Legacy versus Lethargy

Deciding what’s important is more than making a list. It can be the difference between legacy and lethargy.

Followers of Jesus have some decisions to make as the Church in North America begins its slide into the same chasm of irrelevancy that has haunted her European sister for the last century. Will we shake our fists at the boogeymen of the “culture wars” as our organizations sink from sight, or will we become an irresistible force uniquely able to thrive in this new global environment?

Yes, the stakes are that high.

And yes, the decision is ours; it does not rest in the hands of the Supreme Court, Barack Obama, Angelina Jolie or Joel Osteen. We are the ones who control the destiny of the Church and it is high time we made the right choices.

The single most important decision an individual follower of Jesus can make is to join God in His mission. This may sound like the spiritual warm fuzzies but it really is a destiny-maker. Here is what it looks like and why it is so different from our normal church experience.

Many evangelicals might say that the Great Commission is our greatest calling and priority. The way we have unpacked that since the nineteenth century, however, leaves the average Joe in an institutionalized kind of lethargy: the place of observer and financial supporter so the professionals can git ‘er done. Most of the average local church’s budget and focus rest squarely on Sunday morning services. Most of the “good things” that happen on most Sunday mornings are from services rendered by professionals (or at the least highly skilled volunteers). The Great Commission is also largely “done” by trained professionals in faraway places. They are the players; we are the crowd.

When we cry over the globe, most of us never expect to go to those places and live among the people for whom we weep. And most of us don’t see our immediate surroundings as a mission field demanding our immersion in it. That’s because the Great Commission has largely been professionalized, and therefore, depersonalized. We have become victims of our own success.

Lethargy can evaporate and legacy can begin by embracing a higher purpose. It is found in the ancient Latin words “mission dei,” which simply mean “the mission of God.” God has been on a single-minded mission for a very long time. His plan to win back His lost humanity proves that He would let no obstacle stand in His way. His love for people continues to drive Him. It is that love that can drive us.

Embracing the missio dei forever personalizes my approach to my corner of the world. I can’t help but to be involved. It means that I begin living as a person of influence, touching those around me and developing relationships with greater intentionality. It also means that my relationships are now seen as a direct conduit of God’s love and power to my unsaved friends, neighbors and co-workers. No longer am I a “mule,” trying to convince those same people to come to church so the professionals can take over.

Suddenly the average Joe is important. Influential. Significant. Huge.

We tend to think that only the powerful have influence. The truth is that everyone is a person of influence, and everyone uses his or her influence. Some are more overt and successful than others; most of us exert our influence unconsciously.

Deciding to be a person of conscious influence is not an ego trip. It is just the opposite: when we jump into the swift current of the missio dei we realize how humbling it is and how inadequate we are. There is another benefit to intentional influence: it can lead us away from two legacy-killing dilemmas.

First, because our influence-peddling is small potatoes compared to some, we tend to unconsciously grant ourselves immunity from the responsibility placed on those in positions of influence (as if we were not in the same position). The responsibility is still there; now it becomes a positive motivating factor.

We must recognize the dangers of the second dilemma that undisciplined influence creates. Living in the land of non-intentional priorities tends to insulate us from analyzing and critiquing the end to which we unconsciously pull others. That end, like it or not, is the pragmatic center of our universe. That toward which I draw others is the thing I worship as my god.

Look—as long as we’re here our god might as well be God. Let’s get intentional.

Legacy and lethargy are opposing forces we all face. By choosing to engage God’s relentless love for the people around me I can become a person of eternal influence and give others a glimpse of their own destiny as followers of Jesus. Part of letting the mission dei capture us is the sorting out, clarifying and galvanizing power of a focused influence whose magnetic north is Jesus himself. Nothing else is really worth pointing at.