Given at Cross Points Church
Shawnee, Kansas
Missions Conference Dinner
November 2024
Tonight, I’m going to talk to you about story. The idea of story. The concerns that stories bring. The pleasures and mystery that is story.
When I was a kid in Prairie Village, my mother would ask my brother and sister and me about a problem in the house and who caused the troubled situation. Each of us would report our side of the events, and my mom would look me in the eye and say, “Now don’t you story to me!” By that, she meant don’t lie.
I’m not talking about story in the sense of lying. Today I’m talking about story-- we could say--a narrative. There is the backstory to an event and by that we mean all the circumstances that led the characters, especially the protagonist in view, to be the kind of person he’s become.
Stories, whether in front of us, or the backstory-- what is it about them that makes us sit up, turn on the television, read the novel, go to the movies, especially the sequel, just what makes us notice a good story?
Peter Kreeft is one of my favourite Christian authors. He’s a professor in Boston and a CS Lewis devotee. Kreeft believes that the human story is told by God, who “uses crooked lines to tell the story straight.” Kreeft also believes that myths are stories about individuals, but they are also examples of universal archetypes. And he emphasises problems as very important to any story.
Let’s say, I have a story to tell. And it’s a story that includes religion and freedom and encounters and troubles. Does that sound interesting to you? Maybe it does. But the moment I say ‘religion,’ some folks are turned off. Puh-lease, they would say; I had enough of that when it was shoved down my throat as a kid. Others hear words like ‘freedom’ and wonder if I’m speaking about a political party with which they disagree. Or when I say ‘troubles’ they don’t want to hear it because they have enough troubles of their own.
But if Kreeft is right, and a story is not a real story unless there is conflict, then my story and the God story we all believe here at Cross Points is one that has significance and which gives us hope and endurance.
You see, we are at the annual missions conference. And many of us in this room are missionaries. So there must be a story about that. A biblical story. And I plan to share that with you. But here’s a problem.
The word ‘mission’ or ‘missionary’ is not found in the Bible. Nope. Mission is not there. Of course, neither is Trinity or toothpaste, but we all hold to the truth of God as Father, Son and Spirit, and we all wish everyone would bring and use their toothbrush after meals. But ‘mission?’
We Kansas City folks know about Shawnee Mission, don’t we? We drive on the Parkway, we swim in the park, and use the hospital or public school system bearing the name Shawnee Mission. But do you really know the story of the mission?
The mission itself was for what now are called native Americans. It was established before the Civil War as a manual training school attended by children from Shawnee, Delaware, and other Indian nations from 1839 to 1862. If you want a full history on Kansaspedia, check the bit.ly/ link here: https://bit.ly/missionshawnee
The mission was run by Christians and they saw themselves as missionaries. It’s a great history. Although I must say that ‘great’ might be a bit much for antebellum, pre-Civil War re-education of Indians and the views held by the elite in those days.
So mission was in the heart of the Methodists who worked there for years.
Here’s more of note. The word mission is in the vocabulary of the modern Western business world, so almost every company has a mission statement. What is it that drives the company? What is its purpose in the world? But did you know that even some companies like restaurants have mission statements, although it should be fairly obvious that they exist for food for their customers?
Is that how we at Cross Points use the term?
What about wartime missions? That is, when a general sends his fleet of aircraft on sorties, those missions are designed to accomplish the demolition of the enemy or at least to protect the ground troops. This may be a good time to see the double use of this word.
The activities of the pilots on mission are part of the overall mission of winning the war. Both enterprises can honourably be titled ‘mission.’
Closer to home, the activities of the Chiefs’ coaches at Arrowhead, in running offensive or defensive linemen through their drills, along with the kickers and punt returners working on their warmups all week in practice, are useful to the overall mission of winning the game tomorrow. And that winning tomorrow is part of the overall mission of winning the Super Bowl. See how this works? A mission is either a component or an overarching purpose.
With all that in mind, I think that’s how we as missionaries, all the 25 or 28 of us here tonight, view this week. We have met with you in small groups, in connect groups, after or before church, on the phone, and in so many ways to share stories of our work, so that you get the small AND the large picture, so that you walk with us in our mission, be it in Latin America or France, in the UK or Africa, where I’ve been working in Australia for 26 years, or here in the US. Our mission however is not the big picture at all.
For that we have to look at the Bible, and even closely look at the heart of God. What is God up to in 2024? What did God want of his people in 1725? Or in the reign of King Solomon? Or in the beginning?
After all that introduction, let me clearly state what I believe to be the mission of God. God, from the beginning, wanted a people of his own who would dwell together in Paradise with him. When sin entered the world, God’s mission involved ridding the world of evil and making us to be a new creation. And that mission is told and retold and wonderfully retold via story. The story of the Older Testament and in Yeshua our Messiah and throughout the Newer Testament. The story is the mission unfurled.
So then, what should be our mission statement? Not our organisation or our church. What is the mission of God for us as his people? Our mission is no different than it was in Genesis 1, to be fruitful and multiply and to care for the natural world. Really, that’s it, you say? Yes, that’s it, if we understand what fruitful and multiply means.
Fruitful relates to character and it springs from a seed. The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace (James chapter 3.18) and has its reward in fruitfulness.
