How God chooses to Change the World
One of the things I admire most about God are the unexpected ways that God works in our world.
- Jesus seemed to pick the B-team to be on his A-list.
- The story of God proves that God moves towards the people the world moves away from.
- God values those who have little value to the world: the poor, the marginalized, the lost and the lonely.
God is always doing the last thing the world’s standards would expect.
When it comes to the way God has invited humanity to participate in God’s mission to restore the world God loves, God has used one specific vehicle to bring this change.
It’s not what most people would expect…
Yes, God has used corporations, governments and schools.
Clearly, God has used churches large and small.
But since humanity has existed on this earth, I want to suggest that there is one single vehicle that God has used to change the world more than any other:
EXTENDED FAMILIES ON MISSION
What I mean by this is summed up in a new book by my friends Mike and Sally Breen called Family on Mission:
God exists as family in the trinitarian relationships of the Father, Son and Spirit.
God called and extended family to represent God so the all people could be blessed through them in the nation of Israel.
Jesus walked through his life and ministry with an extended family of people who included blood family, but any of those who “do the will of the Father”.
The first followers of The Way of Jesus were grouped in extended “households” or the greek word “oikos” is used in the book of Acts.
All extended families on a mission to participate with God.
Now we have an opportunity to be brothers and sisters that follow our Father to participate in God’s mission. To be family with purpose.
At our church, we say that we are a “family of families on mission”. We aren’t using the word “family” in the traditional nuclear family sense.
We mean something closer to the word “oikos” – extended families that aren’t connected merely by blood relationship, but by having the same Father and a common mission to love our communities in the name of Jesus. People of all ages and life stages, backgrounds and experiences – coming together as family.
I believe that every one of us is invited to live in extended families like these. Families that can reach out to those on the margins, those who’ve never been invited into the family of God and know they are welcome.
Ordinary people like you and me, coming together and choosing to love each other even though we are broken people. We form families that together say to a hurt and broken world…
“join us, become a part of our family, because we have a Father that offers freedom, healing and unconditional love.”
Reading this book was simultaneously an experience of feeling like God is getting my attention in ways I have never experienced; as well as feeling joy that Mike and Sally have put into words something I have been trying to live out for years.
It’s not easy, there is often blood, sweat and tears. But also amazing joy and hope!
Whether you have been trying to live on mission for a while, just beginning to get your feet wet, or even just curious about what this might mean for you, I recommend reading Family on Mission by Mike and Sally Breen. They will give you stories, vision as well as the nuts and bolts of what this looks like to live out.
As Mike says,”Family on mission is God’s methodology for saving the world.”
And we are invited to be a part of that!