1.21 blog

In the Book of Acts, our church is looking at how the good news of Jesus forms us into a missionary community. In our first post in this series, we saw how our mission as the church is built upon the foundational pattern of God’s Triune life and Jesus’ Incarnation. Today we’re going to look at how the God fuels our mission through the church’s corporate worship.

I don’t listen to much Christian music, but when I do, it’s usually by Derek Webb. One of his songs in particular has been helpful for me in thinking through the connection between the church’s corporate worship and her mission. It’s called “Take to the World.” (Sorry I couldn’t find a good video to host here, you’ll have to follow the link to stream it at Lala.com.)

Go in peace to love and to serve
Let your ears ring long with what you have heard
May the bread on your tongue
Leave a trail of crumbs
To lead the hungry back to the place that you are from

And take to the world this love, this hope and faith
Take to the world this rare, relentless grace
And like the three in one
Know you must become what you want to save
‘Cause that’s still the way
He takes to the world

Go, and go far
Take light deep in the dark
Believe what’s true
He uses all, even you
May the bread on your tongue leave a trail of crumbs
To lead the hungry back to the place you are from

I love how the song touches upon such diverse themes as communion, the Trinity, Jesus’ Incarnation, and the church’s engagement with the world.

On Sunday mornings the church gathers and is fed by God. Through preaching and the sacraments (typically communion), he delivers us what we truly need: Jesus Christ and his work on our behalf. Through this engagement with God, we are prepared for another week serving God in our secular vocations, and living out the mission of God with our neighbors.

The ancient church realized this. In their Eucharistic prayers, they would speak of God gathering a people to himself from age to age, from east to west. They would speak of him gathering the many seeds to form one loaf of bread, even as people from the far reaches of the earth were being formed into the one body of the Church. And Eastern Orthodox Theologian Alexander Schmemann famously contended that the church’s worship was for the life of the world.

For whatever reason, though, we don’t recognize it. We either turn the corporate gathering of the church into something entirely for ourselves, or as a somewhat dispensable appendage to the mission of God (like a vestigial organ). But both of these approaches are wrong. Mission happens not as an activity separate from preaching and the celebration of the Eucharist, but precisely as the necessary result of them.

If you want to live a life of mission, participate frequently in the corporate worship of the church.

Posted by: Gene Schlesinger