The Mission

What do you love doing most?
Somewhere within the landscape of your passion and drive to do any particular thing can be found the secret of your mission. Almost everyone, with even the poorest public education of today, can do this sort of self-analysis with just a little help from folks who know you. You need not see it in terms of eternal objective reality, but just know what really is necessary for you today.
Don’t buy into all the guilt inducing valuations. If you can’t walk away from finding peace in dark humor, then explore the landscape of laughing at death. Even outright perversion signals something of importance, if you are willing to face it with sincerity. Discover what really is inside of you, because that’s the only way you’ll ever make anything better. But whatever you do, there must be something which permits you to help others. Without that, you aren’t human.
Whatever this thing is must be bigger than you, something which looms large and shadows you everywhere you go. It must be so big you have no trouble dying for it, suffering for it.
Every time I lambaste some church or other religious organization, it’s because they have failed the mission. The leadership determine the mission, one way or another. The mission must of necessity arise from the combined calling and mission of the people involved. You do not simply write something which sounds good and logical, something you can sell, and them squeeze people into that mold. People are the mission in that sense, and every human organization must match itself to the people involved. Only mundane and wholly unimportant occupations can be filled by conditioning people to respond to external structure. If the structure is not the net result of humans interacting from their true mission, it’s not worth doing ten seconds.
My wife and I are restarting our house church mission work. It really should not be necessary to write what follows, because it’s really not about us, but I write to shame the churches who surely have failed to qualify for the label “church.” Here’s our bylaws:
This is our home. All the controls and order we need arise from this fact. We are the host and hostess, and you are the guests. You enter by invitation, and while we don’t wave this around with great fanfare, it’s a privilege, not a right. We assume you come because you want to be here, and we are all too glad to see you come.
There is no offering receptacle, no hat passed, nothing of that sort. If you sense a need to give, it will be a personal gift neither of us declares to any human government. It’s a wholly private matter, and you’ll have to believe God will make sure I do the right thing. Most likely, I’ll tell you how it was used, but if my life isn’t already wide open and transparent, you shouldn’t give. Meanwhile, we can only do what the resources will support. We’ll give the last mote of dust we hold and then wait on God to supply anything else we need, however it is He does that.
The only time you’ll be asked to help is in something needing only the extra hands of any human, or something you are particularly able to do. I may even go so far as to prod you if I honestly believe it’s in your best interest, but you’ll never be forced to fit into some pre-determined, artificial mold. If you don’t want to, don’t.
We do have a general plan and outline of worship, but things happen and we go with what arises in the moment. Yes, there are things we simply can’t permit, but it’s unlikely we’ll see the need to get pushy about anything unless it’s a consistent problem which conflicts with our mission. You really should come prepared in your mind to ask questions if I miss something you want to know. I’m not a dictator, but a father figure offering his best, and I need to hear from you when it’s not what you need. That doesn’t mean I’ll deliver everything you ask, but I can’t even decide if you don’t ask.
The emphasis is our combined growth and progress in holiness. Whether you are here every time or only once, nothing in our work requires you register your real identity. Just let us know what to call you while you are here. Only God has to know anything else about you. Naturally, your conduct will leave an impression, but you are free to adjust that by what you say and do subsequently. It’s not that we judge you by ourselves, but measure you against our mission only. That’s what God requires of us, and you’ll do the same in return.
We are not the truth police, and neither are you. If we can work together, we should. If not, it won’t necessarily make you our enemy. There’s a lot of room for positive regard even when we can’t work together. There may even be room for some support from whatever our mission provides. Thus, you don’t have to swallow all my teachings, only be civil with us. Humor me, because I don’t take myself that seriously.
We are altogether willing to worship alone and not see it as a failure if it stays that way most of the time. This is not about building a kingdom and making headlines. Our sense of success is not measured in typical human terms, but in obedience to our own calling. The results are not in our hands, and will all be swept away when the Lord comes back. We have nothing to lose but our own obedience.
Some part of us deep inside knows ideally this should all result in growing a spiritual family, rather like an extended family household. Current reality does restrict that, but it’s what we believe is the best we could ever expect. If you wish to join the family, it’s wide open, but entirely voluntary moment by moment with each individual. I am the elder because God said so, but I would never pretend to own you. So far as I’m concerned, He owns us all.
Welcome to the family; this is what I love most.