Sent

Excerpts from "Back to momma to talk about mission" post by Dan Kimball

I spent last night and today speaking at Santa Cruz Bible Church at their Saturday night gathering and two Sunday morning ones. Santa Cruz Bible Church is the church I was on staff with for many years as high school pastor, and then young adult pastor. Santa Cruz Bible Church planted Vintage Faith Church in 2004. So it was quite fun being back. They are our mother church, so to speak.

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My main thrust was showing from the Scriptures that the very first thing Jesus said to His disciples in Matthew 4:18-19 was "Come, follow Me and I will send you out to fish for people." He didn't say "Come follow Me, and I will keep you huddled with other Christians singing songs feeling safe together" or "Come follow Me, so you can hang out with primarily Christians and complain about how terrible the world is getting. or "Come follow Me so you can have nice theological discussion with other Christians and deconstruct the church". From the very first time we see Jesus talking to and calling His disciples, it was all about being be sent out (not inward) to make new disciples. So the first impression He gave His disciples was emphasizing that following Him meant being focused on other people who didn't know Him yet.

I also shared that the very last words of Jesus to His disciples was focused on the same exact thing - being in the world making new disciples. I walked through His last words in Matthew 28:18-20 and Acts 1:8-9. So His first words to his disciples were about being others focused on mission and His last words to them were about being others focused on mission.

I then focused on how in the USA it is easy to develop a Christian sub-culture, even when you have a "missions" department or program of the church, but not be a missional church. We can also be living in a Christian sub-culture and send missionaries to other countries, but not think of ourselves as missionaries here in our own local community.

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