The best for our place

In our basic docu­ments, the mis­si­on of see­tal chi­le is descri­bed with the words gathe­ring, streng­thening and sen­ding. Accor­din­gly, the­re is a visi­on pic­tu­re of a vil­la­ge. Now we have noti­ced that the dimen­si­on of mis­si­on is com­ple­te­ly miss­ing from the pic­tu­re and is also litt­le empha­sis­ed in our con­gre­ga­tio­nal cul­tu­re. We belie­ve that we have rea­ched a point whe­re we should focus more on mis­si­on and renew the visi­on pic­tu­re accordingly.

«When the salt is put on the meat, on the fish, some­thing hap­pens: rot is pre­ven­ted. Why don’t we Chris­ti­ans have a stron­ger impact on socie­ty? The­re are enough pro­blems: racism, vio­lence, an all-per­va­ding mate­ria­lism, cor­rup­ti­on at the hig­hest levels, sexu­al infi­de­li­ty, loss of values. Who is to bla­me? Ever­yo­ne but us? I see it quite dif­fer­ent­ly. I make a sug­ges­ti­on to you today: if socie­ty beco­mes bru­ta­li­sed, deca­dent, it is our fault. If the house is dark at night, it is not the house’s fault. It is the lack of light the­re. If the fish starts to stink, it’s not the fish’s fault. The ques­ti­on is: whe­re is the salt? We accu­se socie­ty of this, full of arro­gan­ce and self-righ­teous­ness. But Jesus has com­mis­sio­ned us to be its salt and light.» (John Stott, Bri­tish theo­lo­gi­an, 1921–2011).

It is not about achie­ving a per­fect socie­ty. It will only be per­fect when Jesus returns. But becau­se we can’t have it per­fect does­n’t mean we can’t impro­ve it. The­re are expe­ri­en­ces throug­hout histo­ry that socie­ty has been chan­ged and impro­ved by com­mit­ted Chris­ti­ans. As see­tal chi­le we have descri­bed our mis­si­on in terms of gathe­ring, streng­thening and sending.

Collection

Jesus Christ pro­mi­sed his disci­ples to build his church «and all the powers of hell can­not harm her» (Matthew 16:18 NL). It is cal­led ekkle­siaThe Greek term ori­gi­nal­ly meant the assem­bly of the citi­zens of a polis. The Greek term ori­gi­nal­ly meant the assem­bly of the citi­zens of a polis. Polis is a city and alre­a­dy indi­ca­tes that the con­gre­ga­ti­on car­ri­es a poli­ti­cal dimen­si­on throug­hout. In the Hebrew lan­guage, this is expres­sed by the expres­si­on qahal Yah­weh = Assem­bly of God who in turn had in mind the poli­ti­cal gathe­ring of God’s people.

So coll­ec­tion is deep­ly part of the core mis­si­on of a con­gre­ga­ti­on. Last year’s annu­al the­me «wel­co­me home» struck this chord. As see­tal chi­le, we have been working inten­si­ve­ly on the wel­co­ming cul­tu­re to open the door to see­tal chi­le wide for peo­p­le. Peo­p­le who come to us should feel at home from the first moment. A big com­pli­ment to you: this works quite well and has beco­me an important fea­ture of our culture.

Jesus pray­ed for two things befo­re he died. One of them is unity: «I pray for them all that they may be one as you and I are one, Father – that they may be one in us, as you are in me and I am in you, and the world may belie­ve that you have sent me»(John 17:21 NL). The radi­ance of the Gos­pel is clo­se­ly rela­ted to the unity of the churches. God’s glo­ry shi­nes through the unity in his peo­p­le. This unity must not end at the church boun­da­ry, but con­cerns the who­le peo­p­le of God. The dif­fe­ren­ces bet­ween the Chris­ti­an deno­mi­na­tio­nal churches are very small com­pared to the chall­enge we face in our socie­ty. We must not stop at that, but stand tog­e­ther in the face of gre­at needs.

Strengthening

«He (Jesus) has appoin­ted some as apost­les, others as pro­phe­ts, still others as pre­a­chers and final­ly some as she­p­herds and tea­chers. Their task is to prepa­re the belie­vers for their minis­try and to streng­then the church – the body of Christ» (Ephe­si­ans 4:11f NL). This is exact­ly why we gather on Sun­day for wor­ship and on Tues­day for small group – to be streng­the­ned. It is important for me to empha­sise that it is not the task of the pas­tor to feed the peo­p­le, but to make them hun­gry. So hun­gry that from Mon­day to Satur­day they eat them­sel­ves, see­king com­mu­ni­on with God.

