Category Archives: mission
I consider that the life of the Christian should exhibit a dispersive nature. Anywhere that we go is a place that we are sent intentionally. Sentness forms our identity. Below are some thoughts on that.
When “Jesus’ Name” becomes terminology
I want to share with you five recent interactions that cause me to suspect that “Jesus” is turning into a byword.
Jesus’ name in prayer
Evangelicals are often reared to pray in “the name of Jesus,” or “in Jesus’ name.” What this sometimes equates to is a literal attaching of the phrase “Jesus’ Name” to the end of every prayer.
Jesus’ name in song
A few months ago, a well-meaning man approached me after I had led music worship at our church to tell me that none of the songs in the first set ever “mentioned the name of ‘Jesus.’” He suspected that a lack of verbally stating Jesus’ name would detract from the glory given to Him. Ordinarily, I would agree with such beautiful Christology for music—except that in this case, the songs he was referring to that morning were Come Though Fount and We Exalt Thee.
They didn’t mention Jesus’ name anywhere, but…how much more Christ-exalting can a song can be than these?
Jesus’ name in evangelism
Let’s get this straight: I believe that the Gospel must be proclaimed and lived out in unison, without compromise between either. Most Millennials resonate with this (especially the “living out” part). But on occasion, people will insinuate how important it is to bring up the name of Jesus is in every conversation that takes place between believer and outsider. It sometimes feels as though the verbalization is of more importance to the said believer—like a check mark on a to-do list—rather than a carefully established relationship and opportunity to witness, to the outsider. Once again, evangelism (sharing of Good News) is watered down into a formula in this case, called “Jesus’ name.” Read the rest of this entry
We SHOULD care what others think
Typical scenario:
Christian #1 enters a room filled with several outsiders. Making a b-line for the unholy huddle, he immediately engages them in conversation while aggresively diverting all available subjects to matters of faith. Upon religious dialog, #1 begins to make short work of everyone who disagrees with his airtight logic. What a stud. After this, he drops the conversation and makes his way to the grocery store where he badmouths his landlord while griping about the holiday checkout lines. Before scanning his Martinelli’s, the cashier greets him with a friendly “Happy Holidays!” to which our stone-faced Christian rejoins with “You mean, Merry CHRISTmas, right??” As he exits the building euphoric over another missional encounter with bad people, everyone else around aisle nine goes back home more disillusioned with Jesus and less loving of his Church.
The End.
There is one side of most of us that will recall the verses warning us that we will be hated by the world (Matt.10:22), that we should not be ashamed of it (Rom. 1:16), and that committed Christians care only about what God thinks. Then there are those on the fringe who care only about his nomination of us as the greatest thing that happened to the planet, while everyone else can either get out of the way or bow down before our brilliance.
We use Jesus’ promise of being hated for the gospel as a sweeping cop-out for ALL of our silly behavior.
Perhaps we should have a more honest view of ourselves?
And by honest, I mean sobering rather than inflated, and considerate rather than selfish. We should care about what others think about us…at least to some extent.
Don’t forget THAT part of the Bible…
- “For we aim at what is honorable not only in the Lord’s sight but also in the sight of man.” (2 Cor 8:21)
- “Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone.” (Romans 12:18)
- “Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation.” (1 Peter 2:12)
- “Behave properly toward outsiders” (1 Thess. 4:12)
K…I’ve belabored the point.
Unfortunately, whether it’s our Socratic conversations, satirical Christian t-shirts, the change in facial demeanor when speaking about evolution, our Christianese “code” language, the spiritual gossip, double-standards, lack of empathy, or the silly things we say in the name of evangelism, the ways we stunt our image in public is endless. Nay, it is humorous, but on a depressing level…yeah, it’s “depressing” humor. Irony is another good word for that, and John the Evangelist employs it often in his rhetoric against Pharisees. Oops. (#belabored)
The Scriptures strike a tension between persecution and acceptance that Christians can expect. There should be a mixture of reactions by the world to our faith and practice. So if everybody outside the church likes us, maybe it’s because we’re soft on the Gospel. But if everybody hates us, maybe it’s because we’re a jerk. And if that’s the case…we shouldn’t blame our bad behavior on Jesus. We should blame it on an inability to survive in a worldly setting.
