Life-on-Life: Formation in Mission

As I’ve taken over leadership of a missional movement reaching University of the Pacific, I’ve begun to think more about how leaders are formed into growing disciples of Jesus. I’m learning that my paradigm for spiritual formation is way off base, and the answer instead is quite obvious and quite costly.

The Discipleship — Mission (or Formation — Mission) Dichotomy

I’ve been in several conversations over the last few years that pit discipleship and mission against one another. “They do discipleship really well, but we do mission (or evangelism) really well.” Mission is seen as the task of extending the kingdom of God and bringing new people to faith. Discipleship is the task of helping those people grow once they become Christians. I’m willing to grant that there are different “ministry muscles” that must be flexed in each of those tasks, but there’s a major problem with that dichotomy:

It ignores what Jesus did.

Jesus brought new people into the Kingdom of God, and helped those in the Kingdom grow as his disciples. Look at the feeding of the 5000 in Mark 6. Jesus reveals his power and love to people who don’t know him through the feeding AND he teaches his disciples lessons about sacrificial service and reliance on him. The disciples are formed by doing mission with Jesus.

With

When I began regularly meeting at Starbucks with one of my mentors, I was blown away by the fact that he knew all the baristas and seemed to have great relationships with them. He talks with them every time we meet and it’s clear from the conversations that there have been interactions in between the times I’ve been present. In our time together we share about life and discuss the ways God is growing and stretching us. Although we’ve never talked about his relationship with the baristas, I’ve learned just as much from observing that as I have from any of our talks. Seeing those interactions teaches me how to love my city and community better.

Before this, I would’ve assumed that the most significant discipleship was happening in our conversations. Instead, I’m seeing discipleship happen in the marginal spaces as we live life together. This is incarnational ministry in the way of Jesus: entering into another’s life and opening your life to another.

What does this mean for mission?

The best way that we can form those we lead into disciples of Jesus is to be with them in the trenches as they participate in God’s mission. Spiritual formation doesn’t happen divorced from mission. It happens when my life rubs against the life of someone else. It happens when we’re on mission together and we together discern and interpret how the Spirit is stretching us outward in mission and deeper in intimacy with Christ.