Gathe­ring and streng­thening – the­se two things are on our radar. Our visi­on, the vil­la­ge image, cap­tures the­se two con­cepts. The vil­la­ge repres­ents the see­tal chi­le with the well, the hou­ses and the con­nec­tions. Each ele­ment sym­bo­li­cal­ly repres­ents a group or value of our com­mu­ni­ty. Around the vil­la­ge the­re is a sys­tem boun­da­ry with roads to neigh­bou­ring com­mu­ni­ties. We have now been hap­pi­ly tra­vel­ling with this visi­on for over 12 years. But late­ly, the ques­ti­on has beco­me more and more pres­sing: whe­re have our neigh­bour­hoods, our fac­to­ries and work­places, our schools and uni­ver­si­ties gone? The vil­la­ge image falls short in this respect and requi­res an update.

Broadcast

Ekkle­sia stands for a gathe­ring of peo­p­le cal­led tog­e­ther to share respon­si­bi­li­ty for the con­cerns of their con­text. It has a mis­si­on (lat. for mis­si­on). Even more, it is mis­sio­na­ry by its very natu­re. Jesus indi­ca­tes the same direc­tion. Befo­re his death, he pray­ed for unity and for a second cau­se: «As you sent me into the world, so I send them into the world»(John 17:18 NL). The mis­si­on of the church is to «Salt of the earth and light of the world»(Matthew 5:13–16), to pro­cla­im recon­ci­lia­ti­on to the world and to model God’s jus­ti­ce (2 Corin­thi­ans 5:18–21). In it, God’s heal­ing reign beco­mes visi­ble. She is to work for all peo­p­le on this earth to beco­me disci­ples of Jesus (Matthew 28:19–20). Only when the ekkle­sia of God is reco­g­nis­ed as a mis­sio­na­ry exis­tence in the world does it have the right to be cal­led the church of Jesus, albeit in all its pro­vi­sio­na­li­ty and ina­de­quacy. Wha­te­ver the con­gre­ga­ti­on does and speaks is to ser­ve the world! The church is built for the world.

Is the see­tal chi­le Ekkle­sia of God? The oppo­si­te would be an attrac­ti­ve church that knows how to spi­ri­tual­ly fit Chris­ti­ans. If such a church offers events on a pro­fes­sio­nal enough level, they will ensu­re incre­asing num­bers of wor­shi­p­ers. Howe­ver, size is not an appro­pria­te cri­ter­ion for the effec­ti­ve­ness of a church. «How big is your com­mu­ni­ty?» should be repla­ced with «How much chan­ge does your com­mu­ni­ty bring?» It is important what fruit we mea­su­re and how we mea­su­re it.

In 587 BC, the Jews were taken to the depra­ved, pagan, bloodthirsty city of Baby­lon. What should be the rela­ti­onship of God’s peo­p­le to such a place? Jere­mi­ah 28–29 opens up remar­kab­le vis­tas: God com­mands his peo­p­le to «grow and not beco­me smal­ler»(Jere­mi­ah 29:6), to main­tain com­mu­ni­ty iden­ti­ty but to sett­le down and get invol­ved in city life. They are to build hou­ses and plant gar­dens and – sur­pri­se! – ser­ve the city. «Seek the best of the city (shalom) whe­re I have led you away, and pray to the LORD for it.»(Jere­mi­ah 29:7a Lut). The Jews should lea­ve tri­bal inte­rests behind in the ghet­to and use their resour­ces to ser­ve the com­mon good. Lite­ral­ly it says: «seek their shalom (peace, well-being)». Alt­hough the value struc­tu­re of the earth­ly city is shar­ply oppo­sed to that of the city of God, the citi­zens of the city of God are to pro­ve them­sel­ves first and fore­most as citi­zens of their earth­ly city. The peo­p­le of God grow and pro­sper by pro­mo­ting the wel­fa­re of the city of the Gen­ti­les: «for when she is well, you are well too.»(Jere­mi­ah 29:7b Lut). If we want to seek shalom for our vil­la­ges, we must know and love them. We are sent into the world as Jesus was sent by God into the world. And God loved the world. «For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son […].»(John 3:16 NL). We will only be able to work for the well-being of our vil­la­ge if we love the peo­p­le and the vil­la­ge. Yes, I also know the pas­sa­ge whe­re it says that we should not love the world (1 John 2:15). The­re, love for the world is an alter­na­ti­ve to love for God. We are to love the world out of love for Jesus, but not beco­me slaves to it.