Maybe a higher view of non-believers would help?
Related articles
- The Gospel should be comprehensible (christopherlazo.com)
Pray for the sick
God wants to heal people.
He has been using his people for this since the first century…
- Part of the breaking forth of God’s kingdom means that there will be physical healings as a result of God’s power.
- We don’t just see this in Jesus, but in his Apostles who were sent out to pray for sick people (Luke 9:2), and would lay hands on them and see them healed (Mark 6:13).
- This was not exclusive to the Apostles, for even unnamed Ananias lays hands on Saul who regains his sight (Acts 9:17), and…
- The elders of the church are told to anoint sick people with oil and pray for their physical healing (Jam 5:14-15).
God heals through our prayers.
When Brianna and I first got married, we lived in a small studio apartment. Sometimes the landlord would offer us lemons when we needed them to cook dinner, and would sometimes tell us that we could “help ourselves” to his backyard. So… I took him at his word. One day, I hoped the fence, went over to a tree, and started plucking fruit!
Here’s the deal with prayer: God CAN do anything he wants, and he wants to heal people. But there will be times when God (who wants to heal) will simply wait for his children to ask him (Matt. 7:7). There will be times, when all God is waiting for is for his Children to hop the fence, and start grabbing lemons. There will be times, when the lemons are so high up in the tree that you must grab a branch and begin shaking it vigorously. That’s prayer. Shaking the tree vigorously until an answer from God falls.
This post was adapted from a talk I gave last night:
Any thoughts on this topic? Don’t be so quiet! 
Introverts in a Church Community
Are you introverted? Me too.
Herein lies a wonderful irony:
The Scriptures implore (introverted) Christians to be in active fellowship with others.
I know it seems like keeping to ourselves is to our benefit, but the Scriptures suggest a multi-faceted approach. Along with the rest we find in solitude, comes a deeper form of restoration in Christian community. Honestly, this has always been a difficult thing for me to square with the body of Christ. I often fight the urge to retreat into a corner of isolation when I know I’m suppose to mingle with people. So it may take a bit of work for you to jump into an awkward social setting as well, but it is worth our struggle.
“And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.” ~ Hebrews 10:25
There is another mistake we often fall into.
We sometimes put so much effort into showing up, that we leave conversational initiation to others.
“Ok, I came to the gathering. Now, someone please talk to me while I hide in a corner!”
This is not introversion, but simply being shy, and non-committal.
We may be tempted to remain on the edge of a community, or float from one community to the next, without making commitments or becoming known. If we stay on the outskirts we don’t owe anyone anything and people don’t expect anything. (Adam McHugh, Introverts in the Church)
This kind of non-committal self-entitlement will cause us to end up as wall flowers; feeling neglected, ignored, overlooked, and wondering why we can’t make meaningful relationships. Sometimes it’s because people do ignore us. But more often it’s because we’re too scared to put both feet in the door by reaching out to others despite our discomfort. Now is the time to try.
But allow me to offer a liberating suggestion as a fellow introvert….
You will be more successful in Christian community when you think of the well-being of others instead of your own.
In other words…
Let your drive for community be mission instead of self-aggrandizement.
You’re already in the building, and that was difficult! You might as well go all the way in your effort. You may find the reward of committed human contact in the body of Christ far outweighs the momentary anxiety of meeting new people.
The Church needs to do more!
Heard that one before? Said that one before??
Millennials thirst for significance, and we are no different in the church; too restless to settle with the status quo ante, we want to push any limit that smacks of apathy. Neither do younger generations like to fall into routine, just because “That ‘s how it’s always been done,” especially when we see some traditions actually harming the body of Christ or the world around us. This Millennial boat-shaking ought to be welcomed as a blessing.
With limits, of course.
Sometimes we take it overboard, and may grow disgruntled with the church because it won’t move as fast as we would like.
