Created for Harmonious Stewardship
When we want to talk about "being Missional" we need to move away from the stereotype of a missionary learning a language and moving off to a distant land. Being missional is about realising God's purpose for the world and linking into what He is already doing in the world.If we look at the first creation account, we get some valuable insights into our created purpose, which, in turn gives us clues, for what being missional is.
Firstly, we are created in God's image. We have the capacity for relationship with our Creator. Distinct from all other creatures, we are capable of knowing and being known by God and being indwelt by the Holy Spirit. So we are, as Augustine said, restless until we find our rest in God.
Secondly, while God transcends maleness and femaleness, both men and women reflect aspects of God's nature and being and so we need to value one another deeply as valuable reflections of part of the enormity of God's nature and character.
The third created missional purpose is best summed up in the word "stewardship." We are called to look after God's earth. Unfortunately humankind tends to fill the earth without caring for it, but we are called to be faithful stewards.
So these are our three created imperatives:
- Know God
- See ourselves and others as reflections of the image of God
- Care for the earth has been entrusted to us.
The clear sense that Genesis 1 gives us is of harmony. Creation is orderly and bountiful. The Triune God creates and enjoys creation, He crowns creation by creating people whom He longs to relate to and He creates them with mutual worth and dignity. The environment given to humankind is initially bountiful and generous (unspoiled by rebellion and sin) and we are called to steward it.
Having contemplated these created purposes we see how far we have wandered from them...
Being missional means being urgent about three key areas:
1. Evangelism (in the sense of revealing the loving purpose of God who created us),
2. Reconciliation along with Social Justice (to reclaim the dignity of all human beings)
3. Environmental Activism (to restore the neglected earth).
May God give us strength, wisdom and courage to come back to our created purpose
| So God created humankind in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground." Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground--everything that has the breath of life in it--I give every green plant for food." And it was so. (Genesis1:27-30) |