Listen to these Bible texts:
Amos chides the people of God in chapter 6:12
“You have turned justice into poison and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood,”
Paul the apostle uses these words in chapter 5 of Ephesians, “The fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth”, Eph. 5:9
Again we read Paul to the Philippians,
“having been filled with the afruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.” (Phil 1.11)
And finally in Hebrews we read,
“All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.” Heb. 12:11
God wants fruit to grow in us and on us and through us. That involves being planted in us and letting it have its perfect result. Righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
As many of you would also count, fruit in modern parlance involves the number of believers who convert to the Gospel which may be indicated in Paul’s Romans letter chapter one. Each of us on the mission field have been met with the question, “How many converts have you seen this year?” and we often ache. Many of our missions involve discipleship and not evangelism. Some are training leaders and not being out front in Gospel presentation online or in public. We do have to go beyond fruitfulness as evidenced only in conversions.
Fruit then is character and it is numbers of believers and it is growth. God wants that for each of us and for his church. Without character, what’s the point of growing?
Peter ended his second letter with this
2Pet. 3:18 “ grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
Back in Genesis, what did God say about our mission? Fruitful and multiply. That sounds like numerical growth. And God promised it to Abraham. He told him that his descendants would be as numerous as the sands on the seashore and the stars in the heavens. And although the Jewish people have never been more than a couple of dozen million on the earth, the sheer population of the planet today is over 8 billion, with a b.
Now, beyond the human population, what is the population of the community of faith? And does that even matter? You bet it does. Every place God wants us to make a difference in the lives of others, we need the resources of people. To look after the children or to care for widows and orphans in their distress. To teach others how to live and to stand with folks in their discomfort and pain. I think it takes much more than a village; it takes the church!
Yes, God can work with 12, or with the inner 3. Yes, little Rhoda in Acts chapter 12 was the main believer in the release of the apostle Peter from prison. God can and does use the individual. Hallelujah! At the same time, he wants us to learn from Jesus and to bring others along into his fold. “Come and see” was the phrase that Jesus told the boys on asking where he was staying, in other words, asking if they could join him. Come and see is still the phrase we should tell folks, as I did with my waitress at IHOP yesterday and as I did with a couple of Jewish couples this morning at synagogue. It’s how we begin to multiply. But the real multiplication happens when we all add our weight to the proclamation of the Gospel. One by one is done by one at a time; multiplication happens when we all invite our one-by-ones and numbers pour in. Think back to the 1970s when a little former Baptist minister got filled with the Holy Spirit and South 42nd street in KCK was never the same. Explosion happens now and then, and it’s a good problem to have. May we here at Cross Points experience it soon, in light of the 30,000 goals in the three years in which we find ourselves.
But, you might ask, what about the creation? We are to subdue it and to care for it and represent the Creator to his planet. Why? Because we are participants in this story. We are not outsiders reading about history and others and studying for an examination. We are reading about our family and our family home and carrying on the family legacy and story. We are actors in the great story and we have a mission, some say a Great Commission.
By the way, the phrase “The Great Commission” was first coined by Hudson Taylor about 1890. And I wonder if we limit God’s mission when we only speak of evangelism and soul-winning as the Great Commission.
The story of the Bible is God on mission. Blessing all nations, first through Abraham and the Jewish people, then through Jesus the Messiah. Blessing to result in redemption and a hope that does not disappoint.
When I came to faith in Jesus in 1971, I found my Redeemer and my Saviour. I was the recipient of eternal life. It was a Monday night in Leawood, May of 1971. First thing I did was to go home to my parents’ home in Prairie Village and tell them what I had done, but honestly, to tell them of God’s love for them. God had a mission for me and for my folks. He wanted to repair our lives. Unfortunately, I was the only one who heard it. I was 19 years old. That story, that mission is still God’s heart for Jewish people and for Gentiles in Shawnee, for Latinos in the Argentine and Koreans out at 105th and Metcalf.
But remember what Peter Kreeft said. A story is not such a good story without conflict, suffering or opposition. Think of every Disney story you know. There has to be a villain, the Big Bad Wolf, Javar, Cruella de Ville, Gaston or Captain Hook. Without opponents, we have a fairly dull story.
So the story of God’s mission for him and for us includes the main opponent Satan, and little opponents along the way. Those might include our own laziness, our own self-satisfaction, our own sins. But I trust in the Lord and surrender to him so that his victory is ours. We win when he wins, and this is the victory, even our faith. Honestly, our surrender is our victory.
Friends and fellow actors in the story of God on planet Earth, whether you are a paid missionary or paying to support missionaries, we are together in the Great Story. The paid missionaries here at the Missions Week conference want to say thank you to each of the donors and supporters who are here. We owe you each day. We are your hands and feet on the ground among the people to whom we are sent. Please hear me when I say, “We love and thank you.” And we invite you to continue to participate not only in our story but also in the Great Story of God’s love and redemption here in Kansas City and to the ends of the earth.
Every person we help to be fruitful and to multiply, each soul who is brought near, every man, woman and child who now is partnering in the Great Story also sends their thanks.
Let us exalt the name of the Lord from this time forth and forevermore. Amen?
