Mission In Our Own Backyard
In our current sermon series, we have been walking through the book of Amos. Amos confronted God’s people with their neglect of the poor, marginalized, and oppressed. They had lived lives of self-absorbed greed, all while carrying on a religious charade of participating in temple worship with hearts far from God. What God desired was not outward religious show, but hearts that responded to His love by caring for those among his people who were hurting. The challenge for us is that we are called to apply what we’ve learned to our lives as followers of Jesus.
This topic is on my mind because we have just begun another round of Missional Community (MC) Leaders Training. This is an eight-week training where we prepare candidates for leading MCs. MCs are our smaller gatherings of New City Church that meet in homes and seek to live out our identities in Christ as a family of missionary servants together. We share in the mission of Christ and the realities of gospel centered living. We seek to live out the Scripture’s “one anothers”- “love one another”, “serve one another”, “encourage one another”. It’s exciting to see new leaders raised up that have been discipled in community and are eager to learn more and lead others to love and follow Jesus!
A major part of this training is encouraging our leaders to lead others in pursuing the mission of Christ, the Great Commission. We desire to see our MCs both make disciples of Jesus and help one another grow to full maturity by living in light of the gospel in all of life. This involves our MCs engaging in 3rd places and Missional Partnerships.
3rd places are a way for the Missional Community to bring in friends, family, and co-workers who are either unbelievers or disconnected from the Body of Christ. If our Sunday Worship Gathering is the “1st place” and the MC Family Gathering is the “2nd place”, the “3rd place” is a neutral environment that isn’t something “churchy”, like a Bible-study or a prayer meeting, but just a casual, yet intentional hang-out time. This could be in a park, restaurant, ballgame, or anywhere people hang out. The goal is to give friends the opportunity to see the Body of Christ living together as family and enjoying one another in the normal things of life. The hope is that by displaying the gospel in our love for them and for one another, we will build relationships that provide the opportunity to share the gospel of the love of Christ.
Missional Partnerships are another way for our MCs to engage in the mission of Christ, by identifying a specific “people” or “place” to love, serve, and most importantly reach with the gospel. Some MCs choose their neighborhood. We have 14 MCs all over Bibb Co. and each one is an opportunity to live as the Kingdom-present in a different part of our city. Other MCs choose to partner with an organization, such as DFCS, Campus Clubs, Young Life, Caring Solutions, etc. Whether it is a neighborhood or an organization, it’s an opportunity for the gospel to be displayed and proclaimed and to see transformation in our city.
This past Sunday, Pastor Keith reminded us that when we apply passages of scripture like these to our lives, we are quick to focus on things “out there” at the national level. While there is nothing wrong with being informed at the national level and having care and concern for those issues, it is easy to overlook the opportunities to take action and live as kingdom people in our own backyard. We should ask ourselves, where are people hurting and in need of love, service, and the good news of Jesus right here, where God has placed us.
This is one of the great things about life in a Missional Community. We have the opportunity to engage together as family in the mission of Christ, where we are, as we go, in our own backyard. We can take the gospel to those in our city in desperate need to know that Jesus came bringing good news to the poor and liberty to the captives. Not only can we share this good news, but we can also tangibly love and serve in a way that gives a taste of the sacrificial love with which Jesus has loved us.
If you are interested in joining our family of missionary servants and being a part of a MC, we’d love to have you! You can visit our website to see what MCs are in your area and reach out to us with questions, https://www.newcitychurches.org/missional-communities. You can also see many of the ways we are partnering with others here in our city to see gospel transformation take place, https://www.newcitychurches.org/missional-partners.