TEACHING

Overview

This session is an overview of the Up, In, and Out. It looks at the relationship between the three aspects of our faith while honing in on the ‘Up’ relationship.

Reading time: ~30 minutes + time for Reflection

Up, In, & Out

Living out our relational and vocational purpose with God, His family, the world, and all creation is how God’s reign is enacted and revealed within the individual and the community. Gospel Living is summed up in these simple relational directions: Up, In, and Out.

‘Up’ is our worshipful relationship with God. ‘In’ is our familial relationship with God’s people—the church. While ‘Out’ is our missional relationship with the world and all of creation. The terms we choose to express these ideas are Worship, Family, and Mission.

These final sessions will express how our Gospel Identity is lived out in our relation to God, His Family, and His Mission. This session will primarily focus on the Worship aspect, but we must understand that these three aspects of Gospel Living are not compartmentalized. Just like with our Gospel Identity, we don’t accept one part and leave out the others—live as a child, but not also be a servant priest. Worship, Family, and Mission ebb and flow into and overlap one another.

This is mainly due to the fact that our faith, though personal, is not individualistic. God has a personal relationship with you, but not a relationship that is specific and unique only to you. Faith is built upon covenantal terms. ‘Covenant’ is simply a more legal term for relationship (i.e. marriage is a covenant). A covenant must have at least two parties to be enacted. In relation to the New Covenant in Jesus’ blood the two parties are God and His people. Although you are an individual member within the body of Christ, and have individual responsibility, your relationship to God is not an individual one. You, and all of God’s people are enacted in the New Covenant and thus our faith, though needing to make a personal choice in the matter, is not built on individualism and isolationism, but rather, communalism and fellowship.

As we work through Worship, Family, and Mission, we will come to see that these are interconnected with each other and embedded deep in our Gospel Identity.

UP — WORSHIP

“Biblical worship… remembers God’s work in the past, anticipates God’s rule over all creation, and actualizes both past and future in the present to transform persons, communities, and the world.”
Robert E. Webber, Ancient-Future Worship: Proclaiming and Enacting God’s Narrative (2008), p.43.

Worship is often described as Praise, Thanksgiving, Admiration, Devotion, or Ascribing Worth. Though these are aspects of worship, they are not, by definition, Worship.

Worship is about us being brought into God’s Story, not that God comes into our story—what oftentimes praise, thanksgiving, admiration, and devotion become!

Worship is the lifting up to God his own story. Worship does God’s story through Remembrance, Anticipation, and Actualization. In brief, God’s story, as described by Robert Webber, can be summarized with the following:

1. God in the Garden of Eden — God creates a temple to dwell with his creation.
2. God in the Desert — God, despite sin, death, and evil, acts, plans, and engages to free creation.
3. God in the Garden of Gethsemane — God, in Jesus, deals with sin, overcomes death, and defeats evil through his life, death, and resurrection.
4. God in the Eternal Garden — God restores all things, uniting heaven and earth, to dwell with his creation.

Read Webber’s, “Four Pictures of God’s Story” (~20min read).

Worship draws from remembering the past work of God—in creation, through Israel, and culminating in the person and work of Jesus Christ through the Spirit—while also longingly anticipating God’s future reign over all creation—when heaven and earth will be one. Worship is grounded in the gospel story.

We exist in the in-between of the past work of God in Jesus through the Spirit and the future reality of God’s reign. Our act of worship is to bring these two together through the Spirit by the proclamation, reenactment, and singing of God’s story.

• Proclamation = Gospeling, Scripture reading, prayers, liturgies, preaching, sharing
• Reenactment = Sacraments, symbols, generosity, hospitality, offering ourselves, creative arts (artwork, crafting, dance, etc.)
• Singing = Psalms, poetry, hymns, spirituals, thanksgiving

A look at how these play out both personally and communally will be the main focus of this session. These are some of the main disciplines to living a life full of “doing God’s story”:

Bible Reading

As simple as it sounds, reading the Bible does God’s Story because it is God’s Story! The Bible is the Holy Spirit-inspired testimony of who God is summed up and revealed in the person of Jesus. In other words, it testifies of Jesus, who is the exact representation of God and who we are remade in His image (Rom. 8.9; 1 Cor. 15.49; 2 Cor. 3.18; Col 1.15, 3.10; 1 John 3.2). When we read the Bible, individually and corporately, we are drawn into God’s Story and see the God whose image we bear.

