It always good to have a purpose, a mission that gives you direction towards accomplishing your goals. Whether your goals are smaller, daily targets or huge, potentially life-changing experiences, a sense of purpose provides focus to endure the challenge, the hard work and the dedication necessary to accomplish the goal.
Jesus challenged His disciples to go into all the world and make disciples --people who would, like them, become followers of Jesus. He commissioned the Church to this mission and it remains our primary objective. It’s the one thing that must be done above all else.
Our church is living into that mission more and more, and as we do it’s important we not forget that the mission reminds us and identifies to the world who we are and why we exist. The Mission Statement of Hocking Hills UMC is:“Following Jesus Christ, Making Disciples, Transforming Our Community and the World.” This statement tells the world who we are and reminds us to what it is we’ve been called to do.
When most people think about “Mission Control,”they think about a group of people on the ground in a control room, sending out commands to the astronauts who were launched into space. Their presence is important because through their communication with the astronauts,the space crew is reminded of what their mission is and they receive encouragement to complete the task set before them.
Likewise, we, too, are a group of people -- a faith community -- whose job it is to direct, proclaim, and control the goal of the church. We have received our mission from the greatest Mission Control Commander, Jesus Christ Himself, and we are now commissioned as a Mission Control Center, charged with carrying out the mission of the church.
There is an urgency in the world today for people to find their purpose in this life, to understand that they have some significant destiny beyond a life of personal wants and wishes. People long to be a part of something of lasting value and significance. God has called us to be the Mission Control Center for the Gospel, and He is shaping us into a mission-minded church. Our existence as a church was meant for such a time as this!
Can you feel the urgency?! It’s time to get out of our seats! It’s time to take action! It’s time we traded in our steeples for people. This could be the start of a new day, a new season of ministry for our church, our community and the world, if we take seriously our purpose and live it out.
It’s time to stop stumbling around without direction and start running to the beat of the Mission of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It’s time to take back our identity as the church, it’s time to rediscover our God-given purpose and our reason for being on this earth. Let’s be the“Mission Control” of the Great Commission!
