A few months ago, our Home Council approved a major revision to our Mission Handbook. We have been (re-) introducing the document in the months since. We have focused on the first few chapters – and our Mission Statement, in particular.
We turn this month to the final chapter of the Handbook. We call it The Heart of Mission.
The final chapter begins at the beginning, all over again. At the heart of the mission stands Jesus.
“Jesus Christ stands at the heart of all things,” our Handbook affirms (¶209). “Knowing Jesus Christ centers our life of faith and service in the world. They are not based upon our own efforts or accomplishments: what we ourselves may or may not do. They are based upon Christ: what he has done and continues to accomplish on our behalf” (¶210).
This is a good base for our “life of faith and service.” There is but room for One, after all, at the very center of things.
Denominations do not belong at the center. The World Mission Prayer League is a Lutheran missionary community, our Handbook affirms (¶12). But “Lutheran,” certainly, does not belong at the center of things.
Cultures do not belong at the center. The World Mission Prayer League has an ancestral European root. We spoke European languages, dressed in European ways, thought in European categories, and did things, generally, in European ways. Today we speak Spanish and Lingala, Hindi and Samburu, Nepali and Bengali around our kitchen tables – as well as our traditional Swedish, Danish and English. All of this is peripheral, in the end. Things like these cannot serve as center.
“Our own efforts and accomplishments,” surely, do not belong at the center either. We count among our fellowship many PhDs, other GEDs, lay people and ordained, young people and veterans, men and women, white collar, blue collar, and no collar at all. None of these accomplishments – nor any other effort you can think of – will serve our community reliably at the center of things.
For our “life of faith and service in the world,” we need a center that holds. We need an axis to depend upon. And there is but One who belongs there.
In Luther’s Commentary on Galatians, the Great Reformer famously advised: “Begin with Christ.” You may be intelligent: don’t begin with your intelligence. You may be able: don’t begin with your ability. You may be German (or Asian, or African, etc.): don’t begin there either. Keep Jesus at the center of things. He is the only center who holds.
“He came down to earth, lived among men, suffered, was crucified, and then He died, standing clearly before us, so that our hearts and eyes may fasten upon Him,” Luther counsels. “Take hold of Him; cling to Him with all your heart….”
The World Mission Prayer League itself does not belong at the center of the World Mission Prayer League: our Handbook is crystal clear in this regard (¶213). We are pleased, certainly, for God’s enabling provision through the years. We are thankful for the lessons we have learned, the service we have seen, the hardships he has seen us through, and the fruit that we have witnessed. God has blessed our community in so many wonderful ways!
Yet at the very center of things, at the level of fundamental trust and allegiance, there is but room for One. And it is not us. At the center of things, clever blends and combinations will not do at all: not Jesus and our denominational preference, or Jesus and our favored language, national identity, cultural traditions, institutional inheritance, etc. – or “our” way of doing things.
If we are to live and serve in a Christian sort of way, we must follow the example of St. Paul. It is no longer “we” who live. It is Christ who lives in us – Christ that works through us, Christ who redeems us, forgives us, equips and deploys us, and empowers our lives of faith and ministry (cf. Galatians 2:20). To borrow the Apostle’s pithy confession: “Living… means simply Christ” (Philippians 1:21, Phillips).
In the next few months we will reflect a bit further on The Heart of Mission. The chapter stands at the end of our Mission Handbook – and then, in a way, at the beginning of our life and service in the world.
Other posts in this Introducing the Mission Handbook series: