Discernment Starter - Eden Mennonite Church

Towards the Mission of Eden Mennonite Church : A Discernment Starter

David A. Stevens

     What is the mission of Eden Mennonite Church ? We can begin exploring that question by observing two principle texts.
     The first passage is perhaps the classical mission text: Matthew 28:16-20, Jesus’ Great Commission. The risen Christ addresses the Eleven before his ascension and says, “Go make disciples.” We may consider Jesus’ command a succinct description of the church’s purpose.
     Now some people say, “The mission of any congregation is not known, even from Scripture. It must be discovered.” I propose that they’re half right.
     I maintain that the mission of the church is known; it doesn’t need to be discovered. It remains, “Go make disciples.” And yet there is still discovery work for individual congregations to do beyond Jesus’ command.
     That discovery work is suggested by a second passage, namely, 1 Cor 9:19-23. In that text, Paul describes his sharing of the Good News this way: “To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews … To those outside the law I became as one outside the law … so that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, so that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that I might by all means save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel … ” Paul says that when he makes disciples, he tailors the way he does it according to the situation of the people who are on the receiving end. Or, in other words, Paul says, “I contextualize the mission; I make it fit the particular context.”
     When we put these two Scriptures together and apply them to our congregation it means we take the mission of the church which is known (“Go make disciples”) and then ask, “ How do we make disciples in the particular context of Moundridge Kansas in 2008? What shape will that ministry take in this specific setting?” In order to implement a focused application of Jesus’ command, we will need detailed and current knowledge of our town and its people.
     Having identified our mission and at least named the work of contextualization, we can get a little more specific. The church that makes disciples does so in two locations: In a gathered life and in a sent life . We gather to worship, to nurture one another, to interact with God’s word, to discover and develop our gifts. The early Christians in Jerusalem exemplify the gathered life of the church in Acts 2:43 -47; 4:32 -35 .
     The community of faith also has a sent life. The sent life of the church takes seriously Jesus’ charge to go make disciples. Indeed, the word apostle means “a sent one.” In Acts the Holy Spirit endows the fledgling church with the ability to speak in foreign languages precisely because they are witnesses to the world of Jesus’ resurrection and the re-creation of life with God that is possible because of this utterly new beginning (Acts 1:8, 2:1-4). God equips this ragtag little band of Aramaic and Greek speaking fishermen and tax collectors, prominent and peasant women, to take the Good News of Christ out from Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria and to Parthia and Elam and Mesopotamia and Egypt and Libya and Asia and to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8, 2:5-13). God empowers the church in its sent life to contextualize making disciples among new (including foreign!) people.
     Therefore, “Go make disciples” in both the church’s gathered life and sent life, calls the congregation to balance ministry energies toward the centripetal (in-group) and the centrifugal (out-group). God calls us to a similar balance in self-understanding: We are not only members but missionaries .
     As we take the gospel out and invite people in, Jesus’ experience with the Twelve models for us the building of long-term relationships as the bedrock of disciple-making.
     In the changing environment of Moundridge today, we at Eden follow Jesus in making disciples for in this way our joy will be full, as the Lord has promised us.

Questions for Reflection and Discussion

1.       What Bible story do you think we at Eden are living out of right now?

2.       What excites you about doing ministry together?

3.       Can you think of some creative ways that we can use our gifts of hospitality in making disciples?

4.       What does the “Discernment Starter” above suggest to you about how we should use our church facilities?

DAS 3/3/08