about boxes

Romans 12:1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 12:2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God--what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Churches with a desire to follow Jesus, and who see their core identity as being sent with God’s good news for the world, think a lot; and we have a tendency think outside the box. I was teaching on being a missional church and a student said, “This idea of being sent is so different than what I grew up with. When I was growing up I went to the Presbyterian box, and my friends went to their Methodist box, and then you went home.” Church boxes are tools of conforming, and serve a tremendous purpose in socializing and teaching Christians about how we are to act, what to wear, and more specifically what the Bible says about God. Inside the boxes we are taught and we share with each other about who we are. They have not been very helpful when it comes to sending people, because the walls we have serve as boundaries to the socialization of Christianity, and that has often been understood as keeping Christians in and keeping the world out. It is simply very difficult, socially and spiritually, to see ourselves as persons being sent from a box, because boxes are safe and secure and when we are on the inside we feel special and unique about being Christian. This activity every week conforms our identity as a people of God, and it is incredibly powerful and important for many Christians, because it has become the one place where there has been consistency in “being Christian.” Outside the box, or as some people say, “The real world,” is where Christians live everyday, and where we are supposed to be sent with our teachings. More often than not, we simply do what the world says we should do in the workplace or at school, and then put on our busy calendars in the box marked Sunday, “Go to church.”

Living as a missionary everyday, sent with your faith and love in God as a guide into people’s lives, is an adventure beyond compare. Living as missionary people causes us to ponder our days in light of who God is, who we are as disciples, and what we are supposed to do or say in the mission fields of our lives. It creates an outside the box thinking, where we are encouraged to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, so that we may discern God’s good and acceptable and perfect will; everyday. Missionary’s thoughts are transformed in this way:

• We think about God and what the desires of God’s heart are and we pray for our minds to seek God in everyone, everything, and everywhere because we have good news for the world.

• We think about Jesus and how we are supposed to be as a Christian and we model God’s love and forgiveness for everyone we meet no matter who they are and where we discover them. We pray for our hearts to be shaped into the likeness of Jesus.

• We think about the Holy Spirit and where the Spirit is sending us, and we pray for the Spirit to create moments in time and space, and an openness in someone’s heart, for us to deliver the good news; and we pray for our hearts to be ready to answer Christ’s command to love them and share with them the joy of our salvation.

Missionaries have to think outside the box, because we see and know God is going before us, calling us into the lives of the people around us with the faith, hope, and love of God … and when we show up to the box on Sunday, hopefully with someone we spoke with during the week, we have much to share and rejoice in with all the other missionaries.

Just a thought,

Pastor Tom