Dave’s Monday Blast – March 7, 2022
Did you know that sheep have peripheral vision up to 320 degrees? This means they can graze on a patch of green grass, glimpse another patch and wander off. Their distracted vision can move them from tuft to tuft until they’re grazing in the far country unable to find their way back. As a shepherd once said, “Sheep can nibble themselves toward lostness.”
Churches can and often do nibble themselves toward lostness. No pastor of a faithful church will state that in 10 years their church will be less faithful to Christ, less biblically centered, less of a caring community, less concerned about those who suffer, less committed to discipleship or to worshipping God with our minds. But losing focus on mission happens because of peripheral vision, wanting to wander toward the more appealing or distracting. It’s not necessarily INTENTIONAL, although it can be. But it is inevitable, unless we’re disciplined to know our mission and stick to it, even in turbulent times, even when it’s countercultural.
The Church is not governed by a pastor, or elder board, it is governed by the Word of God and the Mission that our Savior assigned to us at His ascension (Matthew 28:19 – 20). The Church always must rally around the common mission and adhere to it faithfully. This means to look to the future while keeping our eyes FIXED on our past (that is the assigned mission). It was Winston Churchill who said, “The farther back you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see.”
If we are inattentive to this mission, this vision cast by Christ Himself, we will nibble ourselves toward lostness. Attention to the mission means that we do not “blend in” with our culture. “Do not be conformed to this world…” (Romans 12:1 & 2). It is our sacred obligation to know the reason for being the Church and to commit together that this is why we are here. This is what holds us together…that is…being “set apart”. We should all be concerned during this reactive season that we don’t fall prey to those who want us to demolish our history, deconstruct our founding principles, or cancel our “founder”. Too many churches have opted to “moment” over “bedrock.” Over the next couple weeks I want to chat about our foundational or bedrock principles that stem from our Jesus assigned mission.
These principles must be safeguarded at all costs. We must unite around them as never before during these days in which we live. In Proverbs 22:28 King Solomon writes: “Do not move the ancient boundary which your fathers have set.” Contextually, the wisest man who ever lived, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, reminds us that the boundaries established by God are in place for our good and to move them is to invite destruction.
Next week we will begin to unpack 6 commitments upon which the church is supported.
