Welcome to my blog 'J J' – Joining Jesus (in His Mission)

Recently I was in Virginia and a church that I was working with asked me to spend time with their leaders considering the question ‘what is the purpose of the church?’.  At first sight this seems a pretty easy question to answer…. BUT!  This question is not as easy as it first seems because it is incredibly easy for a church to replace the mission of Jesus with the mission of the church – for us to want Him to bless our mission rather than for us to join Him in his.

Scripture teaches that Jesus came to seek and to save what was lost (Luke 19:10) and the church, as the body of Christ on the earth, exists to join Him in that mission.  As we discussed this in Virginia we began to discover that we so easily reach a place where we select the kind of lost people that we want to reach and have in church.  There are many people that Jesus loves but we don’t like and, as such, we don’t want to reach them and, as a consequence they remain unreached.

In the time in which we are living it is critical that we take a step back from the thing that we do day-by-day and week-by-week and ask what may be a new question:  ‘Lord as we look at the community where you have placed us….how do we begin to see people like you see them and join you in your mission.

Over the coming months I will be sharing several things that I have been learning from my travels to many parts of the world and working with churches who are seeking to Join Jesus beyond the walls.

My next article will also be based on an experience i had in Virginia – it will be ‘It’s not new’…..