Ever been in that Bible study where the young dude shouts in zealous angst, “The modern church should be more like the church in the book of Acts! More like the Early Church!”
To which I reply, “No, YOU need to be more like the Early Church! Drink some decaf and stop yelling.”
Sometimes our zeal is too tightly packed. We end up waving a gun around at anyone who gets in the way….including the Church.
But how can Millennials remain passionate without dishonoring the Bride of Christ? Below are means that will help us more effectively siphon a passion for change back into the church.
Let’s repent of our pride, and remember that we ARE the church.
Things always seem to go awry when we remove ourselves from the mayhem (even if we had nothing to do with it!). When you join a church, you are joining the mess! And when you follow Christ, you join his Church. I’ve heard Millennials cite Martin Luther’s reform of the church as reason to rebel, yet unaware of how hard he struggled to bring change from within, in fact, he never left the church—he was kicked out! And when the prophet Daniel wanted healing for God’s people, he did not do so from a safe place, but identified with the mess, praying, “We have sinned and done wrong. We have rebelled against you and scorned your commands and regulation” (Dan. 9:5, emphasis mine), though he is one of the few men in Scripture whose sins went unrecorded!
Passion must never travel without humility.
Conviction must not go unchecked by a community.
Change must always be accompanied by empathy.
And this is where we often thrive, anyway: through collaborative relationships.
Read the rest of this entry
Reproduction vs. Reciprocity (5 Reasons We Don’t See Discipleship)
Here was the Apostle Paul’s singular strategy for expanding the Kingdom of God,
Timothy, my dear son, be strong through the grace that God gives you in Christ Jesus. You have heard me teach things that have been confirmed by many reliable witnesses. Now teach these truths to other trustworthy people who will be able to pass them on to others (2 Tim. 2:1-2).
His strategy was Timothy!! Not only Timothy, but all the little Tim’s that Timothy would produce by following these simple instructions. Looking back on early Church history, and the Gospel’s explosive growth through Paul, it seems like he was doing a few things right. If we are doing a few things wrong (we are), then perhaps we should compare our modern methods of discipleship with tried, ancient practices.
5 reasons we don’t see discipleship.
1) We neglect mission, because we are satisfied with community
We have fine circles of faith, but those circles never overlap with non-believers who can experience the love of God, and have their questions engaged with, because we feel as though we’ve achieved everything within our subculture. We’ll begin to feel the repercussions of this when the crowd gets bigger.
2) We don’t pass on what we’ve learned; we flaunt what we’ve learned
We aren’t taking the time to pass on the things that have effectively kept us out of darkness, and equipped us for mission. When we are around people who ask questions, we would rather sound like some theological guru.
3) We obsess over non-essentials, instead of teaching “these truths”
We get bogged down in stuff like Calvinism and silly disputes over theology, which may be good, do not cause an immature Christian to grow.
4) We don’t invest into “trustworthy” people that will pass on truth to others
We surround ourselves with people who are on a similar level as ourselves for the purpose of having fun conversations. Yet we never have the opportunity to hand down what we’ve learned to younger Christians who actually NEED to hear what we know.
5) We do not teach others how to teach others.
At best, we only produce ourselves—we do not re-produce ourselves. We may raise up amazing people with what we have taught them, but if we do not TEACH them to carry on the same pattern with others in the same way we have done with them, they will die as sterile clones of ourselves, and not as disciple-making disciples of Jesus.
We want to chat theology with people in similar life stages who will make us feel more spiritual about ours, rather than teach and equip the people we are called to invest in to live their lives on mission for the Gospel of Jesus. Deep down, I think it’s because we are more concerned with feeling the reciprocity of friendship, than the reproduction of disciples.
Related articles
- The problem of growth and the need for discipleship (christopherlazo.com)
- Sterile Christians are Contradictions: On The Art of Discipleship (christopherlazo.com)
Going somewhere else
Why do we put six months of diligent preparation into overseas mission…
…yet approach our own cities with such casual impromptu?
