I was reading Ps Ben's latest blog post about CATALYSE. while of course it's exciting to see what my church movement has planned, another side of me felt a bit put off by the rather "corporate"-sounding keywords.

But as I think further, what lies behind the "keywords"? Man looks at the outward appearances, but the LORD looks at the heart. To the Gen-Yers like me, we don't feel good about "organizational structures", though we respect them and see the need, but we'd rather have relational connections.

But when Jesus gave us the Great Commission, He very simply said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore GO..."

And that is the crux, the pivot, the central focus of our existence as a church. We are a SENT people. "Shalom be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you."

In our mutterings and mumurings about how we are too structured / too slapdash, we often forget the cosmic mandate writ in the big blank blue sky: GO AND MAKE DISCIPLES OF ALL NATIONS...

And these are the question every church must answer:

1. Are we going?
2. Are we going out to reach ALL the nations? (the moment you discriminate against any nation, you are practicing selective obedience.)
3. Are we immersing them into a full, no-holds-barred, public declaration of their faith and adoption as children of the Father?
4. Are we immersing them in the fullness of the life and the knowledge of the Son?
5. Are we immersing them in the fullness of power of the Holy Spirit?

It's not the kind of structure that God looks at. God looks at the heart - those who obey Him and keep His precepts.

We make structures, not for structure's sake, but to proclaim Christ and to help people experience Him and grow in Him even more.

Be it a ship, an airplane, a car, a donkey, a bicycle or even a rocket, we use the best structure on hand to go and make disciples of all nations.

Remember, the Church is a Body - meaning it is both structured and organic. (imagine if you had no skeleton or your arm decided to happily migrate to your nose...)

So let's not despise structures and "corporate" masterplans even though personally, I tend not to like "5-years plans". I'm sure a lot of my generation tend to feel that too. But as C. S. Lewis remarked, we swing from one extreme to another with each new generation. From the Spanish Inquisition to Communism, from rationalism to post-modernism.

Jesus never told us to do church only in a certain way, whether structured or informal. He simply told us: "Go."

So I'll support my church movement's masterplan wholeheartedly, because I know that we really want to obey Christ's direct mandate to go and make disciples of all nations. This is the REAL Mandate of Heaven! :)

Obedience to Christ is what truly counts. Just do whatever you can do to carry out His Great Commission, be it a grand carefully-thought out global evangelism strategy or small spontaneous guerilla gospel sharings in hostile cities. Just let's not be caught not going. Remember, the Day of the Lord is very near!

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