A Church Shaped by Mission
by Bishop John E. Privett
Dear Friends,
A funny thing happened on the way to the 21st Century: The Church and its members lost its sense of mission. The early centuries of the church were defined by a sense of mission. The first Christians were so transformed by the experience of Jesus and his resurrection that they became "gospel bearers" — people whose faith shaped their lives and their engagement with the world in such a way that history was transformed. The 19th Century became the defining century of missionary activity and as European expansion made its way around the world, so did Christian missionaries. That continued into the early 20th Century, but as the 1900's unfolded we began to question the missionary enterprise. Many mistakes were made and many painful lessons learned. One of the consequences of that experience was that many Christians lost their missionary nerve, and not only their missionary nerve, but their confidence in their own faith.
You may find it interesting to look at the table of contents or the subject index of the last three official hymnbooks for our church. The "Old Blue Book" (Book of Common Praise, 1938) has about 25 hymns in a section called "missionary hymns." The 1971 Hymn Book (often called "The Red Book") has nothing in the table of contents or subject index for missionary hymns. The new "Common Praise" (1998) has a new, smaller section entitled "mission" which reflects, I think, a move toward a recovery of a sense of mission within the Church. There are indications that we are moving from an older style, imperialistic mission theology toward a renewed understanding of mission as a passionate participation in the very work of God. One of the days at the Lambeth Conference was dedicated to a discussion of the place of mission in our church and dioceses. Just recently, our Primate, Fred Hiltz has asked every diocese in Canada to look at its documents and its priorities with a view to identify where our mission focus is. It can also be a helpful exercise for congregations or individuals.
A key question in this shift to a mission focus is: "Where are our current energies and resources going?" and then to follow that up with a series of questions designed to stimulate our imaginations: "What would our church look like if everything we did was seen to be in the service of the mission of God?" What would it look like if our congregations became centres where people could encounter and learn "the way of Jesus" and explore what it meant to be identified as one of Jesus' servants in the world? What would happen if we had ongoing conversations about being engaged in our culture without being absorbed by our culture? What might we be able to do if we discovered the confidence to be gospel people? What would our Annual Meeting and Church Committee agendas and congregational budgets look like if we were gripped by a commitment to mission?
The familiar and popular hymn by John Bell called “The Summons” captures a renewed call to mission:
The Summons
Will you come and follow me if I but call your name?
Will you go where you don't know and never be the same?
Will you let my love be shown, will you let my name be known,
Will you let my life be grown in you and you in me?
Will you take a moment to consider what your life and the life of our church might become if each one of us thought of ourselves as having a personal and essential role in God's mission in the world?
Faithfully, +John
