More than pancakes...

CityLife Church serves...

~by Jim

This summer, as we begin training for missional living, we are scheduling opportunities for our people to connect with the surrounding community. Saturday we had a group set up to feed a pancake breakfast for the families that would be served by 6Stones through New Hope Center. We planned, prepared, and conducted the entire event without any need for the team at New Hope to be involved…but we did have their approval and their blessing on our effort.

As we gathered early Saturday morning we took time to pray together and talk about what it means to be missional. Missional living has been defined in terms of realigning ourselves with the biblical narrative where we adopt a missionary stance in relation to our culture. Living on mission goes far beyond the “what” and “how” of being sent; it hinges on the “who” of other people. It’s about entering into life with other people and intentionally living the gospel wherever we are. What we do must be of value to the people that we encounter, but it is only the foil that gets us there. While we are there we must engage the people and join them on their journey…we must be willing to get outside of our assumptions about life and walk with people as Jesus did. It was our prayer God would circumcise our eyes and hearts allowing us to see what He sees as we served those that came.

As we departed we were aware that the “pancakes” may have met the immediate need…but we were greatly aware that encounters of significance could only happen by taking the first step to be where the people are. It remains our hope that the “ancient way” will be made new to us again.