Les Henson
Suppose we are faithful to God’s mission (the missio Dei), which God is doing and seeking to do in the world through his people. In that case, we need to regularly re-evaluate our church activities to see how they correspond and match up to God’s mission. Through my experience of mission in West Papua, I realised that not everything we call mission is God’s mission, much of it is our mission, and if it is our mission, it is not God’s mission. Our task as the people of God is tantamount to participate in God’s mission rather than our own. If what we are participating in is God’s mission, then God will be in it, perhaps not always in ways that we anticipate, but certainly in terms of what God aims to do both in the church and the world.
I would suggest one of the ways we may evaluate our church activities both in the church and out there in the world is to ask the question: To what extent this activity is relational? If an activity is relational, it will not focus simply on getting things done but rather on the people we are engaging. It will take into account the needs of those involved and those that are being served. It will come from a position of weakness rather than from a place of power. Finally, it will model the one who came not to be served but to serve.