Leaving Sunday: What is the Mission?

What is the Mission?

Jon Gordon said: just about every organizations have a mission statement but the best organizations have people on a mission!

When I was in church I felt that the mission was the church organization and all that mattered was the church organization and the building . As I read Barbara brown Taylor's book, I am starting to get that same sentiment from her writings. She went to serve God but it became more about the church than it did serving God and her calling.

When I mentioned that I started to recognize some of the behavior at the non denominational Church I attended that was one of my main sources of uneasiness. It became about preserving their legacy as a church rather than about being effective and focused on people. The church I attended growing up never once taught about mission and purpose because that wasn't the point of their assembly. It was about coming to their church because they were the only ones who were right and they were one of the pioneer churches of that denomination in the area so they were stuck in their past and reminiscing about their glory days. I saw that same mindset take over the church I was attending and I just could not bear going through that again

Barbara brown Taylor's church started growing by leaps and bounds and of course the next discussion was should we expand our building. One of her members wisely said “We are not going into debt to build you a preaching emporium”

As blunt as that line is, that member most likely saved ms Taylor from years of misery serving in that church because they had a mortgage to pay.

Ms Taylor makes a statement that I've found myself asking: Now for the first time  wondered if I had devoted myself to an illusion.”

What scares me about that statement is that I have watched people who have devoted themselves to a religion and they've made huge life decisions because of it and now they're filled with regret. It wasn't the right decision at all and they're living lives of misery because they devoted themselves to what is turning out to be an illusion. I remember questioning the denomination I grew up in and I knew that I didn't believe in it and I didn't want any of my children raised in it. I knew that I would never devote myself fully to the religion because it had produced nothing but defeat, misery, and regrets. I did not want to devote myself to a lie for the approval of others.

At this point in my life, I still believe in God more strongly than ever before.  I believe Jesus Christ had the most life applicable teachings ever, and I believe 100% in the supernatural intricacies of the Holy Spirit. I just believe it's all so much bigger than a church building.

I think a major illusion for the faithful is that we have to be in a church with someone telling us how it is rather than out experiencing and communing with the father, son, and holy spirit in our lives.

I feel that Church has limited and stifled the power of the supernatural and that's why it feels so empty and shallow.   They have completely lost sight of the mission and what was supposed to be Good news.

Ms Brown Taylor said the same thing as she relates stories about people who had seen God’s glory outside of what most church people would find acceptable.

These people not only feared being shunned for their unorthodox narratives, they also feared sharing some of the most powerful things that ever happened to them with people who might dismiss them.

So true and like she says isn't that a shame? Christians were people who started out beholding what was beyond belief. I know that was a big reason I left the church I grew up in. I had experienced too much of the supernatural work of  God on my own to stay in a legalistic and dead religion where there was zero power

The sad part of that experience was that there was no mission except to keep the doors open.