Reading the Bible is a crucial part of doing God’s Story and should be done personally and corporately. However, one of the difficulties of reading the Bible is that it was written in another time, another culture, another language, and to specific people. It is important to remember these when approaching the Bible. Just because the Bible says “you” does not mean it is directly relating to you. This is exceptionally difficult in English because it does not have a modern plural form of “you” like many other languages have—in English, it is both singular and plural.

Read your Bible consistently and if you get stuck on something it is trying to communicate, talk to a leader about it! To do God’s Story, we must know God, His Story, and how we are a part of it—this is the place the Bible plays as it testifies to Jesus and His work.

Prayer & Fasting

John of Damascus, an early church father (8th Century), taught the meaning of prayer in its simplest form: “Prayer is the raising of one’s mind and heart to God; or the requesting of good things from God”. In other words, prayer is simply focusing our attention on God or asking things from Him. Anytime we direct our attention to God, it is an act of prayer. There may not be any words said out loud or thought, it is merely gazing upon the Lord and King.

With this definition, prayer does not have to be an organized event—like morning or evening prayer. Although these are good practices to have as they give more space to lay requests before God (the second part of prayer John of Damascus points out), prayer can be done in everyday life. The Jews had prayers they would recite when practicing normal routines: washing hands, eating meals, or upon waking up. The ancient Celts of modern-day Britain and Ireland did the same thing. From milking the cow to meeting a stranger walking on the road, they would say a prayer for each of these. These prayers were more than just rote expressions, they were means of drawing our gaze to the Lord and oftentimes moved into more prayer.

Prayer does God’s story because it acknowledges the God of the Story. God is the King who has all dominion and authority, God is the Divine who is all-powerful to make all things possible, God is the good Shepherd who provides and cares for His people, and God is love who listens and helps those who cry out to Him. And when this is done in one voice and heart alongside God’s people it becomes a powerful way of seeing God respond to and with His good news people.

Fasting, often connected with prayer, does God’s story by realizing the brokenness and pain around us while seeking for the future reality of God’s Kingdom coming in its fullness to come break into our present reality. Fasting is more than simply abstaining from food, it is done in response to a serious, grievous, or sacred moment. It is realizing our lack of control over a situation or ‘moment’, mourning our inadequacy, and seeking to place our whole being into the presence of God. It is a holistic action that stimulates our heart, mind, soul, and body.

Sacraments & Symbols

Sacrament means “mystery” and they unveil the meaning of the gospel in a symbolic way. Sacraments do God’s Story in that they reveal, through spirit and matter, the Gospel of the Kingdom. They are called mysteries because they are more than mere symbols. A symbol directs our attention to something else—looking at a cross directs our attention to the death of Jesus and His atoning work; or seeing hands clasped together reminds us to pray.

Just as Jesus is incarnational, being fully God (spiritual) and fully man (physical), sacraments embody the gospel in an incarnational way (uniting heaven and earth). It is the reality of the gospel united in a physical and spiritual way.

There are traditionally seven Sacraments, two Sacraments of the Lord, which all Christian practice, and five Sacraments of the church, which most older churches practice (Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican). The Sacraments of the Lord are Baptism and Communion. These Sacraments reveal the gospel in that Baptism announces our adoption into God’s family. It is the reception of our Gospel Identity. While Communion announces our redeemed and restored relationship with God—we are welcomed at His table.

Sacraments actualize the history of God’s work with the hope of its future consummation in the present. Communion remembers the history of Jesus’ sacrifice and looks to the future feast when God’s reign fully comes (Isa. 25.6-9; Luke 14.1-24; Rev. 19.9). Baptism remembers our adoption in God through Jesus’ death and resurrection and points to the future resurrection of the dead (Ezek. 37.1-14; Matt. 22.23-33; 1 Cor. 15; Rev. 20.11-15).

