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Bulletin 97 Date : 18th May 2007
Church of the Headless Chicken

Matthew’s Gospel concludes with what we have come to know as ‘The Great Commission’. "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age." (Matthew 28:19-20).

What do you make of these words? Do we look around our communities and think, “We’ve got enough problems making disciples here, let alone in the whole world.” It seems to me that if we don’t measure these words of Jesus against other teachings, we get an unbalanced view of mission and could end up as headless chickens, trying to do far too much.

Also in Matthew’s Gospel we read that Jesus sent out his twelve disciples but gave them strict guidelines of where not to go (see Matt 10:5-15). But more interestingly, in Luke’s writings we see another view on our mission.

"But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)

I think this verse gives us some vitally important lessons about mission and evangelism which we need to wrestle with today.

1. Start where you are
Jesus is stating here the importance of those who are already God’s people (Jerusalem and Judea). In these days of Fresh Expressions of Church, we can easily undervalue the role of the established church in supporting the pioneering work of mission. Echoing Matthew 10:5-15, Luke stresses here that Jesus had a real passion for His own people, stubborn though they were.

2. Be reconciled to your neighbours
The second phase of the mission was to Samaria. That must have stuck in the throats of the disciples because of the hostility that existed between Jews and Samaritans. However, there are a colossal number of people in this country who we call the de-churched. These are people who used to come to church but do so no longer. Some have intentionally decided to stay away whilst others find difficulty relating to church. If we simply side-step these people we are in danger of adding to their numbers. With some de-churched people, our approach needs to be one of humility and willingness to accept our part in their departure. Forgiveness is to the Christian like manure is to the vegetable garden – it stinks a bit at first but, boy, does it produce a good crop. Jesus teaches about leaving a gift on the altar and being reconciled to our brother (Matthew 5:23-24).

3. The whole world
One of the lessons which came out of last week’s ‘Hard Questions’ seminar was that when we start new church ventures, we should remember that we are part of a wider body – the worldwide church. I find it very easy to carry the world on my shoulders when my diary is overfull. We were never meant to solve the problems of the world single-handed – we have enough of our own (Mark 9:38-41).

So, we need to avoid the temptation of turning our church into ‘The Church of the Headless Chicken”. Instead we should understand the Great Commission as part of the overall mission philosophy of the Church and affirm, or cooperate with, the mission being carried out by other Christians in our locality.