I do not watch many movies twice. One that I have seen a few times, however, is “Father of the Bride,” starring Steve Martin. It is actually a remake of the old movie that featured Spencer Tracy. The movie has many hilarious moments—some of them far fetched, but others closer to the truth than one might want to admit. In one scene, they are going over the guest list. Actually, I found through my own experience in my daughter’s wedding planning that this process is not so much about who will be invited as who will be cut. I suspect many families have approached this task with greater turmoil than a baseball manager faces in making the final cuts to get his team to a 25-man roster. 

Just the opposite is true with God. He holds nothing back when it comes to inviting people to His Son’s wedding feast. In fact, when one looks at the record of Scripture, He appears almost reckless in his love and openness to those He invites. Look at the parables and you will find a shepherd who is willing to leave the entire flock for the one lost sheep. In another parable, the father is coming—no running—down the road toward the humiliated son returning home. He does not seem to care that his actions will make himself the object of shame. His son is returning home! (Luke 15)
 

In the parable of the wedding banquet, rejected by many who are too busy, too indifferent or too self-centered to come to his son’s banquet, the King invites—even compels—the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame to come to his banquet. He holds nothing back. He is not looking who to cut, but rather who can be added to the list. What an amazing picture these parables offer us! 

I agree with Philip Yancey who wrote, “. . . Jesus did not give the parables to teach us how to live. He gave them, I believe, to correct our notions about who God is and who God loves” (p. 53). The danger I find is that we become so familiar with these parables that we lose the sense of just how raw and almost reckless is the love of God. God is intent on one thing—He wants His house full. 

 “Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, so that my house will be full” (Luke 14:23).
 

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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Rev. Dr. Brent L Parrish

Acts 13:1-3  Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul.  While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”  So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.

The very foundation of the Old Testament Church reflects an outward, sending movement of God. Look at the life of Abraham or Moses and you will see God sending them out to strange lands or into Egypt to free His people. God does not sit still. Nor does His Church. 

Should it surprise us, then, that following Pentecost, God seeks to send His Church into the world? When they are slow on the take to do that, God allows for the persecution of Christians, forcing their hand to go out into the remote parts of the world. 

At the center of mission is the sense that life is to be lived away from ourselves. Mission involves the willingness to leave our comfort zone, knowing that where we go, we take with us the Comforter, the Holy Spirit. 

Sending churches do not seek to raise up members as much as they seek to raise up missionaries—those who live as Jesus did, with an awareness that they are sent. Sending churches operate with a different scorecard in measuring their effectiveness. Rather than asking how many people were seated in church on a Sunday, they are asking how many people were sent out as missionaries. Reggie McNeal puts it this way: 

 “A missionary church culture will need to begin keeping score on things different from what we measure now. These may include how many ministry initiatives we are establishing in the streets, how many conversations we are having with pre-Christians, how many volunteers we are releasing into local and global mission projects aimed at community transformation, how many congregations are starting to reach different populations, how many congregations use our facilities, how many languages (ethnic and generational) we worship in, how many community groups use our facilities, how many church activities target people who aren’t here yet, how many hours per week members spend in ministry where they work, go to school and get mail” (p. 67)
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Rev. Dr. Brent L Parrish

Picking up where I left off yesterday. Sending churches are not possessive. They are willing to let go of some of their best leaders if this is the will of God. Prompted by the Spirit, they first pray and fast again. There is the need within them to make sure this is of God. Confirmed in this, they send off two strong leaders so that the Word about Christ can spread to the outer most parts of the world. Sending churches are not selfish about their resources. They are willing to share for the sake of the kingdom. They understand and follow the encouragement of John when he said to another church,

“Dear friend, you are faithful in what you are doing for the brothers, even though they are strangers to you. They have told the church about your love. You will do well to send them on their way in a manner worthy of God. It was for the sake of the Name that they went out, receiving no help from the pagans. We ought therefore to show hospitality to such men so that we may work together for the truth” (3 John 5-8). 

The very nature of God, who is the Head of the Church, is that He is a sending God. Everything about God is outward. The opposite of God would be sin, where everything is turned inward on self. Think about the Triune God for a moment. The Father says, “Look at my Son; isn’t He something?” Jesus says, “I am here to do the Father’s will and bring glory to Him.” The Spirit comes to bear witness and testimony not to Himself but to Jesus. Everything about God is outward and focused on others, including you and me. 

 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son. . . .”
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Rev. Dr. Brent L Parrish
 

When you read through the Acts of the Apostles, you almost need a Trip Tik from AAA to map the way of all the journeys. This is a church on the move. It is a very unique church. It is a sending church. 

Not every church could be described in this way. Many churches offer great worship, meaningful Bible studies, and Christ-centered ministry to those who enter. That is the key: “to those who enter.” The ministry is for those who enter. There is very little sending that occurs. 

What are the distinguishing marks of a sending church? Look closely at the model offered in Acts 13: 

“In the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabus, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul.” 

Now I know the temptation is to whiz through those names. Just another list of tough names to pronounce. There is, however, some great insight to be gained by looking closer. These men involved in ministry and teaching were quite a mixed group, to say the least. Barnabus was from the island of Cyprus. Simeon was also named Niger, which is a Latin term meaning “black skinned.” Lucius was from Cyrene, which was west of Egypt on the coast of Africa. His name was Greek, and so there is the strong possibility that he was a Gentile. Manaen was a member of high society, having grown up with Herod the tetrarch. Then there is Saul with all of his credentials in education and rabbinical training. Right there in the middle of multi-cultural and urban Antioch, the Roman capital of Syria, is a church with a leadership team that refl ects the community that surrounds it. 

“While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting.” This community was marked by worshiping and fasting. The discipline of fasting is not practiced by many today. It does, however, have deep roots within Scripture.

