In Christ...So What?

As we continue to wrestle with what it means to be on mission and how our mission is shaped and determined by our theology we looked briefly at the reality of being "in Christ". We left off with a simple question, "So what?"

So what, if we as followers of Jesus, are in him?  What bearing does that have on any aspect of our daily reality? What does that have to do with our mission? The ramifications are significant.  A good friend makes that clear in a recent post (which got me kickstarted to write again).

I really like what Alan Hirsch says here,

You see Alan is making the point that we must be where Jesus is, this is obvious because we are in Christ, if those of us who say that we are "in Christ" are moving in mission then we necessarily must be doing it together.

Did you catch that?

To be on mission necessarily means doing it together.

If one is in Christ then she must be on mission with someone else, a community of people.  I prefer the term (from Hirsch) Communitas.  This is an understanding that the community of Jesus is necessarily a people on mission. I like this definition,

Community is a ship in port.  Communitas is a ship at sea. The ship is not designed for port. The ship is designed for the sea. The church is not designed for community.  It is designed at its core DNA to be communitas.

I find it interesting that much of the Christian West is seeking to find "community" when it needs to be looking for communitas. However, we don't really believe the necessary outworking of the fact that to be a Christian is to be "in Christ" with all the other Christians.

We seek holy huddles.

We seek comfort.

So, what happens if we instead begin to seek communitas? We will get really uncomfortable, we will have to enter into the lives of others, we will have set aside ourselves, it will be inconvenient.

To be "in Christ" means to be unified with the whole of the body of Christ and the local expression of that body particularly.  Here are some questions that have been bouncing around in my head as far as evaluation goes:

• How often are you spending time with people from your particular church outside of church sanctioned meetings or events?


• How many close friends do you have within your particular church? Do you spend time with them outside of official church meetings or events?


• Would you vacation with anyone from your particular church?


• Who in your particular church would you call in a time of crisis (besides your pastor or deacon)?


• Is there anyone from your particular church that you do mission with?

I would love to know if you have any questions to add to this list.  Just throw them in the comments section.

In summary, to be "in Christ" means to be on mission together, communitas.