Vol 3: 14 Missional Living: Focusing on What (Whom) God Notices

What makes us missional? 

Being missional I am realizing has less to do with focusing on the task of God’s mission as it does focusing on what God notices.  Or perhaps, it is better stated, whom God notices.

This coming week I am speaking at the Illinois Mennonite Conference Annual Assembly.  The theme for the assembly is 1 Corinthians 3:9 – Co-workers in God’s Service!

As I was reflecting on what God was putting on my heart and mind to share, I began to realize that in being a co-worker with God means that God is at work – God is at work in the world to make things new – God is in mission.  Now that understanding is nothing new for those of us who exploring what it means to participate with God in God’s redemptive mission.

However, what was new for me came in asking the question of what the nature of God’s work, God’s mission is.  I realize that God’s mission is not merely about what God is about doing – rather God’s work and mission has less to do with what God is doing and more to do with whom God notices.

What I mean by this is that people matter to God.  John 3:16 (“for God so loved the world . . . ) is not about God’s abstract love for the world, but God’s deep and personal love for all who inhabit the world – God notices people, God notices our neighbors, God notices us, God even notices our enemies.  But more so than merely noticing – God seeks to relate to each one of us personally – that is why God took on our humanity to walk with us, alongside of us, to be Immanuel – “God with us.”

God’s mission is not merely about performing redemptive tasks; God’s mission is about encountering people, engaging people, setting people free.  I think I miss that at times.  I get focused on trying to discern how I and the community I serve are to participate with God in what God is doing – God’s mission, that I get up in the task of ministry and lose sight of to whom Jesus came to minister. 

I think for us to rediscover that God’s mission is about people, more so than the task of mission, we need to re-color our Bibles.  Many Bibles have Jesus’ words in red – to point out their importance to us.  However, as critically important Jesus’ words are (Note: so are his actions – they ought to be in red as well), I think Jesus would have us notice more so than his words or actions – the people he has come to touch and seeks to continue to touch through the Spirit of God who indwells us.  If Jesus were to publish a Red Letter Bible, might he not highlight all those he came to set free in red?

This Easter season, as we focus on the resurrection work of Jesus Christ, may we have eyes to see whom God sees, who matters to the heart of God, whom Jesus came to set free.  God’s mission is people! 

May this insight be transforming of us and our ministries as we seek to participate with God in God’s mission – may our hearts be shaped by the people who matter to God.