What did Jesus call us to, our mission or His?

When Jesus said, “Come follow me,” this must have stopped the disciples dead in their tracts, cause their hearts to start of pound a thousand times a minute. This was a bunch of ordinary people with ordinary lives being called by an extraordinary man with an extraordinary life. This was the man who healed people, restoring their dignity and inviting them out of oppression. He touched lepers without harm, turned water into wine and caused the fish to over fill the nets. Caused a little to feed thousands, He healed multitudes. He ate and hung out with the outcast, prostitutes, drunkards and the poorest of the poor. While both shunning and condemning the religious. To follow Him was an daring call, a moment to be part of something grater and against the grain of what was established as goodly, righteous and holy way of life.

Then He invited them to come to the local synagogue on Sunday morning for a couple of hours and Wednesday night for another couple of hours. Forget following him around and watching Him do things. And when they got to there, he sat them down and led them through a couple of songs. Everyone sat in the same direction facing Jesus as they listened to him speak from behind a small upright box. The message was on average an hour long, tightly scripted with an introductory joke to arouse the crowd and was primarily about how to “not sin”. It usually included three points, a story from His personal life, and a summary to wrap it all up. He always finished with a challenge to his disciples to do better and closed with another song. At some point in the process he passed a large basket around expecting them to put a little something in to pay the rent and help build a larger meeting place, and for advertising and marketing plans and hire professionals to plan their programs to attract others and to get people to come and join there tight little group. The reality was that those in setup were tired of unpacking and packing up each time they met in this rented building. A new, obviously larger building just made sense. After all them more we pack in the more we get in the basket. Under this scenario you have to imagine the original call to “Come follow me” seems to lose its impact, doesn’t it?

The problem is that this isn’t in the Bible, it is not the life Jesus lead, the disciples where called to or lead. But yet this is exactly what the church and Christendom has practiced over the last 1,700 years, the blue print for every traditional church in America for the last 300 years. And yet Jesus never did it this way, nor did the church in the first three centuries. He went out to the people and restored them. He sought out reconciliation and healing. He engaged His Father’s mission, it was His way of life. Can you imagine watching Jesus heal someone? But in doing so He showed the disciples the way to life, to function in everyday life. He modeled a leadership that empowered them to do it themselves. It was an apprentice model of leadership that taught them how to engage the mission themselves. Nor did Jesus did not say I will assemble a bunch of people together so they can hangout, have free coffee and donuts and be entertained great performers, videos and skits and here some motivation feel good about yourself preaching.

But rather He said I am sending you.

He did not say service to Him was changing diapers, hading out programs or parking cars, He said, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

Paul said, “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.” Paul got it, he understood what Jesus meant when He said follow me, it meant imitate my life, every detail of it, even on to death for the good of others.

We must ask ourselves,

Do I know My Father’s mission?

Jesus understood that God had always been on a mission of restoring all of His creation. He said to Mary when she was looking for Him “Do you not know that I must be about My Father's business? Can you say the same thing?

Is my life structured in a way to accomplish this mission?

Ninety percent of what we think when we say “church” does not exist in Jesus’ blue print. He took ordinary people created a people who changed the world. A people who where the church, not a building that was the church, not an organization with lots of programs made to entertain a bunch of pew warmers and coffee drinkers. But a people who lived exactly as He did and did every thing and even can do grater things than He did, people whose lives looked just like His. Does you life look just like His, are you doing every thing He did, and greater as He promised that His followers would do. "Most assuredly I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.” John 14:12

His very invitation invites us into a larger mission of restoration, of true relationship with God, the building of the Kingdom of God on earth, not the building of buildings.