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Motion 19th May 2010
OUR VISION
The song “Genesis 3:23” by The Mountain Goats is about going back to a place that you have left behind, in this case a home. It was written by someone who is not a Christian, but every song on the album has a Bible reference for a name. Some of the songs allude to what the Bible reference says very explicitly, some of the songs seem to bear little relevance to them at all.
I like that song in particular because I am a bit of a fan of nostalgia, I like looking back on things with rose tinted glasses. Of course the verse that it is based on is the story of Adam and Eve being expelled form the Garden of Eden.
In the song John Darnell, the songwriter, breaks into his old house, and there are times when we wish we could break into the old order of things, move back into Eden.
When we do that we limit God. He has taken the opportunity of humanity’s sinfulness to move us forward, the bBook of the Bible calledRomans tells us that God works for the good in all things, even things which seem disastrous. So even as God removed Adam and Eve from the garden he was moving them forward to a new future which was and is better than the garden experiences.
So do we spend too much time looking back? Do we have hope for the future? And do we find God in contemporary society, inspiring even those who are not yet Christians to reflect on him as the source and sustainer of all life?
And all of that brings me in a roundabout way to this evening.
We have moved on a little with Motion, and I would like to think of where God might be moving us to. But before we do that I would like us to do an exercise together.
What do we do?
Let’s each take a piece of paper and on it write down something that you do regularly on an evening in the week - perhaps once a week, perhaps once a fortnight. If you do more than one thing, the thing which you do that you most enjoy, try to write down something that you do enjoy, so having tea at your nan’s house might not count.
You might write down going to the pub, watching a film, playing football, making a cake, playing computer games, reading a book, etc.
Hold on to that piece of paper.
history of co-motions and the original vision
We started this thing a little over six months ago. What we wanted to do with Motion is
create gatherings that you guys actually wanted to go to, rather than think you ought to go to.
try and get people out of the habit of being in church meetings on the understanding that we all go to too many church meetings as it is.
try and connect with the world
different co-motions
All of the co-motions will do some fellowship, some discipleship and some evangelism.
Thos are three very churchy words. Fellowship means that some groups connect with people, maybe new Christians, maybe those who have been Christians for a long time, and the focus is on hanging out, being friends, looking after one another.
Discipleship is about growing in the knowledge of God. This is often done by studying the Bible and praying together. Interestingly I think it can be done by simply doing the third things which is...
Evangelism is sharing our faith and being God’s presence int he world. It recognises that we need to say things, but we also just need to live visible lives and be God in the world.
I think the groups do all of these things, but some focus on one area more than the other two, and some will focus in another area. This is a good thing because it shows that we are saying you don’t have to do things a certain way, we are saying that we want to be able to meet people’s needs. We also recognise that some groups may change. If you start of very evangelistically then you might find you have a group of people gathered around you who want to know a bit more about the Bible, hence the fact that we are low on numbers tonight, because a load of Motion people are at Alpha, learning more about what it means to be a Christian.
But having said all that I do think it is good for us to think about how churchy we are being, and about how we are connecting with the world. And how can we do that without another church meeting?
So here’s a few questions I want you to ask yourself.
Does your Co-Motion focus on evangelism, fellowship, or discipleship? Do you think that is right - there is no right or wrong answer?
Now take your piece of paper with your thing you do once a week written on. Take a look at it. Now if you were a leader in mission - and for the record I think you are because Jesus says that you are a city on a hill, a light that cannot be hidden - if you were a leader in mission, think about the thing you have written down and ask yourselves these questions:
Can you bring your non-believing friend to this thing you do once a week?
Is there some way that you can take church to that thing you do once a week? Don’t hear what I am not saying. I don’t want you to go to the cinema and do a Bible study. I might just be asking you to make friends and pray for someone once a week.
If the answer to both those questions is yes, you could be a co-motion leader and that thing could be a co-motion. You might only have three people come along to it, still a co-motion. I might ask you to do it with one other friend because Jesus sent the disciples out in pairs, still a co-motion. You might worry that you might be spending so much time making disciples that you are not reading your Bible enough - still a co-motion.
So now imagine you commit to do that thing weekly, you pray about people who you invite along and three or four of you gather together. Two more questions....
If we stopped calling it a co-motion would you carry on doing it? In other words, would you carry on going to football, would you carry on going to the cinema, playing computer games with your friends, playing dungeons and dragons? If the answer is yes then that is a good thing, because you are doing evangelism, but not being in a church meeting.
Second question, is there a realistic expectation that people might meet Jesus through what you are doing? Bear in mind if they meet you they should be meeting Jesus.
If the answer is no, then you are just a social gathering, which is fine and great, but let’s not call it a co-motion.
Hold all those thoughts, remember that what you are doing now may be great and valid.
And so here is the question...will you carry on as you are? Will you start again doing something differently? Do you have some ideas you need to share? Who are you going to help you? Are you a Co-Motion leader and you never realised? What will you be doing in September? How will you keep accountable?
