Which one are you?

I’m preaching this morning and the passage (Luke 15) highlights three approaches to mission:

1. Active: Go and find.
2. Passive or Compassionate: Stay and wait.
3. Grumpy: “I should get the attention”

If you could describe your approach to Mission, which one would you be?

It strikes me that Jesus did much more of the Active than the Passive, and that he taught his followers more of the Active than the Passive. I was talking with someone a few weeks ago who had been heavily involved in Churches for 30 years and they said something that really struck me:

“It seems to me that for the last 30 years the church has systematically dis-empowered me. I have been captivated by church activities and I’m not sure how to share my faith with the people around me.”
This is not a direct quote, you’ll be please to know I don’t record conversations or take notes!

If Jesus example was “Active” why have we become so “Passive” and dis-empowering?

As Churches we have become specialists in the “Passive”, “Come to us, we’re waiting for your return” kind of Mission. I can understand why, it is far more comfortable to stay confined within your own environment than to go in mission. If we are to learn from Jesus and his stories then we will recognise that there is a place for that kind of mission, especially where there is an existing relationship that has broken down (as in the Father and the Son).