October 23

Defining Our Mission

Rafael Antonio Lozano is a man with a mission, albeit a strange one. The 37-year-old computer programmer from Plano, Texas, is on a quest to visit every company-owned Starbucks on the planet. Lozano, who calls himself Winter, began his mission in 1997, when there were 1,304 such stores worldwide. Today, there are over 15,500 in 43 countries. As of May 2009, Winter had visited 9,100 Starbucks around the globe. Despite his impressive pace, Winter is realistic about the nature of his quest, saying, "As long as they keep building Starbucks, I'll never be finished." He is also realistic about the importance of his mission. "Every time I reach a Starbucks, I feel like I've accomplished something," he said, "when actually I've accomplished nothing."
I like coffee and I like visiting new places but this doesn’t sound like much of a mission in life. By the way... could you write in a sentence your mission in life?
In our reading today we see several key ingredients in discovering and formulating why we were given another day of life to live. The mission of a Christ follower is to follow the example of Christ. Look at a few of the clues given about our mission in life. These come from the example of our Savior:

1. To hang out with lost people. John 1:38-39 They said, "Rabbi" (which means Teacher), "where are you staying?" "Come," he replied, "and you will see." So they went and saw where he was staying, and spent that day with him.
Schedule time with people far from God should be part of our mission. Our mission is not to escape from the world but to radically change the world. We can only do this with an incarnational mission of involvement. Tomorrow in church we will strategize on how to reach prostitutes for Jesus. It should be an interesting discussion.

2. To meet people’s needs. In John 2 Jesus attends a wedding and he spares a wedding couple the embarrassment of a wedding party flop. He turns water to the finest wine and he does it not for himself but for the benefit of a newlywed couple. He does all of this behind the scenes without any big show or fanfare. We are called to meet the needs of people around us. Become radical in your sharing with the needy. Join us on Blessing Sunday to give 400 blessings to the people of Stamford.

3. To make sure the church stays on mission. Jesus clears the temple because the religious leaders totally botched the plan. They were all focused on larger, bigger, more comfortable, more profitable institutions, when the focus of the church should be prayer and spiritual transformation. The difference between the institutional church and the Biblically healthy church is huge and Jesus makes it clear what he thinks of religious institutions. The question for us is, “Are we keeping Grace church on mission?”

4. To know our message. Jesus is incredulous that Nicodemus is a teacher of the law, yet he doesn’t even know about spiritual rebirth. How can this be? I run into a lot of Christians who after years of attending church could not explain to someone how to be born again. Our mission is to carry the gospel message to a lost and dying world. We must all have a clear understanding of what our message is.

So today take 10 minutes and write down your mission in life. These four examples of Jesus should find their way into your statement.

Make sure you know what your mission is.