We Have a Mission

WE HAVE A MISSION

CONNECT - for mid-week/Home League groups

Education Session - Mission Priorities

Introducing all five Mission Priorities.

Summary

Decorate a palm print
Share research on Salvation Army history and mission
Be encouraged and challenged, because God invites you to partner with him in his mission

The Five Marks of Mission is a framework developed by the World Mission Commission of the Church of England in 1984 which helps to recognise God’s mission or ‘Missio Dei’ in the world. It is a way of understanding the whole message of the gospel, from creation to the cross, and is also a way of helping us experience and engage in Christian mission and ministry today.

This is not new thinking. For generations we have recognised that the Church, and The Salvation Army as part of it, is called to be the head, hands and heart of Christ in our broken and hurting world, as SASB 687 reminds us:

‘We are the hands of Christ;

He uses us each day

To show his love to everyone

In every kind of way.’

It is sometimes helpful to think of these ‘five marks’ as the very fingerprints of God’s own activity in the world. It is evidence of where we see the hand of God at work in ourselves, and in the lives and communities around us. It is not five separate missions but one mission with five ways in which we can encounter God.

The Salvation Army has evolved these five marks of mission into five Mission Priorities. We have, as Chris Wright – author, missiologist and preacher – says, recognised that mission is not a specialist activity of a few professionals, but a call to all who follow Jesus. It is an acknowledgement that God graciously invites us both individually and corporately as The Salvation Army to join him in his work of mission in the world.

CRAFT

Ask members to make a handprint or draw around their hand on a piece of paper and to label each finger with one of the mission priorities. Now write alongside them one simple practical way in which they are participating with God in this aspect of his mission.

At the centre of their palm print write the words ‘Jesus is Lord’, and add a prayer both of thanksgiving and petition that relates to how they are joining in with God in his mission where they are.

Reflect individually or as a group on what has been produced and what story it tells. Ask members to keep their handprint somewhere as an ongoing reminder of their call to be part of God’s mission.

GAME

Number the five Mission Priorities one to five, with six being a ‘free choice’ option. Take turns to roll a large dice. Whichever number the dice lands on requires that participant to share an idea for joining in with that Mission Priority:

1: Share the good news

2: Serve others without discrimination

3: Nurture disciples of Jesus

4: Care for creation

5: Seek justice and reconciliation

6: Free choice – choose any one of the above

Ask group members to research Salvation Army history and mission and come prepared to share some information they have found out, eg The Salvation Army’s labour exchange / the Maiden Tribute [raising the age of consent] / Hadleigh Farm / Strawberry Field …

THE GREAT COMMISSION

‘Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”’

(Matthew 28:16-20 NRSV)

What do you think about when you think of mission? The Great Commission contained in these verses is often pointed to as a place where we understand the mission Jesus gave to his followers and the Church. At its heart is one important verse:

‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.’

Think about that for a moment: everything, absolutely everything, is under the authority of Jesus Christ. There is nothing that has been created that cannot be used or redeemed for the glory of God, and God who created all things has a mission to reconcile all the broken, the lost, and what the world sees as the least important, to himself through Jesus. This is the journey of mission God has been on since creation, and we can trace it through the stories of the Bible from Abraham to Jesus, to the Great Commission and beyond.

The Great Commission also reminds us of Psalm 24:1-2:

‘The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; for he founded it on the seas and established it on the waters.’

It is a reminder that we can see how God is engaged in mission in the world, through our experience of who God is – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – and the story of mission from Genesis to the birth of the Church and onwards to today, where we ourselves are invited and involved in God’s Mission, ‘Missio Dei’.

In all these things, the five priorities point to one truth – that Jesus Christ is Lord.

Philippians 2:9-11 reminds us:

‘Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.’

So, ‘Jesus is Lord’ is at the centre of all our mission. It is all about Jesus!

The five priorities point to how God is undertaking his mission in the world and how we can participate and prioritise that in our everyday life:

‘So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life – your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life – and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognise what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it.’

(Romans 12:1-2 The Message)

So, our mission, that of participating in God’s mission, is:

To share the good news
To serve others without discrimination
To nurture disciples of Jesus
To care for creation
To seek justice and reconciliation

Salvationist.org

This is what discipleship looks like – joining in with God’s mission:

Sharing the good news story of Jesus (Acts 19:20),
Serving others like Jesus did, nurturing others, being a disciple making disciples (2 Timothy 2:2),
Caring for all of creation as good stewards (Genesis 1:28), and ‘walking in his ways’ (Deuteronomy 10:12-19),
Seeking justice and the ministry of reconciliation (Isaiah 1:17).

Think about what that means for you and how you can live it out right where you are. Celebrate the incredible privilege we have, the beautiful invitation to join God in his mission, and as you love God and love others you will begin to see his fingerprints over all you are and all you do. If it’s mission, it will only point in one direction – the proclamation that Jesus Christ is Lord.

Be encouraged and challenged, because God invites you to partner with him in his mission:

‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’

(Mark 12:30)

SASB 374 ‘Jesus is Lord! Creation’s voice proclaims it’
- Soloists lyric video by Droitwich Spa Salvation Army (2:42)
- Instrumental lyric video by The Royal School of Church Music (2:24)
‘I speak Jesus’
- Lyric video feat. Steven Musson by Charity Gayle (7:46)
‘We have a mission’
- Music video (no lyrics) feat. Ann Stewart and Regent Hall Songsters by Music and More (1:47)