Bricks Without Straw

The problem with seeing mission as something in addition to life (apart from that never having been God’s intention) is that most people struggle to live – and in the West, where we have so many labour-saving devices, feel guilty that they struggle to live.  For mission to be an additional burden placed upon people of faith is unbearable, unsustainable, and their sense of failure only adds to their sense of guilt.

Too many churches operate as little Egypts; too many church leaders as little Pharaohs, telling people to make bricks and find their own straw.

Rather than seeing mission as something in addition to life, we need to see life as participation in mission.

Rather than looking for a mission focus in addition to our everyday lives, we need to see our everyday lives as missional.

And that is why for missional communities to engage in missional activity, the members of that community must live life together.  Not necessarily living in one house; not necessarily every member of the community seeing every other member of the community every day.  But our lives need to be entwined.  And that doesn’t happen in a weekly meeting, valuable as such a meeting might be.