants 20 mi. off see a sick person who takes a turn for the better, wonderful but not necessarily miraculous, and those with Jesus only hear this ambiguous promise that the boy would not die. In the moment they are all very much denied the miraculous "sign and wonder" that they craved.

A possible application of this is that though we all want to see God move in the miraculous, hungering to see not only an end to suffering but also the evidence of the Divine on earth, we cannot always appreciate the miracles happening in front of us because of our finite perspective.

In retrospect, with the accounts of all those involved, John was able to see a miracle, but in the moment some heard a promise and others saw a boy recuperate. The miracle was there but hidden. For us it may often be the same. God has a desire to reconcile and to heal, and we are commanded to ask for these things, but when they don't become immediately apparent we need to not jump to grandiose conclusions. It could simply be that our perspective is too finite to perceive the miraculous which is taking place right under our noses.