When Less Is More

On paper, Church of the Cross does two things: Sunday morning and Community Groups. This has been a conscious decision, but don’t let it fool you. Though we don’t have much on your schedule, we actually expect quite a bit from our members. In fact, we are striving to re-orient our entire lives around God’s mission. In John 20:21, Jesus said that just as the Father sent Him, Jesus is sending His people. God is a sending God and the Church is a sent people.

In Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus says that His people are to be about the business of making disciples and in Philippians 2, Paul makes the audacious claim that we are to consider others as more significant than ourselves because that is what Jesus has done for us. Jesus goes so far as to say that whoever follows Him must take up their own cross and follow Him (Matthew 16:24). Jesus says that he wants and demands and deserves our entire lives.

And yet, the way that we often approach church does not require our lives, it just takes up our time. Instead of equipping us, it leaves many of us drained. Instead of making disciples, it focuses much time and energy inward. I don’t by no means pretend that we have it all figured out or that we are somehow better than other churches, just that we’re trying another way. A harder way. It means that we seek out ways to serve rather than be served (Mark 10:45). It means that we don’t expect the church to do the work of ministry for us (Ephesians 4:11-16) but instead equip us to do the work of ministry.

Re-orienting your whole life around God’s mission is much more difficult than keeping some programs running. It means understanding yourself to be a missionary and all of life as the mission field. And this is best accomplished when we our time is freed up to connect with our family, friends and neighbors, serving them as ambassadors of the risen King. Though our calendar may not be all that full, it’s not because we don’t have lots to do, it’s because we want to be able to do it.