The other Sacraments are…

• Reconciliation: the act of confessing sin to another person—revealing the reconciliation of God and humanity.
• Confirmation: the act of testifying (confirming) of God’s work in our life—revealing the work of God through proclamation.
• Holy Matrimony: the union of man and woman—revealing the union of God and humanity.
• Ordination: the Spirit-calling of leadership in the church—revealing the priestly, servanthood of Christ.
• Anointing of the Sick: unites our suffering with that of the suffering Jesus on the cross—revealing that God is with us and the hope of new life and resurrection.

Hospitality & Generosity

Hospitality does God’s Story in that it reenacts God welcoming that which is not God into His fellowship. God, the Creator of everything, draws humanity into His creation to cultivate and care for it. Offering His labor for humanity’s blessing. This is enacted in the death and resurrection of Jesus, for through His work we are blessed and brought into the family of God.

Hospitality is not simply allowing people to live with you or stay with you for some time, it is the welcoming in of the stranger, that which is not you, for the purpose of their flourishing.

The offering of our home, possessions, money, time, space, and ourselves for the blessing of another person is the reenactment of creation and new creation in Christ. Generosity is the act of blessing others for their flourishing. It removes our idols of possessions and greed and acknowledges that God is our great and awesome Provider.

Creative Arts

The arts do God’s Story by reenacting pictures and stories of God’s Story through symbol. They offer symbols that direct our gaze to God, reenactments of scenes or themes of God’s Story, and announce the beauty that is God’s creation.

Although there was fear early in the church’s birth of “carving images” as a possible act of idolatry (Ex. 20.4-6)—this resurfaced in the Reformation by Calvin against the Catholic Church’s use of Iconography. People did not want to worship an ‘image’ of Jesus, but the Transcendent Jesus. However, many also saw pictures and paintings of Jesus as the ultimate act of worship. In depicting Jesus in flesh, we are worshipping and remembering the trueness of the Incarnate God.

Paintings and sculptures; dancing and theatre; craftmanship and architecture; poetry and writing—these reveal the uniting of the heavenly truth with earthy mediums to showcase the mystery, beauty, glory, and power of the Good News and themes that reflect upon the Triune God.

Singing, Thanksgiving, & Praise

Singing does God’s Story by announcing and sharing God’s Story. Through it we bring our thanksgiving—the realization that God supplies our needs—and praise—the uplifting of who God is and what He has done. The most powerful songs are ones that tell of God’s Story, thanking Him for His great provision, and praising His great name. One of the greatest songs in the Bible is Mary’s Song:

“My soul glorifies the Lord
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has been mindful
of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
holy is his name.
His mercy extends to those who fear him,
from generation to generation.
He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
remembering to be merciful
to Abraham and his descendants forever,
just as he promised our ancestors.”
Luke 1.46-55

Read Hannah’s Song (1 Sam. 2.1-10), Moses’ Song (Ex. 15.1-18), or some of the 150 songs of Psalms. They bring together the past work of God with the future hope of God, making them a reality in the present.

Because worship is lifting up to God his own story, it immediately leads us into Family and Mission. Family, because as we engage in God’s story we are drawn into the story of His people. And Mission because we too are drawn to participate in God’s mission, living a life with God’s purpose in mind.

IN — FAMILY

“We don’t act like family, we are family, and this shows in the way we act… We are to remember the church is a family, not an organization. Moreover, we don’t choose our family; we are born into it. We share the same blood (Christ’s blood), and we are joined together by it.”
E. Randolph Richards and Richard James, Misreading Scripture with Individualist Eyes (2020), p.48.

We will go into more detail about Family in the next session, but here are some initial thoughts on it.

Family is difficult to swallow sometimes. Most people do not come from healthy, thriving, loving families. But, this is what God has done for us—made us a part of his glorious family.

In the ancient world (even just a few hundred years ago!) who your family is, was important. Your familial status gave you societal status. There were three ways to enter into a family: Birth, Adoption, and Marriage.

