I generally enjoy singing Christmas carols as part of worship in church gatherings each year, but when our church started to include the lighting of an Advent wreath as part of our Christmas worship, my enjoyment went to another whole level. Somehow the tangible expression of lighting the candles of hope, joy, peace, and love increased my gratitude for Jesus coming into the world to reconcile us with the Father and it increased my longing for His second coming to reign and also renew all of creation.
Something beautiful, but sometimes overlooked, ties both of Jesus’ advents together. In His first coming, Jesus didn’t come on His own initiative and He will not come again on His own initiative. Both advents of Jesus are initiated by the Father sending Jesus.
In the gospel of John, Jesus refers to Himself as being sent forty times. In the first thirty-nine times, Jesus describes why He was sent by the Father, how people can know He was sent by the Father and why it matters that He was sent at all.
Of course, we know that people are usually sent to accomplish something. In Jesus’ case, He was sent by the Father to accomplish a mission. He made the mission clear in Luke 19:10 when He said, “The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
When Jesus talks about being sent the fortieth time, He changes gears.
“Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” (John 20:21)
One of the greatest challenges the Church is facing today is her lack of desire to live as a sent people. According to authors Darren Cronshaw and Kim Hammond, the church today positions herself as being a seller of a product more than she does as a people sent on a mission by her Lord. As a result, we set up shop in our churches and try to entice people to buy our spiritual goods.
Fortunately, every challenge has an accompanying opportunity, so Cronshaw and Hammond write,
“The greatest opportunity for the church is to shift from selling to sending by adopting the posture of sentness.”
We don’t live in a time when God’s sending has been paused. God’s sending doesn’t stop until the world is renewed. The Father sent Jesus to the world to reconcile us to Himself and Jesus has sent us to carry on His reconciling mission of seeking and saving the lost until the Father sends Him again to bring His final righteous judgment and then the renewal of all creation.
My heart longs for church planting to stop being something wonderful but extra that we do and to start being the normal fruit of everything we do. For that to happen, we all have to start thinking of ourselves as sent people.
I like what my church planting friend Andy Resh says,
“There’s a need for regular Christians to plant churches. I’m tempted to often think that it’s superstars who do this, the rock stars of the Christian world who plant churches. God has just shown me that that’s not true. It’s the faithful, everyday believers who God calls to do this kind of work.” (You can watch Andy talk about this HERE)
Are you willing to embrace your sentness? Are the people of your church being equipped to embrace their sentness as faithful, everyday believers? Will you pray with me about this great opportunity for change that is before us? And pray with me that church planting becomes the normal fruit of everything we do.