“Jesus is on the lookout for something other than ‘members.’ … He calls disciples to follow him,” Nessan said. We are agents in the “culture of God,” the kingdom that is not only coming in the future but that is among us now, as Jesus proclaims in the gospel of Mark. In this culture, God is near and God is merciful. Everyone is welcome. The unconventional wisdom and the dramatic reversal of values and expectations of this culture can transform our congregations into centers for mission.

Such transformation begins in worship, when we are immersed in the culture of God and where we relate to each other in our shared baptism. It is in this “alternate time and space coordinate” where we can imagine the world when reconciliation, peace and forgiveness are possibilities. Children are keenly able to imagine different realities, and it is this kind of faith that Jesus teaches to the disciples in Matthew 18. “The church of Jesus Christ has something worthy of imagination for the starving human heart,” he said.

Worship needs our careful attention, Nessan said. It is from this gathering around Word and Sacrament that we are sent to be engaged in the world. “We are a sent people,” he said, “to go in peace and serve the Lord.” He encouraged congregations to prioritize the ministry of the baptized and cautioned against clergy neglecting their primary calling to attend to Word and Sacrament. Nessan suggested an asset-based approach to discerning the gifts of the baptized and lifting up ministries whose foundations are already in our congregations.

As Paul rejoices in I Corinthians 15:24, our destiny and purpose is directly linked to God’s own missionary nature. God is not pretending or imagining – he is establishing his kingdom, his culture, and he has claimed, gathered and sent us as his agents in the reconciliation of all things and the subjection of all things, “so that God may be all in all.”