How the Presence of God Fuels Our Mission
By David Fitch
• January 23, 2017
David Fitch: “We not only gather in God’s presence on Sundays, we live in his presence the other six days of the week.”
A couple years ago, I was on a weekend church
retreat at a Michigan City, Indiana, beach house, when an unusual
conversation broke out. About 20 people were gathered on the back porch
to discuss the direction of their church, and I was acting as their
consultant. They had moved to a specific suburb of Chicago about two
years earlier to plant this church. They had engaged with many hurting
people in the neighborhood. They had made inroads into community
activities and were involved in bringing healing to some of the town’s
basic needs. But they were frustrated.
“What are we doing here? We’ve been here two years and nothing is
happening!” said one of the men, Matt. “We haven’t seen any more people
come to our Sunday gathering. We haven’t seen any conversions.” Matt
wasn’t seeing a connection between what they did on Sundays and the rest
of the week.
Then, a woman named Sylvia jumped in, “I don’t know what I’m doing
with Joan in the neighborhood. She’s so broken. I thought I was helping
her, but now you’re all telling me I’m enabling her. I thought this is
what we were doing here as a church. Now I’m so confused as to whether
I’m supposed to be doing anything.”
Sylvia, it seems, saw the helping of hurting people as the work of
the church. But she was not clear as to how what they did as the church
extended into her relationship with her neighbor.
Both Matt and Sylvia illustrated a disconnect between their organized
church life with God in worship and discipleship and the life they led
with God in their neighborhoods.
This disconnect, I suggest, is common in today’s missional churches.
Churches that emphasize God’s mission in the world and urge Christians
to participate in it often find many Matts or Sylvias among them. We
struggle to connect what happens “in here” as a committed people of God
gathered on Sunday to what happens “out there,” where Christians
minister daily among the struggles and injustices of the world.
This all changes when we understand that God is always present and at
work in the world, and the church—as a people—is called to be faithful
to his presence through Jesus Christ. We not only gather in his presence
on Sundays, we live in his presence, discern his presence and witness
to his presence in the world the other six days of the week. What we do
on Sunday, tending to the presence of Christ as we gather together,
enables us to discern that same presence at work in the rest of our
lives and in our neighborhoods. Discipleship and mission are
inextricably linked. And the church is neither Matt’s emphasis nor
Sylvia’s emphasis alone—but both are intricately intertwined.
Being Faithful to His Presence
The theme of God’s presence runs through the entire Bible, beginning
with Adam and Eve in the garden, to the tabernacle and the temple among
the people of Israel, to God coming to us as “Emmanuel–God with us,” all
the way to the new heaven and the new earth where God dwells fully
present among his people (Rev. 21:3-4,22).
The Old Testament speaks regularly of God’s presence in the world.
Yet God was still especially present with his chosen people Israel via
the tabernacle and then the temple. John 1:14 says, “The Word became
flesh and tabernacled among us.” Through Jesus, God came to dwell with
humanity through his people, the body of Christ, the church, which the
apostle labels “the temple of the living God” (2 Cor. 6:16). The entire
story of the Bible leads toward God restoring creation to his presence
through Jesus Christ and his people.
It is amazing the ways that Jesus promises to be present among us. To
name just a few, Jesus tells his disciples that when you have a
conflict, and two or three come together and agree, “I am there among
you” (Matt. 18:20). When Jesus inaugurated the Lord’s Table, he said,
“Whenever you eat this meal, be present to my presence” [my translation
of the Greek word
anamnesis, which is typically translated as
“remember me”] (Luke 22:19). And so the church has long recognized
Jesus’ special presence at the Lord’s Table.
In Luke Chapter 10, Jesus tells his disciples who proclaim the gospel
that “those who listened to you heard me, and those who rejected you
reject me” (Luke 10:16). Jesus is saying he is present in the
proclaiming of the gospel. In Matt. 25:34-46, in a parable, Jesus tells
his disciples that when they are with “the least of these,” ministering
among the poor, he is there present with them. In each of these
disciplines—I contend in my book
Faithful Presence that there are seven of these disciplines—Jesus promises to be present among us.
When we gather as Christians on Sunday, we gather to encounter his
presence. We encounter his presence in all the ways described above: at
the hearing of the gospel proclaimed, as we eat around the Table, as we
tend to each other’s needs, as we discern conflicts together, as we
submit our lives to God’s reign in prayer. Yet this experiencing of
God’s presence does not stop when we leave church and go home. Because
God is present and at work in the world, these disciplines help us
discern his presence at work in the world, as well.
Discerning His Presence in House Groups
And so, when Christians gather in homes to eat together, we do just
what we did on Sunday. We tend to his presence around the table. We give
thanks and open our lives to whatever God would do here among us. We
submit all things to Christ. We quiet our egos and tend to the people
around the table. On Sunday, the bread and the cup taught us how God
works in Christ. So we look for God bringing people to his
forgiveness—reconciliation and renewal of all things. A space is opened
up for God to work as Christians gather to eat in their neighborhoods.
One night, my “house group” was sitting around the table sharing a
meal together as was our custom every Friday night. We were eating
together, talking, listening and tending to one another. We had grown in
trust. We had learned to recognize how Jesus was present among us. A
few of us, including myself, shared about family struggles. People
listened as we shared the conflicts we were struggling through.
