Tuesday, November 28, 2017

An Open Letter to our Church
November 28, 2017

Dear Radiant Juneau,

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, “It is grace, nothing but grace, that we are allowed to live in community with Christian brethren.” I find myself overwhelmed with humility, great joy and gratitude that Deb and I get to be the church with you all. Whatever it is Radiant Church Juneau has become in the past year, we can agree that it is the work of the Holy Spirit in us that agrees with the promise Jesus made, that “He would build His Church.”

This is the time of year when I find myself more joyfully reflective, and with that more cautiously evaluative. Together with our other elders we reflect on God’s many tangible expressions of grace to us, and we’re asking evaluative questions of ourselves and for our church.

One question: “Are we really communicating, and does everyone in our church together believe who Jesus is and what He’s done?” 2 Corinthians 11:4 says, For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus other than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.

Our unity is, and must be around the Good News of Jesus, the Father’s great expression of His love through grace for rebels. The gospel is our unifying factor and rally point. Disunity can come when unmet expectations and/or cultural preferences are given more weight than the truth and grace of the gospel. While we say we are about the gospel, and growing in “gospel fluency” with each other, there might remain some gaps.

The big question on my own heart is this: “Are we making disciples?” And with that, “What is our plan for making disciples?” I wonder if in our now 5 gospel communities we are confident in saying that we are indeed making disciples of each other (?) I hope the old adage, "Failure to plan is planning to fail" will not be true of us.

Making disciples is the Great Commission Jesus left with us (Matthew 28:19-20), the job of the Church. As a “Family of Servant Missionaries learning to be and make Disciples,” we’re strong in our family identity and in our servant identity. We’re doing well in raising up new teachers and leaders. We’re really growing in our capacity to worship God when we’re gathered together. However, we may need to grow in our missionary identity as a church, before we can confidently say we’re making disciples.

Writer and theologian N.T. Wright said,  “Worship and mission are conjoined twins…two components of the angled mirror vocation of God’s people to reflect God to the world (mission) and reflect the people to God (worship.”) As a church, we need to prayerfully consider and broaden our commitment to mission, specifically in our city, and to resourcing the planting of new churches in our region and state. Would it not be earth shaking and life changing if each of us were to commit to gospel saturation in our city, devoted to every man, woman and child having repeated opportunities to hear, see and believe the gospel of Jesus?

This next year, your elders are looking for effective ways and means to help us make disciples. We need a plan. We sense the need to provide resources so Moms and Dads can disciple their children, and so each of us can be discipled and make disciples of our Lord Jesus. It won’t happen unless each of us value disciple making as our primary life’s vocation. My current favorite blues artist, Jonny Lang, sings this: “You’re waiting for the mountain to move…but the mountain is waiting on you.” Look for some of our GC’s to shake things up a bit in a collective effort to be more effective in making disciples...who make disciples.
                                                     
Radiant Church Juneau is a serving church. Many of us serve each week in hauling gear, leading our children’s ministries and leading worship on Sundays. We have certainly grown as generous givers in this past year. But the question may still remain: “Are we communicating a discipleship/church participation that is too easy…at least for the majority of us?

Your elders are, really for the first time, looking at the merits (and potential pitfalls) of introducing church membership. All of us have histories, therefore opinions on church membership. But, if a more formalized membership can be an effective disciple-making tool for us, we need to consider it.

This fall, we’ve learned together from the Apostle Peter’s first letter that our unity in worship, in service, in mission, even in the midst of suffering and persecution is what makes God’s people distinctive. There is the old saying: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together”

We’re an exceedingly nice group of people. I like being around us. But, like you, I don’t want to be satisfied with being religious, content to just go through the motions. Please, join me in asking God to give His Holy Spirit absolute if not ruthless freedom to make us into passionate and committed followers of Jesus.

In this next year, wouldn’t it be incredible if Juneauites would look at us and demand an explanation for who we are and how we live? And that would quickly take the conversation to who Jesus is and what He’s done!

Together with you for God’s glory and Jesus’s fame,

Mike (for the elders)