Let us Grow our Church

Blessings in Our Lord Jesus Christ,

As our year begins, I want to reflect on what it means to be a disciple in a missional church.  Disciple means to be a student. Not a student who simply gathers biblical facts and moralizes about them. Rather a student, much like the disciples, who are invited by Jesus to enter into ministry and learn from those experiences, to pray for the people we encounter, and to invite them to discover God in our church family.

To be missional, means that we all have a vital role to play in the growing of Christ's church through engaged discipleship. We are called to share the good news with our unique gifts and skills. We must not hide these talents. 

Jesus also demands of us to invite strangers into our church (Luke 15:2).  Of course, this involves a great risk of being open to questions of why we believe in God and why do we go to church. But as we have heard this Sunday, we only can rejoice as a church if each of us leaves the ninety-nine to find the one person who is lost and looking for God (Luke 15:3-5).  Go out and invite someone to our church, and you will see how quickly it will grow.  

Being a disciple in a missional Church is simply not a "priest’s job", but the whole vocation of everyone who packs the pews of the church on Sunday.  This is not a mission for only young people, it is for all ages. 

Of course, there is a presupposition that what Jesus instructs us to do is risky, uncomfortable and even dangerous to the Christendom we have become so accustomed to.  Why? Because we feel that we have to be willing to share why we believe in God and our church. We believe that we have to be willing to share our personal faith story that includes joy of God but also the sorrow and redemption we have all needed at some point.  Of course, those are difficult questions to answer and even more difficult to share.  The good news is that we don't have to have the answers in order to share why God is important to us.

The Jesus movement grew quickly not because of having the best answers to the same old life questions.  In fact, Jesus invites the people he meets to come follow him and become disciples—to become lifelong students of learning life through the lens of God and through serving others (Luke 15:2).  Thus, Jesus gives these early followers hospitality by the sharing of food and drink (Luke 15:20).  Then is when questions arise, conversations, teaching and learning followed.  Only then, Jesus sends the disciples and others out, baptize and to proclaim the Good News.

The tendency in today's church seems to go the opposite way.  We feel we need to have answers first, then feed our guests, before inviting someone to attend our church to come, discover and become a life-long student in the life of God. It can't be overstated that the latter is not the pedagogy Jesus leaves us.  Therefore, we must be careful to invite first and have dialogue after we have feasted on the Eucharist.  Come see and taste that the Lord is truly good.   

As we move forward in our year of growing together in Christ, let us pray and invite people to our church for service, for Messy Church, evening prayer, coffee, crafts, prayer, bible study, lectio divina, to our home and so on.  Let us live our discipleship and the mission of the Church truly in the context of how Jesus Christ framed it for us.  And if we get discouraged, take heart in prayer, come to church and be nourished in the sacraments of the Church and remember, if we have the faith like a mustard seed, our church will grow with new faces quickly and with joy.

Pax et Bonum!

Rev. Billy Isenor, OSF