Living - What does missional living actually look like?
"Christian Music"... Is there such a thing?
Author: Sameer Bhattacharya, Guitarist/Flyleaf
To be clear on the front end, everyone in the band is a Christian. We all love God and strive to live and perceive the world like Jesus would. Not necessarily like today's "Church" would, but how the apostle's and, more importantly, how Jesus explained how we should, by the examples given to us in the Bible. Yes, we are Christians. But there is a dispute among everyone, even us in the band. Not one that we fight about, but one that is light-hearted and fun to discuss. It's the issue of whether we are a "Christian band" or not, and what that means.
If you asked us, the band, that question we'd all give a different answer. One would say, "Of course we're a Christian band. It's why we are together doing this, at all." Then one of us would chime in and say, "Yes, that is true as to why we are together doing this and it's what keeps us together, but we are five individual songwriters who are Christians and who started a band. A plumber, a doctor, or an IT guy doesn't go around advertising himself or his company in the yellow pages under 'Christian ______', you know?" They have their job and they do it accordingly with Christ in their hearts. The thing is that your faith, whatever it is, should impact the entirety of your life.
"Being" Missional
Author: Brad Peterson, ThM/DTS
"To be or not to be, that is the question." Famous lines of the Great Bard, Shakespeare. A concept that is worth spending some time in self reflection over. What is it that we are to "be?" One may quickly recognize that "to be" is an active verb, meaning there is no place for passivity when we are "to be" _________.
Many of us spend so much time, money, and energy "being" something whether it is a coffee barista, an accountant, a lawn care specialist, a wife, or a friend. Stop and think how much of you is required simply "to be" whatever it is you are. Would you say that it is always easy, always natural, always enjoyable, or always self-promoting? The reality is "being" requires obedience, whether it is obedience to a boss, a landlord, a system, or even a conviction. And do you ever notice that the greater the authority to which you are obedient the greater amount of effort it takes to "be" that which we are "being."
Perhaps that is why "being" missional is not always easy, natural, enjoyable, or self-promoting. To "be" missional requires obedience to the God of All Reality, All Essence, and All Existence. Certainly this is no task we can achieve in and of ourselves, for that which is opposed to God cannot obey God and thus cannot be an agent of God (Rom. 2:10-11; 3:23). Yet from our model of Creation we see that God breathed life into humanity so that we would "be" those who represent and reflect God to all of Creation (Gen. 1:26, 28; 2:7). As followers of Christ, we are called to "be" part of something drastically and unfathomably bigger than our vocation, our culture, and our time period. Hence, "being" missional is a major endeavor.
Entitlement=Enslavement
Author: Alex Sudan, Social Worker
I wanted to share a bit about what God has been teaching me as of late. It's not something that I have mastered (if I can even use that word) and will never fully master/understand until God's work is complete in me when He returns. A few weeks ago at church Matt (my pastor) spoke on one of our core values at church: footwashing (aka- service, servanthood, humility, etc). That sermon really hit home to me and I felt so stirred and challenged by God.
I feel like God is showing me how much life really isn't about me. I know, I know, you hear that all the time if you go to a Christian church, but it truly is hard to understand that this life that we are living on earth isn't about us, when everything that surrounds us tells us it is. The truth is we were created to glorify God and to live a life that reflects Christ- service, humility, joy, otherness... The scripture below really sums up this truth I am trying to convey.
"He is the image of the invisble God, the first born of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and in earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authrorities--all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross." Colossians 1: 13-20