An 'Exodus' Church?

A few weeks ago I attended a luncheon on the "Missional Church." Now I am always a bit a nervous when I go to meetings like this because the term 'missional' has become a bit watered down and can mean a variety of different things. Nevertheless I decided to go and see what would happen.

As the speaker began his talk, he went to the passage in Acts that almost everyone that talks about missions these days recites--Acts 1:8. His thesis was that every church should become an Acts 1:8 church and take mission trips at home (Jerusalem), in state (Judea), overseas (Samaria and ends of the earth). His take was that when you are going on mission trips and seeing millions (ok he said hundreds, I exaggerated for effect) then you have a healthy "Acts 1:8" church.

And as I sat there I couldn't help but think that Christ came and died and suffered for a heck of a lot more than for churches to be able to go on trips to three different regions of the globe. And as I sat there in complete exasperation about what I was hearing I started to wonder where this whole fascination of "labeling" churches came from. I mean really everyone is wanting to be a "Great Commission" church or an "Acts 1:8" church and so on and so on. And yet I can't help but feel as though these labels miss the point of the church. I am not into labels of a church, but if I were I think I would choose to be an "Exodus Church."

In Luke 9:28-33 Jesus is talking to Moses and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration concerning his "departure" he was going to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem. Now this word "departure" is literally translated "exodus." So Luke seems to be saying that this work that Jesus will accomplish in Jerusalem is like a second "exodus." I believe what Luke does here by linking the Exodus to the cross is huge, and I believe most of our churches miss the point when it comes to the mission of God. We must first understand exactly what the Exodus accomplished for the Israelites.

The Israelites were oppressed in Egypt. In fact Christopher Wright in his book Knowing God the Father through the Old Testament, says that they were oppressed in four different areas:

• they were politically oppressed as an ethnic immigrant minority vulnerable to the host state's manufactured hostility against them

• they were economically exploited as a convenient source of cheap labor in the host state's agricultural and construction sectors

• they were socially victimized through intolerable interference in their family life and then through a program of state-sponsored genocide.

• they were spiritually oppressed in servitude to the Pharaoh--one of the claimed gods of Egypt-- when they should have been free to serve and worship Yahweh (Wright, 45)

In the event of the Exodus, God does two things for the Israelites. First he reveals that He is a God who can be known and WILLS to be known. Throughout the Exodus and the entire Old Testament we are constantly reminded that God does things for his fame and his renown (a huge risk considering He is using fallen humanity in order for people to know Him). In chapter 19 of Exodus God establishes His covenant at Sinai and the Israelites become His people. It is important to note here that this covenant also gives proof of God's faithfulness to his promises. This covenant fulfills the promise that God made to Abraham in Genesis.

The second thing the Exodus did for the Israelites is that it redeemed them in all four areas of their oppression--politically, economically, socially, and spiritually. This is a huge point when it comes to the mission of God. You see God is in the habit of redeeming all aspects of life. The mission is not to establish trips to different geographical locations (which in my view is a distorted reading of Acts 1:8 in itself), but it is the total and complete redemption of humanity in all aspects of life.

The cross (or second exodus) is part of that plan. The plan is not trips. The plan is total redemption. This is precisely what happened at the cross. Jesus died so that we might have access to the Father and we might be grafted into his plan of redemption (if we are honest sometimes we try to graft him into our plan of redemption--i.e. how many 'salvations' we can get on a mission trip).

The church must get back to what the focus of it's mission is--holistic redemption. We need to get away from labels, and gimmicks and focus on the needs and hurts of this world. God is deeply concerned for these things and we should be too. If you don't think he is concerned for the oppressed then you haven't read your Bible. He hears the cries of the oppressed and he responds.

May we be a church that does the same.