We, or should I say “I”, have made a fatal mistake in the western world far too often of applying business principles to the gospel. Both in the church-world and in the missions community, more and more decisions are made not based on principles from scripture or in relation to Christ, but rather from a bottom-line driven mentality. The longer I have walked with Jesus the more I am convinced that the true “kingdom gospel” has nothing to do with programs and institutions and other business based concepts, and everything to do with with love, and family, mothering and fathering. Let me give you a taste what I mean by recreating the average conversation I find myself having with folks recently.
-“So you are moving to Uganda, what is your vision?”
Claud: “Jesus and him alone.”
-(frustrated by the simplicity of the first answer) “Well yeah, but I mean what is your ministry?”
C: “I don’t really have one. But I hope to ‘Love God and love people'”.
-(even more frustrated now) “Ok, so what are your ministry goals or your strategy?”
C: “I really do not have any. I intend to love God with all of my heart, and out of that to love and relate deeply with people”
-(at this point the person either changes the subject, or the conversation goes into a number of interesting directions)
What is the point of me sharing this dialogue. It is this: I am convinced the gospel is simple. I am deeply persuaded by my Father in heaven to get away from the “missions model” or from any model at all for that matter. It has to be about the “Man” and not a model. Even the very word “missions” in itself has a connotation of turning a person into a project or a goal, and happens to be a word I cannot find in the scriptures. It devalues authentic relationship, especially when I feel the need to snap a photo of a person to “blog about them later on in order to get money from a supporter”. Therefore I know now more than ever that it is time for me to retire (a second time) from my career in “missions”, and get on with the gospel among Africans.
I have an excerpt from another blog that really captured a lot of how I view my walk with God, and more specifically ‘missions,’ so I thought I’d share. This is by a man about to head to Uganda with his family (from http://www.claudandmary.com):
Claude goes on to share his heart some more, and specifically how it relates to him moving to Uganda, but this is the part that I identified most with because I’ve had that exact conversation many times. People ask me how many I’ve led or hope to lead to Christ, what the goals are, what the vision is, what I’ll do, and what the plan is. To all of the above I usually say ‘Ask God.’ My only goal or plan or whatever is to reveal to people how much God loves them and desires a relationship with them, telling them what God sees in them and what He has made them to be, to speak that truth over them, disciple them in walking in those gifts as much as they will allow and God has enabled me to, and to then step out of the way so they can lean on God and not me…Which is a long way of saying loving God and people. Just incase you wanted to know what this whole lifestyle thing I’m aiming for is.
