Making Space for the Gospel in the World

Recently I came across an article by Todd Hiestand entitled, The Gospel and the God-Forsaken, which gives focus to the challenge of being missional in the suburbs. He raises a unique distinction for understanding what differentiates missional churches from churches operating within the Christendom paradigm.

It is a distinction between being sent and those that go. Basically, churches that have a mindset of “going” see themselves as separate from the world and in order to share the Gospel they make forays into the world to “do mission” and then retreat “back to the safety of separation” (Hiestand, http://www.allelon.org/articles/article.cfm?id=385). Many of us live out our Christian faith in this way. We interpret Jesus’ command in Matthew 28: 18) of go into the world as making disciples as a command to set everything aside and go, with the result that we charge into the world, only to retreat once again to be refreshed. This cycle of going and retreating keeps us from being not only “of the world,” but it also keeps us from “being in the world” as well.

In many ways this represents a monastic paradigm in which we separate ourselves from the world; even in our reaching out we exude a separateness. And so we wonder why we struggle with making space for the Gospel in the world.

In taking note of how Jesus became one of us and engaged the culture, we see that an incarnational approach calls for us to be in the world. Just as Jesus was sent by the Father to be in the world carrying out God’s redemptive mission, so too we as Christ’s community in the world, called to continue in the ministry of Christ, we are a community that is sent into the world, rather than a community that goes into the world. The difference is staggering.

The realization that we are sent is the realization that we have been placed in the world in order to make space for the Gospel. By the way we live, relate to one another, carry out our business, we are sign, foretaste, and demonstration of the presence of God’s rule in the world. As a sent community in the world, we live out an alternate reality to the way the world is used to living.

What might this look like? I propose that we are called to walk among our neighbors – those God has placed us beside in our contexts – to walk with them, alongside of them, supporting and encouraging them in their growth and development as human beings by engaging them in the way Jesus would. We engage our neighbors with the realization that it is not our efforts that make space for the Gospel, but as we are open to discern the leading of the Holy Spirit, it is the Spirit who sends us as persons and communities to engage our world. We are sent to love the people who we are with in the world as Christ loves them, to seek their well-being, to offer ourselves, as imperfect as we are, to be of use to God so that they might be made whole.

In an attitude of sentness, we make space for the Gospel in the lives of our neighbors, as we make space for them in our lives. As we make room for others in our lives, we do not come to them with our agendas, but we are open to the agenda that God has for us in coming alongside of them in our encounter. As we make room for others in our lives – our lives in being open and yielded to the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit has opportunity to touch the lives of our neighbors and draw them to himself. In an attitude of sentness we remain in the world and the Spirit is present in our relationships making space for the Gospel. It is when we go and retreat that we are more apt to grieve the Spirit and create barriers for our neighbors to experience the reality of the Gospel in Jesus Christ.

Being Led by the Spirit

Many of us view the ministry we are involved in as a response to the call of God upon our lives. It is a call that was not shaped by us, but God prompting us in ways - through circumstances, through an inner compulsion, or even a sensing of God speaking with clarity to us - that made clear to us that our lives were to be devoted to God's mission in the world.

Yet, somewhere along the way we get comfortable with our calling and we begin to control and shape the way we enact our calling. We may still feel we are led by the Spirit, but much of our leading is now also under our own direction.

I am discovering - through re-reading of the birth narratives of Jesus - that being led by the Spirit is something that is very uncomfortable, very much outside the boundaries of our control. Though the Spirit comforts us, the leading of the Spirit is very uncomfortable - and I guess that is the way I would rather have it. You see, when I start shaping my own destiny, I seem to go off in directions that have more to do with me, rather than participating in what God is up to in the world.

Both Mary and Joseph in hearing the news that the child developing in Mary was of the Spirit made both Mary and Joseph very uncomfortable - they had no context for which to gain understanding (many of us who called ourselves learned, still have no context for what they came to accept.) What the Spirit of God expressed to them was indeed uncomfortable, though as they were comforted by the Spirit their hearts leaped with joy - being in wonderment about what God was doing to bring about the salvation of his human creation.

And so I ask myself - do I want to live into my calling in ways that are comfortable to me? Or do I want to discover what God intends for the calling God has placed upon my life by daring to heed the Spirit, no matter how uncomfortable it is for me? I am beginning to discover the courage to engage in the latter. It is the Spirit of God, who comforts me (cf. John 14) as the Spirit leads me - because without the Spirit I would be unable to go beyond my comfort zones. As the Spirit takes me into different kind of ministry contexts, I am unsure why I am even there - but in yielding to the Spirit, I begin to see and hear what God is doing in the world to which I am being invited to participate. And to think that I would be oblivious to all this if I remained in ministry bounded by what I am able to control and be comfortable in.

Being led by the Spirit is perhaps the most uncomfortable thing in my life - but I am re-discovering this to be the way I desire to live out my life and ministry.