Guest Blog - Missional Communities: Another Chance to See God Move - Joe Hook
Note: Here is the video Joe is referring to from Sunday--for those who missed it:
After seeing the video on Missional Communities on Sunday, I was really moved.
This is the Church in action. This is Jesus moving among the people. Really, this is what the Church is all about. God’s people moving together in Christ, changing the world.
That is, if we WANT to see God moving among us. Ryan quoted Philippians 2:12 …work out your own salvation with fear and trembling…
I don’t know about you but, I don’t like to fear and tremble. Being humble can be hard.
It can be uncomfortable to serve the unloved and unlovely ones.
It can be difficult to speak to the hurting or the critical about the love and life found only in Jesus.
Impossible to pour ourselves out to people in need for the sake of the gospel.
Some of us have trouble just being in the same room with other CHRISTIANS we don’t know let alone reaching out to the lost and hurting.
Here’s the problem though.
If we aren’t stretched beyond what we could normally “handle” we will have lived our lives without ever seeing God moving in us or among us. We risk living our “Christian Lives” without ever leaning on the Holy Spirit.
If we wait until it feels comfortable or just bearable. We will miss out on the rest of Paul’s sentence in Philippians 2:12-13
…work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.
What if we put ourselves out there, in a place that makes us nervous, talking to people that may roll their eyes at us in disinterest and make us feel embarrassed?
What if we went so far that we came to the end of all of our coping mechanisms and techniques?
What would happen if we came to the end of ourselves and had to trust Him to carry us where He wants to go, did things He wants to do, said the things He wants to say?
What would happen if we started to LIVE in that mode?
I know that mixed with fear and trembling we would know what awe meant and true joy.
The great thing about Missional Communities is they are COMMUNITIES. We don’t have to “stretch” alone.
We get to do it together.
When we get scared, God puts people with SKIN on to encourage us and keep us going. We share the load of all the insecurities we bring to the table and the task of giving them all over to Jesus at the Cross. We get to fear and tremble TOGETHER and I know that we would also experience a bit of “…His good pleasure” with Him as well.