Operation Lydia ~ mission
Adorn’s second step of Operation Lydia is to…
2. Go outside the gate to where the people are.
The idea is that Christians are called beyond the “gate” of their church subculture, and into the lives of outsiders on a regular basis. We are called to interact with them. A simple way to start this is by getting out of the house! (or church).
- Paul “went outside the gate to a riverside” before happening by a group of spiritually hungry people (Acts 16:12).
- Jesus had an urge to “pass through Samaria” where he met a spiritually broken woman (John 4:4).
God’s instructions can’t always be systematized. But sometimes it helps to break things down in our minds so that we aren’t overwhelmed with the grandioseness of the mission. Here’s a way to start…
- Be intentional (don’t aimlessly go anywhere. Seek the Lord as to where He would have you be)
- Take initiative (don’t expect opportunities to come to your doorstep. Engage! Seek out!)
- Expend yourself (commit to that place/area/community/scene once you discover it)
This “place” should be where the Christian is best able to cultivate their own identity as imagers of God.
Invest yourself there!
Related articles
- Operation Lydia – an introduction (christopherlazo.com)
- Operation Lydia ~ Image (christopherlazo.com)
Operation Lydia ~ Image
Yesterday, I introduced Operation Lydia as a four-part series. It is a simple way to consider mission in the context in which you live.
First things first:
1) Be yourself.
Matthew 5:16 – “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”
There are two things we should be aware of before we ever go on mission…
- What we have in common with the world around us: the image of God
- What makes us different from the world around us: the likeness of God
Jesus is saying that we image the good that is around us through good works, yet we maintain the likeness of God in us by staying grounded in our identity in Christ!
Since we have been renewed into the likeness of Christ (Col. 3:10), we have now been given an uncanny ability to be immersed in a dark environment, while maintaining our identity as Christ-followers, i.e., lights shining in the darkness. So, for the Christian to be themselves is a tremendous call to be both an imager of God and an imitator of God in the world directly in front of us.
What’s difficult about this is that our sphere of influence may be our lame 9-to-5 job, our daily commute, our favorite coffee shop (where we love our privacy), our family, our irritating next door neighbor, our favorite hobby….
As a hardcore introvert, this is for me an olympic feat.
What is it about the implication to be yourself that keeps you from immersing yourself in the world around you?
Related articles
Operation Lydia – an introduction
I have struggled with being on mission in my surrounding neighborhood for most of my Christian life.
Growing up in a Christian home, church, sunday school, and overall Christian environment, has led me far away from most non-believers. Maybe that was a good thing early in life….it kept me off of drugs, right??
The downside to this is that I cultivated a slightly sheltered view of people who don’t live like me—super holy, if you haven’t noticed (just kidding)—and its a view that took years to dismantle. So…now that I recovered from seclusion, I am progressively taking on the task of being social with non-believers. GASP.
This may seem simple to many of you. But it took me years to learn.
Having been raised in a culture that is largely church-oriented has made the concept of speaking, much less socializing, with the outside world a task as formidable as sending a middle-class white American family to live with an indigenous Latin American tribe for a lengthy period of time. Yeah, that’s right…
It feels like a missions trip in my own back yard.
Maybe some of you resonate with this. Perhaps you haven’t grown up in the Christian bubble your entire lives, but you still feel out of place when trying to reach out in a meaningful way with non-believers. Maybe you used to run with that crowd before, but have been so immersed in churchianity recently, that you need to find your way back to the mission of Jesus. If that’s the case, we’re on the same drive. You can ride shotgun.
The reason for this blog post is to set up a conversation with you.
I want to deal with these things in community (a virtual community, but a community, nonetheless).
About a year ago, we gathered at Adorn to see what the Scriptures say about being on mission in our context. The result was a project entitled Operation Lydia. It’s like an hour long, so there’s no need to rehearse it, unless you want to. Because for the next two weeks, I will be blogging each of the four bullet points in that series along with its Scriptural passage, and a list of questions. I’m still wrestling with these questions myself, so perhaps if you have some of your own, we can wrestle through this together.
Perhaps at the end of it all, we will come out less like a pseudo-ministry, and more like an equipped tribe on mission in the world around us for the Kingdom and glory of God.
