On the Costs of Moving "Mission" to the Center

So this year both on campus and in my own life I've had a growing desire to focus on what it means that God's a missional God who invites us to be a part of his mission of mending broken relationships, first and foremost with himself.

On campus with InterVarsity, that means that we've been un-apologetically focused on calling our community to be a part of God's work in reconciling people to Himself.

Of course, any time you choose to focus on one thing in a Christian community, that means a) other values can get overlooked that shouldn't be and b) people leave who don't like that value.

And so, of course, I periodically want to re-examine and test the call. I'm fine to run people off if we're doing what we're supposed to be doing. We're not running a ministry popularity contest. We are called to serve people but we do not answer to people. But we don't want to run people off recreationally.

And there are other parts to the mission of God. We're 'leading' with this value, but we don't want to miss out on the breadth of God's kingdom. We need to continue to mature in the vision and in how it gets worked out.

So last week I was asking the Lord for confirmation, for clarity. Are we doing what we're supposed to be doing? We're seeing some incredible things on campus, seeing lives change literally right in front of our eyes. But there's still cost, still questions.

Then I read what was simply that mornings Scripture in Proverbs (chapter 24), as I've been working through Proverbs for the past several months:

If you falter in a time of trouble,
how small is your strength!

Rescue those being led away to death;
hold back those staggering toward slaughter.

If you say, "But we knew nothing about this,"
does not he who weighs the heart perceive it?
Does not he who guards your life know it?
Will he not repay everyone according to what they have done?

Yep, that about settles it.