Out From the Shadows

I remember Dr. Alan Redpath’s prophetic message from Acts 2 as though it were yesterday. I was twenty-two and Dr. Redpath was speaking at Moody Bible Institute’s Founders. He quoted verse 12: “They stood there amazed and perplexed, ‘what can this mean?’” Spirit-controlled, Spirit-empowered, passionate disciples amazed everyone around them.  Redpath claimed that the secret to this kind of amazing life was found in time alone with God.

A. W. Tozer invited Dr. Redpath to meet him early each morning in a park for prayer. Redpath said, “It was a bit early, but I showed up. I found Tozer lying facedown on holy ground in prayer.” Tozer lived the secret life of time alone with God and perhaps because we yearn to discover that same secret that we still read his books even though he has been gone for fifty years.

For too many of us (myself included), prayer is supplemental to our lives and ministries. If we want to see the mission accomplished, we must recommit ourselves to becoming desperate for communion with God. Isaiah 62:6-7 says: “You who call on the Lord, give yourselves no rest.” If we want to see God’s power raining down on our churches, then we must not rest from our pleading with God on behalf of people. Prayer fuels mission. To “go and make disciples” (Matthew 28:18-20) we must be a people of prayer. Otherwise we will fail.

We worship an all-sufficient God who does not need me, you, our church, Fellowship Baptists, our programs, plans and buildings. All our works, good as they may be, could burn up and turn to dust and God would still make a great, grand and glorious Name for Himself among the nations. God doesn’t involve us in His mission to win over neighbours, neighbourhoods and the nations because He needs us. God involves us in His mission because He loves us. And that love should drive us to the secret place to enjoy union and communion with our Lord and to discover the power to accomplish the work of reconciliation that He has given us to do.

But there is a problem. Pastor John Ortberg reminds us that completing against our God-given mission is our tendency to live a “shadow mission.” We say our mission is to know Christ and make Him known, but our behavior, attitudes and values tell a different story. For many believers living a comfortable, pleasurable life has become the “shadow mission” that keeps them from accomplishing their God-given mission.

Over time we inch away from the “everyday commission” of Matthew 28:18-20. Before we realize it, our lives are not appreciably different from those lived by the rest of the world. The Red Cross was started by “a fervent evangelical and high-minded Calvinist” who said he got his inspiration directly from God. But no one would say today that the Red Cross is an overt Christian organization. It fell victim to a shadow mission, a secondary purpose.  Barclays Bank, started by Quaker businessmen who wanted to help the poor, still call for prayers to be said, though I don’t think they have our kind of praying in mind. No organization, or church, is immune to losing its way.

Maintaining mission integrity is largely dependent on perspective. As a teen my tennis coach taught me to never play in the middle of the court because from there I wouldn’t get a proper perspective of the game. I needed to play up front near the net where the tennis balls come over my head. Or, I needed to play on the back line of the court where the tennis balls often landed at my feet. Up front I could see opportunities and attack. On the back line I could see the big picture and make important strategic decisions.

Mid-court is comfortable. But staying at mid-court prevents us from seeing clearly and accurately. When lose perspective we can easily deviate from our God-mission to become entangled in a shadow mission. A generation later we discover that we have ended up with a different organization than we originally envisioned.

Our commitment to prayer, to intimate, constant and significant communion with God is vital to keeping us on God-given mission. Our shadow mission is over and by faith we declare it to be so.