“Fasting confirms our utter dependence upon God by finding in him a source of sustenance beyond food. Through it, we learn by experience that God’s word to us is a life substance, that it is not food alone that gives life, but also the words that proceed from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). 

 We learn that we too have meat to eat that the world does not know about (John 4: 32, 34). Fasting unto our Lord is therefore feasting—feasting on Him and on doing His will. 

This simple reference to worshiping and fasting reveals a church that humbly depends not on its own resources and ideas, but on God’s Word to guide them. It is of no surprise then that, in the midst of this, the Holy Spirit gives them specific guidance as to what they should do. Sending churches wait on the Lord, expecting to be guided by His will. 

“Set apart for me Barnabus and Saul for the work to which I have called them. So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.”
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Rev. Dr. Brent L Parrish

Imagine going into each day, sent by God, looking for those opportunities to do good works that He prepared for you before you were even born. That has a way of changing the outlook of a day into one that is loaded with possibilities and purpose. The life of Jesus was defined and guided by the knowledge that He was sent by the Father. This was always on His mind. It kept Him accountable and focused. What makes us think that it is any different for us? When we lose this sense of being sent, as a church or as individuals, we run the danger of being taken off course by many distractions. The result? Our life, or our ministry, is unproductive. In Titus 3:14, God says, 

“Our people must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good, in order that they may provide for daily necessities and not live unproductive lives.”  
 

We know all too well the stories of those who lost focus along the way. John Stott expresses it this way: 

“The Christian landscape is strewn with the wreckage of derelict, half-built towers—the ruins of those who began to build and were unable to finish. For thousands of people still ignore Christ’s warning and undertake to follow him without first pausing to reflect on the cost of doing so. The result is the great scandal of Christendom today, so-called ‘nominal Christianity.’ In countries to which Christian civilization has spread, large numbers of people have covered themselves with a decent but thin veneer of Christianity. They have allowed themselves to become somewhat involved, enough to be respectable but not enough to be uncomfortable. Their religion is a great, soft cushion. It protects them from the hard unpleasantness of life, while changing its place and shape to suit their convenience. No wonder the cynics speak of hypocrites in the church and dismiss religion as escapism” (p. 108). 

God is looking for people who will enter into this day with the awareness that He has sent them with a purpose. When our hearts are ablaze with His purpose, the world will take notice that we too have been with Jesus. Go ahead, put your name in the blank: “___________________ served God’s purpose.” Let it begin with this day. One day at a time—wouldn’t it be great to be able to say that in this day you served God’s purpose?
 

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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Rev. Dr. Brent L Parrish

What was it like to hang out with Jesus on a daily basis, constantly hearing Him refer to His being sent? It would have to rub off on those He was with during those three years. It did. Years later, the influence of Jesus can be heard through Peter’s words when he wrote: 

 “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God that you may declare the praises of him who called you of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy” (1 Peter 2:9-10). 

Peter did not always see things this way. In the beginning, when Jesus asked him to become a fisher of men, Peter’s response was to ask Jesus to get out of the boat. Now, here is Peter with that same inner sense of being sent by God to carry out a specific mission in life. 

 As Jesus lived out His life with a clear sense of being sent by the Father, He then sent not only Peter, but you and me and every church that bears His name into the world. In years past, the emphasis in the local church was placed more on supporting those missionaries who had been sent into the mission field. In a world that has changed and now resembles more the world of the first century, the vision needs to be raised up within each church that every member is a missionary. 

Think of it in this way: Wherever you go in the day ahead—to the office or to the classroom or to the mall—go into the day as one who is sent. How would it change your routine to go with the sense of being sent? It was that sense of purpose that compelled Jesus each and every day. It is that sense of purpose that He now places before us when He says, 

“As the Father has sent me, I am sending you” (John 20:21). 

This is the sense I get when I read these well known words of Ephesians 2: 

 “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (vs. 10).
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Rev. Dr. Brent L Parrish

Dr. Hugh Moorhead, a philosophy professor at Northeastern Illinois University, wrote to 250 of the world’s best philosophers, scientists, writers, intellectuals and key thinkers, asking them, “What is the meaning of life?” Some offered their best guess and others admitted that they just made up a purpose. Others were pretty straight-forward and said they had no idea. Some of them wrote to him and asked him to write back and tell them if he discovered the purpose of life (Chicago Review Press, 1988). 

Knowing the purpose for which you exist is the key to living a productive and fruitful life. This is true for individuals, as it is true for congregations. 

The effective churches are those who minister with a sense of purpose, evaluating everything in light of that purpose. Those individuals that I have known whose lives have been fruitful and productive live with an inner awareness that God has sent them into this world to accomplish something. 

When I consider the life of Jesus, I see Him in this way. He lived each day with an awareness of being sent. From the Gospel of John, this becomes so apparent. Read the verses that follow slowly and thoughtfully. Ponder and reflect on what they reveal about the life of Jesus: 

“Jesus said to them, ‘My food is to do the will of Him who sent me, and to finish His work’” (4:34). 

“By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me” (5:30). 

“For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me” (6:38). 

“But I know him because I am from him and he sent me” (7:29). 

“The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him” (8:29). 

“As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work” (9:4). 

“Then Jesus cried out, ‘When a man believes in me, he does not believe in me only, but in the one who sent me. When he looks at me, he sees the one who sent me’” (12:44-45). 

“For I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it” (12:49). 

“I tell you the truth, whoever accepts anyone I send accepts me; and whoever accepts me accepts the one who sent me” (13:20).

“Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent” (17:3). 

“For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me” (17:8). 

“As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world” (17:18). 

“Again Jesus said, ‘Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you’” (20:21).
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Rev. Dr. Brent L Parrish