As I listened to my friend share about how he and his wife were
walking through the darkness, seeing little signs that God was taking
them somewhere with their oldest child, I felt encouraged. I also saw
some signs of hope in my own marriage. In conversation that night, I was
challenged to look at my anger and control. Someone recalled a text
from the previous Sunday’s sermon (one I had preached). I received all
this because I was able to submit to Christ’s real presence at work
around this table. That same night, Hillary, one of our friends, was
with us. As she listened, her eyes widened. She said nothing. But God
was speaking. She was seeing new possibilities for healing in her own
family relationships.
As we prayed that night, we put all these things before God, asking
him to be present. As I looked back weeks later, I recognized how that
night had opened up space for Christ’s presence to work in all of our
lives and disciple us into the ways of Jesus in our families.
His Presence Always Takes Us into the World
But of course God is at work among those who do not yet recognize him
as Lord. And so the things we practice on Sunday and live around our
tables at home must extend into the places where he is not yet
recognized.
As we go to the various third places of our lives—the YMCAs, the PTA
meetings, the coffee houses, the local bars, the parks where children
and parents play, the town hall meetings, the places where we work,
wherever we share a meal or a beverage—we go in the confidence that God
is already present there, as well. The only difference between these
places and our homes is that we are guests in these places. We come to
sit, listen and tend to what God is doing among others, and when the
space is opened, we offer reconciliation, pray for healing and proclaim
the gospel. We know Christ is there, but we cannot assume he will be
welcomed. This is all under his lordship and yet to be seen.
For years, I spent the first three hours of my day at a McDonald’s,
grading papers and doing communications and other work I had to get
done. The coffee was cheap and the Wi-Fi was free. Over time, I began to
be open to discerning Christ’s presence in that place. I saw an amazing
cacophony of people flowing through there, many seeking to be known and
to know others. They were seeking presence. As I made myself available,
as I listened and tended to people, a space opened for Jesus to be
present. The booth in McDonald’s would be transformed into an extension
of the Lord’s Table.
Picture, if you can, me sitting across from John, a man who had been
homeless for three years. I am anxious. I am busy with my work. I am
preoccupied. John is talking about a conspiracy theory about Mars and
President Obama (I am not exaggerating). But the Spirit is telling me to
tend to what God is doing in John’s life, to believe that God is at
work around this table. And so I cast my eyes on John. I quiet my ego
and stop my fidgeting. I put aside all of my own agendas and make space
to discern God’s presence at this table. John senses something. I ask
him what evidence he has for the Obama conspiracy with Mars, but we move
on to much more interesting discussions.
Several conversations later, around Christmas, John tells me he
hasn’t seen his kids in 10 years. We unravel some of the pain together. I
tell him I believe Jesus is Lord and is at work reconciling all things.
I tell him some of my own testimony. I tell him I believe God is
working to reconcile John with his kids. In other words, I share the
gospel. He tells me all the reasons why this cannot happen. I say I
believe Jesus is Lord, and invite John to trust him. John says yes, and
so we write a letter to his children, asking for forgiveness. This sets
off a string of events in which God works to restore and heal. John and I
both experience being forgiven and forgiving others in ways that
transform both our lives. A year later, John is with his family at
Christmas. Two years later, John has a job. And people in McDonald’s are
asking, “What has happened to John?” John and I were both discipled
during that experience.
There are many more episodes like this that illustrate not only how
God changes a person, but also how he changes situations and unjust
systems. In each case, it is amazing how the dynamics change when I, as a
Christian, open up space to discern Christ’s presence around a table
with people who do not yet know him as Lord. I am no longer a person who
knows something that the other person doesn’t. I am no longer that
person trying to get someone else to do something I think he or she
should do. Instead, I am transported into this arena where God is
already at work in Christ, and I am privileged to witness what God is
doing. In the process, I, the Christian, learn and grow as much, if not
more, than the one I am spending time with.
Discipleship as a Way of Life
That evening on the back porch in Michigan City, I asked the group to
count the number of significant relationships they had with people in
their neighborhoods. It could be the neighbor next door, the zoning
committee chairman of the village, the town hall policeman or woman they
met with to discuss race issues in the community, or a hurting widow
they had met at the coffee shop. We counted about 75 people who they
were involved with in long-term, real-life relationships in various
kinds of situations. I then asked if their church attendance was 50
people (the total who showed up on Sunday) or 125, the total number of
relationships with whom they were discerning the presence of Christ at
work among them. I argued it was the latter.
Often, churches separate discipleship and worship from evangelism. We
mistakenly make discipleship about personal growth with Jesus and make
evangelism about explicitly telling others about Jesus. But when
discipleship means discerning Christ’s presence in my life, in the
people around me and in all my encounters with others—whether at work,
in third places, schools or neighborhoods—discipleship is inseparable
from mission. As such, discipleship can no longer be a program at the
local church. Evangelism cannot be something we do exclusively on a
weeknight outreach event. Instead, both are joined as a whole way life,
given to his church, called to be his faithful presence in the world.
Some of this article was adapted from excerpts from Faithful Presence: 7 Disciplines That Shape the Church for Mission
(IVP, 2016).
Order this book on Amazon.com »
David Fitch is B.R. Linder Chair of Evangelical Theology at Northern Seminary in Chicago.
