Interesting Perspective

My Missions professor split us into small groups today at the beginning of class and gave each of us a copy of this quote:

"Mission must never have first place in the church's life. The church is to have but one Lord - one passion - the One in whom all the fullness of God dwells, who has reconciled all things to himself. If the church today is in need of a conversion, it is always and only to Jesus Christ. We must say an emphatic "NO" to lesser gods who clamor for our allegiance, and a living and joyous "YES" to the One in whom all creation is summed up. It is insufficient to proclaim that the church of God has a mission in the world. Rather, the God of mission has a church in the world. Grasp this inversion of subject and object, and participation in God's mission will become a joyous, life-giving privilege. Miss it, and mission involvement will eventually degenerate into a wearisome, overwhelming duty."
~Tim Dearborn~

The first sentance turned me off at first, but the last two sentances made me think maybe the author has a point. Missions is inseperable from the heart of God. However, some people do find ways to take God out of Missions. If our focus, then, is solely on God, than our desire and ability to do Missions will follow by default. However, if we put the focus on Missions, than works and legalism threaten to take over our view and we loose sight of the whole point of Christianity - relationship with God.

So our small group had fun figuring that out and discussing it, and then the entire class had a good time discussing it too.

I like my Missions Professor :-)

~Princess Ouch~