Night is Coming: Mission in an Age of Chaos
As a 90's kid, I find it super hard to explain to my kids what the pre-9/11 world was like.
I don't mean to over-romantisize it, but in my personal experience, the 90's were, well... simple. The air was different. The world was different. There was an innocence in the atmosphere. People trusted each other. The social imagination and civic ecosystem were more relaxed. Our collective anxiety and cultural tensions were less pronounced. And this is coming from a latino who grew up in Newark, NJ - surrounded by gangs and injustice, poverty and struggle.
Even then, I'm still nostalgic about those days of naïveté and sincerity - uncomplicated by the trauma of terror, the ravenous polarisation of the political landscape, and the hyper-connectedness of the social media era.
But it all changed. And it changed incredibly fast. One day I was falling asleep in Mr. Garutto’s math class, and the next day it was 9/11. And the world I had always known flipped upside down. And everything started to change. The innocence and simplicity faded. A new era was upon us.
While my kids will never taste the chill vibes of the 90’s, they still know what its like for things to suddenly change. Because one day they were playing tag in recess, and the next day there was a pandemic lock down. One day they were napping, and the next day Russia invaded Ukraine. In fact, just last Sabbath most of us were resting, others sleeping, and others raving at a music festival in Southern Israel. And just like that, over 2000 rockets shot into the sky.
In less than a few hours, thousands in Israel had died. The nation declared war. For so many, in the blink of an eye, everything changed.
But for many of us, especially in the west, these conflicts are still distant. Yet just like that, in the blink of an eye, we too can find our world change forever. What we once thought abnormal can suddenly become the new normal. And it may happen sooner than we think. As the conflict in Israel escalates, China also threatens war. North Korea builds its nuclear arsenal. The war between Russia and Ukraine goes on. And Artificial Intelligence, for all its enthusiastic promise, is already being weaponised in ways we can’t fully comprehend.*
I think it’s safe to say: Our geopolitical landscape is dancing on a knifes edge.
It reminds me of the words of Jesus in John 9:4,
“I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night is coming when no man can work.”
I'm not a fear monger. You all know I am allergic to conspiracy theories, apocalyptic obsession, and doom-gloom rhetoric. But as a student of culture and society I can’t deny the glaringly obvious: night is coming.
We got a glimpse of it with COVID lockdowns. And that glimpse was enough to knock our local churches out for a whole year. Mission stopped. Evangelism stopped. Discipleship stopped. The best we could do was translate our program template onto a digital screen so we could keep the same old, tired gears spinning.
The work God had called us to do in the day we had failed to do. Night came, and the tragedy of our irrelevance and missional impotence was exposed.
And yet, in the midst of all this the cry I heard most was not a cry for mission, for innovation, or for creative adaptation to the needs of the time. The loudest cry was a longing to return to the status quo, to get back to our usual programming, to reopen our buildings so we could get back to our banal traditions.
We had a golden opportunity to adapt for the needs of our generation. With the demands of weekly events on pause, we had a once-in-a-lifetime shot to redesign our churches for mission. And we let it pass us by.
It’s no secret: My greatest burden is for our movement to break free from the spell of consumer driven church programs and reclaim the primitive godliness of incarnational, love-centred, radical countercultural, relationally driven communities. Because night is coming. The signs are everywhere. You don't even have to be a Christian to see it. And when it comes, it will be dark. And the work we have failed to do in the day we will have to do in the night, and we will look back at the daylight and long we had done something different.
Ellen White put it this way:
"The work which the church has failed to do in a time of peace and prosperity, she will have to do in a terrible crisis, under most discouraging, forbidding circumstances." (Ev. 31.4)
So that's the bad news. The good news is, it isn't night yet. At least, not for all of us. We still have daylight. There is still time. We can still get to work. We can still be the change we wish to see. We can still lead a revolution in the world.
But how? Thats the big question most missional believers have. It’s one thing to desire change. Its another thing to know how to do it. What we need at this hour is not more talk of change. What we need are steps.
At The Story Church Project, my goal is to provide these steps. I don’t just want to talk about change. I want to empower change.
Which is why I have just put together the “Daylight Missional Toolkit”. This toolkit has all my best resources. Ebooks for group discussion. Video training on how to share the gospel in our secular world. Church planting training on how to start new missional communities with no degree, no money, and no influence, and more.
The time for talk is done. It's time to be part of the change. To lead with courage. To make a difference in the church and in the world. Because the clock nears midnight. The day is almost done.
The Daylight Missional Toolkit is jam packed with everything you need to get started. It challenges you to stop talking and start walking. And it gives you all the steps you need to walk with confidence. Here's a breakdown of what you get:
Ebooks for group discussion: Gather a small group of believers and begin exploring these ebooks together, digging deep into our mission and identity as Adventists and the calling God has given us to share the gospel with the world.
Video instruction on theology, mission, and sharing the gospel with unbelievers: Over 30 videos exploring modern culture and its resistance to the gospel, with practical insights and steps on how to share Jesus effectively.
Step-by-step church planting training: Learn a new model for the local SDA church that anyone can start with no degree, no money, and no influence. You don't have to be a paid pastor or conference employee. This training will give you the step-by-step process to launching an effective Missional church that reaches your city.
This entire mission school is unique in that it focuses on sharing Jesus with a secular, post-religious culture. You will learn the art of contextualisation, adaptation, innovation and gospel immersion while remaining radically faithful to the good news of Jesus.
This entire toolkit—ebooks, courses, PDFs and PPTs—could easily cost 300. But I’m only charging one super low price of $37 USD. The funds from this will enable me to create even more resources and develop new on-the-edge tools to empower mission in our age of chaos.
We still have daylight! Let's work the works of him who called us.
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* Kania, E. B. (2020). "AI weapons" in China's military innovation. Brookings Institution. Retrieved from https://www.brookings.edu/articles/ai-weapons-in-chinas-military-innovation/
