A Christian organisation used to have the twin goals of mission and maturity. It was so memorable that even now, ten years on, I can still tell you what its goals were and explain what it meant by them. They are thoroughly biblical goals for the individual believer but also for the church. We want to see people individually and collectively (I'm not sure you can do one without the other - we grow individually as we grow collectively) in their discipleship. As they do so they naturally live lives and speak words that are not just missionary, but missional (a life saturated with the breaking news about Jesus).
But what is it that stops this happening? I guess there are a number of things, but what about at an organisational level in the church?
In Acts we see the fledglingly church and it grows phenomenally in the early chapters. As a result of its growth it encounters the threats of external persecution, internal corruption (ch5) and in chapter 6, perhaps the most subtle, logistics. The result is grumbling as some of the widows complain about being overlooked in the distribution of food.
It is a logistical problem but it threatens to decimate the missional living of this new community, of God's new community. Why? Because it will stop the growth, it will blunt the gospel edge, it will distract the Apostle from prayer and preaching.
Do we face similar barriers? What are they?
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