>It is no surprise that these are the three ways in which the New Testament shares the church’s relationship with God.

• “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” (Jn 3.3)
• “The Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’” (Ro 8.15)
• “I promised you as a pure bride to one husband—Christ.” (2Co 11.2)

This also means that those a part of the church are family—brothers and sisters in Christ. This is why the church is encouraged to engage in the “One Anothers” (more on this in the next session).

This was also the heart of the early church:

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread (Communion) and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
Acts 2.42-47

Because of our familial placement in God, engaging in Family should always lead us to Worship and Mission. Worship, because, though faith is personal, it is not individual—faith is communal for it is structured as a covenantal relationship with God and His people. And Mission because it should lead us to multiply our thriving, beautiful Family in God.

OUT — MISSION

“Mission is not primarily an activity of the church, but an attribute of God. God is a missionary God. ‘It is not the church that has a mission of salvation to fulfill in the world; it is the mission of the Son and the Spirit through the Father that includes the church’… There is church because there is mission, not vice versa. To participate in mission is to participate in the movement of God’s love toward people, since God is a fountain of sending love.”
David J. Bosch, Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission (1991), p.390.

We will go into more detail about Mission in the final session, but here are some initial thoughts on it.

You, your family, your microchurch do not have a mission that God “helps with”—God has the mission that, as we enter into God’s story, we get to participate in.

“Viewed through this lens of koinonia (fellowship or community) theology, the mission of the triune God may be defined as the restoration of his fallen creation in his image. Or, more briefly, God’s mission is about the restoration and renewal of relationships.
Stefan Paas, Pilgrims and Priests: Christian Mission in a Post-Christian Society (2019), p.200.

There are two images that we need to hold as we engage in God’s mission: we, the church, are a priesthood and pilgrims. This brings back the uniting of history and future—God’s past work with the future reality.

As a priesthood, we must realize that we are to facilitate God to the world and the world to God. We stand in the in-between of God and the rest of humanity, not in seclusion or inclusion, but as set apart and alongside. We are the people who see where the world is most in pain and engage with God’s loving, reconciling message of “Jesus is Lord”—administering God to the world and drawing the world into the worship of God through the Spirit.

As pilgrims, we realize that rejection will take place. This world is still under the sway of the evil one until the fullness of the future reality of God’s presence and glory invades this earth and “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign for ever and ever” (Rv. 11.15). The first missionaries were called “Pilgrims for the Gospel”.

The primary place to engage in God’s mission of relationship renewal is where we have influence. If all the problems of the world were summed up as a basketball, our influence is (most likely) nothing more than a speck within one of the dots. Typical places of influence are the communities where we live, our workplaces, friends, family, or frequented spaces. Activism is when we leave our place of influence to engage in an area where we do not have influence. Activism is definitely needed, but should not be looked at as our primary or only form of mission.

The whole purpose of Mission is to draw people, including ourselves, into Family and Worship. Thus, these three elements, Up, In & Out, are not compartmentalized boxes we check-off. These three are intricately tied together as we lead into one, we are immediately met with another; where we are moved back into the final, we are drawn into the former. All of it is formed in us as we are formed by God’s story.

HUDDLE

DISCUSS IT

• What challenged you in the teaching?
• What questions were raised in the teaching?
• How does this affect your understanding of your “Worship, Family, and Mission”?

READ IT

Luke 10

• Where is there Worship?
• Where is there Family?
• Where is there Mission?
• How are they all brought together in this chapter?

APPLY IT

• Which of the Disciplines of Worship do you struggle with the most (Bible reading, prayer, sacrament, hospitality, generosity, singing)? Why?
• How would leaning into your Gospel Identity help draw you into a lifestyle of worship?
• What other ways can you think of that you could worship God in everyday ways? How can you begin living these out?

RESOURCES

Further Reading

• Ancient-Future Worship: Proclaiming and Enacting God’s Narrative by Robert E. Webber
• Pilgrims and Priests: Christian Mission in a Post-Christian Society by Stefan Paas