The light is to shi­ne at the hig­hest place on site for all peo­p­le in the city. «You are the light of the world – like a city on a moun­tain that shi­nes bright­ly in the night for all to see. No one hides a light under an uptur­ned ves­sel. Rather, he places it on a lamp­stand and lets it shi­ne for all to see» (Matthew 5:14f NL). What is the hig­hest place from which it can shi­ne to all? In ans­we­ring this ques­ti­on, the­re is an indi­vi­du­al and a com­mu­nal dimension:

Indi­vi­du­al dimen­si­on: The hig­hest place for the light is whe­re your tes­tim­o­ny beco­mes maxi­mal­ly visi­ble. And this is first and fore­most in the fami­ly and neigh­bour­hood, whe­re people’s curious gaze is most inten­se­ly direc­ted towards Chris­ti­ans. Nowhe­re else does the life con­nec­tion of faith beco­me so clear and obvious as within the four walls of a fami­ly. So we are first of all sent to our fami­lies. From the­re it goes on to the neigh­bour­hood, to work or school and to poli­tics. Some of us are part of an aut­ho­ri­ty or a poli­ti­cal par­ty. Go con­scious­ly into the­se are­as next week as one sent by God. Under­stand me in your place as one who, like Jesus, is sent into the world. You have a mis­si­on. «You are a let­ter of Christ, writ­ten by us, but not with ink, but with the Spi­rit of the living God: not on tablets of stone, but in the hearts of peo­p­le»(2 Corin­thi­ans 3:3 NL). This is what we need to under­stand. We do not have to bring a let­ter or a mes­sa­ge from God to the peo­p­le, but we our­sel­ves are the let­ter. That is why Tho­mas Aqui­nas said: «Preach the Gos­pel and – if neces­sa­ry – need words.«If the Spi­rit of God lives in you and you give it space, you are the ser­mon. For a sent one, it is not the kind of work that mat­ters, but how it is done. First he must work faithful­ly and well. This requi­res buil­ding good rela­ti­onships with col­le­agues, being atten­ti­ve to them, even bey­ond busi­ness. This lays the ground for wit­ness as a Chris­ti­an, with or wit­hout words. Every employee can help shape the cul­tu­re of the com­pa­ny. Taking part in gos­sip during the meal break or direc­ting issues to posi­ti­ve aspects makes a dif­fe­rence. So does a ser­vant atti­tu­de and the wil­ling­ness to always for­gi­ve and start again.

Com­mu­ni­ty dimen­si­on: Ano­ther hig­hest place for the light is church com­mu­ni­ty work, i.e. vol­un­t­a­ry com­mit­ment for the good of the com­mu­ni­ty. In Wein­fel­den the­re is a muni­ci­pa­li­ty that is respon­si­ble for was­te dis­po­sal at the WEGA, a lar­ge local trade fair. That lights up! I would love it if we as see­tal chi­le had a com­mon pro­ject to con­scious­ly infu­se socie­ty with the shalom of God. May­be with a social pro­ject, with a task help or with a work against traf­fi­cking in women and pro­sti­tu­ti­on. When Gabi Went­land was with us recent­ly, she spo­ke out about our con­gre­ga­ti­on that many such women will come in and out of us and expe­ri­ence heal­ing. When asked how this could hap­pen, she sub­se­quent­ly repli­ed by email: «You pray for gui­dance for pro­phe­cy. It will be car­ri­ed out by peo­p­le. The­se peo­p­le come and ask if they can do some­thing. Then you say yes and sup­port them. God is always so prac­ti­cal.«I am curious to see what else we will see in this mat­ter. We want to make this world a litt­le bit better!

We dream of a new visi­on pic­tu­re that also shows the envi­ron­ment around us. I ima­gi­ne indi­vi­du­al lights shi­ning ever­y­whe­re in the neigh­bour­hoods, in the schools and in the fac­to­ries, illu­mi­na­ting the vil­la­ge. That is the mis­si­on. Fur­ther­mo­re, gathe­ring and streng­thening should also have an important place in the cent­re of the pic­tu­re with foun­tain and gathe­ring place with a den­ser abun­dance of lights. In addi­ti­on, start­ing today at the end of God’s we want to be sent with the fol­lo­wing or simi­lar words: «Be a sent one in the name of Jesus Christ to your fami­ly, work, neigh­bour­hood and school!» You are sent into this world as Jesus was sent into the world by his Father.

Possible questions for the small groups

Read Bible text: Matthew 5:13–16; Jere­mi­ah 29:6f

1. What do you think about the coll­ec­tion of the see­tal chi­le? How is it implemented?
2. How would you rate the empower­ment in see­tal chi­le? Do you expe­ri­ence empowerment?
3. What is the dif­fe­rence if someone in his envi­ron­ment sees hims­elf as a sen­der or not (in fami­ly, work or neighbourhood)?
4. We are sent into the world as Jesus was sent into the world. What does this mean for our being and beha­viour in our environment?
5. Whe­re do you want to see yours­elf as sent and be salt and light in the near future?