From the moment we encounter pre-teen Jesus in Luke 2 sitting with the religious teachers of Jerusalem, we know that something is different about him. Even at age 12, Jesus could walk into a synagogue and wow even the most educated religious teachers. But what made Jesus so amazing was not just that he was an eloquent, adroit speaker who had mastered the law. It was his willingness to take those skills into the darkest, most broken places and put them to work among the helpless, hungry, and hurting.
Indeed, this is the message of the incarnation: God in heaven did not see fit to remain in heaven, but rather came to earth in the form of Christ to be among a broken and sinful people for the purpose of redeeming and restoring all things. It’s no wonder that the first century Christians, then, equated following Jesus with self-humbling practices such as radical generosity and limitless hospitality.
In the 21st century America, however, we sometimes lose this facet of our faith. Cozied up in our luxurious sanctuaries and surrounded by lights, screens, and a crowd of people who look just like us, it’s easy to equate our comfortable worship experience with Christ-followship. While there may not be anything inherently wrong with the methods of such churches, one has to wonder: Does following Jesus mean more than this? If take the incarnation seriously, won’t it mean intentionally entering into the dark and broken places like he did? It would seem so.
That’s where organizations like Mission Year come in. They offer young people the chance to live and work for one year in a poor urban neighborhood to effectively impact these communities while catching a deeper vision for what the Kingdom of God is like. Mission Year is penetrating neighborhoods in Atlanta, Chicago, New Orleans, Houston, Oakland, and Sacramento that many Christians would never normally enter. These are places in need of love, hope, racial reconciliation, and justice.
Team members volunteer four days a week at service sites, which include law offices, homeless shelters, high schools, or clinics. But above all, Mission Year is relational. They place people in intentional communities of 5-7 people who meet daily for house devotions, prayer, ministry, and recreation. Ministry happens spontaneously while sitting on a porch, waiting on a bus stop, or hanging at the laundry mat. One might wonder if this is what Jesus would be doing were he to have come to earth today.
Q | Mission Year from Q Ideas on Vimeo.
“Evangelism, and even the notion of mission itself, has sometimes been reduced to words we share with another person, telling them about Jesus, salvation or eternal life. Words are important, but they’re also cheap,” write Chris Heuertz and Christine Pohl in Friendships at the Margins. “If we use words and get words in response, sometimes we think we’ve done mission or evangelism. Ministry among poor and vulnerable people reminds us that words are rarely enough . . . they need to see what love looks like.”
Had the 12-year-old Christ opted to remain in the synagogue and cozy up to the religious leaders, he might have enjoyed a longer life, but he wouldn’t have changed the world. He had to walk out of the seminary and step into the leper colonies, healing pools, and prostitutes’ houses. And ultimately, he had to humble himself even to death on the cross as he confronted darkness and brokenness once and for all. May we take up our crosses and follow him.
To find out more about Mission Year, check out their web site. Q encourages you to apply now to participate in Mission Year and recruit college-aged students to do the same.
