The transformation of the church’s mission is to be found in God’s mission.
God who is always doing “a new thing” (Isaiah 43:19) calls the church to discern, celebrate, and participate in God’s mission afresh. The way through the Wilderness is about participating in what God is doing now. For the church this involves discovering and discerning what God wants to do through us in this time and place for the sake of the world God loves.
Implications for the church’s learning: If being the church is God’s idea, how will we ask and answer “What is God calling us to be and do NOW?” How might we begin to engage our faith community in a journey of spiritual depth, changing the focus from our needs/wants to celebrating and taking part in God’s mission?
One of the wonderful aspects of human life is that, along with the ability to remember the past and to analyze the present, we have the capacity to project ourselves into the future. A church seeking to find its way through the wilderness is helped by remembering its story and claiming the usable past, the meaning that is in your collective memory.
Questions for reflection and discussion:
1. What are crossroads you are faced with at this point and time as the church?
2. To what extent are you invested in the well-being of the whole community?
3. What might it mean to “see the future with the eyes of faith?”
Learn More:
- Seeing with the Eyes of Faith: A free download to begin your conversations
- Sharing Our Personal Visions: This visioning exercise invites you to share together your personal visions for the church, examine where they’ve come from, and the implications for your church.
- Discerning God’s Call: Discerning God’s Call provides support for designing and facilitating communal vision discernment in your church.
