Dear MLEPC Members and Friends:

It is commonplace for people and organizations these days to emphasize the importance of mission. We hear of someone being a "man/woman on a mission." Companies develop and promote their Statement of Mission. In fact, I recently visited a hospital that had prominently posted its Statement of Mission throughout the facility as a reminder to employees and a promise to patients. This phenomenon seems an occasion in which the world has borrowed something good from the Christian Church. The Church has been involved with mission since its New Testament inception on Pentecost Day when the Spirit of God established it as a missions-minded body right from the start. The Church always has been a "Church on a mission" when it has been faithful to its calling. This mission sends us out on missions to the ends of the earth.

Or perhaps we should reverse the order by saying that the mission has us, instead of that we have a mission. A quick review of the Book of Acts reveals that this is the original order of things, since in chapter one Jesus gives His apostles the mission, namely, "You shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8). Then in chapter two, the Holy Spirit comes with power at Pentecost to establish the early Christian Church community for the purpose of pursuing the mission already given by Christ. So it is not the Church on a mission; rather, it is a mission on the Church!

We continue to pursue this vision of becoming captured by Christ's vision for mission at MLEPC. Just last week over 250 children spent a week with us during our SonTreasure Island VBS, with well over half of them coming to us from the South Hills community. Add to the kids all the volunteers along with our Children's Director Ashley Gardner, and nearly 400 people participated in this mission from and for God. This week our high school youth with chaperones and Youth Director Andy Hromoko are in Bluefield, West Virginia, reaching out to about 150 youth through both words and deeds to bring them Jesus, the Living Word. Beginning on July 12, we launch Mission: Possible 7--our annual missions trip to our own community during which we urge everyone in our church to be involved in some way, be it big or small. Add to these expressions of mission our presence at the New Wilmington Missions Conference, our four-person mission team returning to East Kano, Kenya, and our support of Franklin Graham and the Three Rivers of Hope, and our summer 2014 is nothing short of mission from beginning to end.

We want it to be this way at MLEPC, because we are learning to live as a small expression of Christ's great Church that is defined by the mission He established for us from the start. To be "missional" is intrinsic to being the True Church; to cease to be "missional" is to stop operating as the True Church. Bringing it home to our individual lives, as Christ-followers we are called by the Spirit not only to salvation but to be instruments of spreading salvation to our family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, community, and world. The mark of missions is meant for each one of our individual lives as we belong to Christ and His Church. How will we participate in Jesus' mission this summer? Will it be through the wonderful opportunities provided through MLEPC? Will it be through other unique avenues? Will it be both?  

Regardless, let's echo the words of the prophet Isaiah. When God asked, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" Isaiah quickly answered, "Here I am; send me!" (Isaiah 6:8). Let us all be ready and set to go for God on His mission for the summer of 2014.

Pastor Tim

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