Heart For The One

If you’re following along with the ministry ofJesus, He spoke of seeking — searching for with all your might and with urgency— only two things.  He tells Hisfollowers to seek first the Kingdom of God (Matthew 6:33) which feels like agiven since people are wanting to participate in the good and powerful rule andreign of a good and powerful God, but the only other thing that Jesus says toseek in the same manner is …

The One. 

As much as we as church planters would love for Jesus to have focused on some other seemingly important parts of starting a church and leading congregant life, He never swerved from seeking these two things: His Kingdom and the One. 

And according to His series of parables inLuke 15, describing this seeking of the one, or the lost one, Jesus describesthe One as those who

1.) are far from the One who deems their greatworth and value (the woman searching forher valuable one lost coin, the shepherd searching for his valuable one lostsheep, and the father searching for his valuable one lost son) 

2.) have the potential to recognize how farfrom home they are (the lost son makes his way home)

3.) are worth leaving the larger group at handin order to search for (the shepherd leaves the ninety nine sheep to look forthe one lost sheep)

Jesus starts off his series on the One when a group of religious leaders and law keepers accuse him of doing something wrong by dining with a group of “sinners” - those whom the society at hand valued as “not good” or “not right” or “not worthy.”  Jesus’ response is that the people who are well are not in need of a physician but those who recognize that there might be something wrong. 

What Jesus Valued

He places an immense value on people’s growing recognition of how far from home they are.  He places immense value in moving towards those who are lost, which requires moving away from those who already recognize their connection with God, and He does so in normal-part-of-ordinary-life kinds of ways, like eating with them and spending intentional time with them. 

The religious leaders’ shock was found not in the fact that Jesus was spending time with folks who are in need, but that Jesus chose NOT to spend time with the leaders.  And then Jesus invites them to capture what God’s heart is like for people through these parables.    

In our pursuit to have a heart for the One,take a moment to read through Luke 15:11-32 again, and instead of focusing onthe younger brother, it’s worth comparing the heart of the father and the olderbrother. 

Whoseheart do you resonate with most — the Father’s heart for the One or the olderbrother’s heart for the One?

In our own missional community, we comparedthe hearts of the Father and that of the older brother towards the lost youngerbrother, and here’s a starting list of what we came up with together:

This is by no means an exhaustive list of thedifferences between the Father’s heart and the Older Brother’s heart for thelost One, but whose heart we begin to adopt really determines the way in whichwe engage with others around us.  Andstrikingly, it reveals not only our heart towards those who are far away, butour own view of God. 

Now, it’s one thing to be able to identifythat there’s a difference between the heart of the father and the heart of theolder brother, and even that there’s a desire to have more of the heart for theOne instead of being against others. But, how do we turn the One from a character in a story to the Ones inour own real contexts?  Who are the Oneand where are they?

Porches,Pathways, Pivots       

Once we connect with the heart of the Fatherfor the One, then we discover that the Father’s heart extends out to the One inour day to day.  In JR Woodward’s and DanWhite Jr’s The Church as Movement,they offer a unique way of thinking about our day to day via “porches,pathways, and pivots”.  Who are the Onewe interact with in our homes and neighborhoods (apartments, condominiums,street, etc)?  Who are the One weencounter in our regular pathways and commutes (regular walks, taking our dogsout, runs, grocery stops, elevators, etc)? Who are the One we see in our pivots or places of gatherings (school,office, gym, cafe, sports league, parks, mall, breweries, etc)? 

Whose names would you put in each category andbegin to ask the Father for His heart for the One in your day to day? 

Porch	Pathway	Pivot

In beginning to actively write out this listof people we encounter in each of our day to day in our missional community, westarted seeing that God’s heart for others isn’t limited to just those who comeinto our services or church gatherings, but He is seeking for the One in themidst of our own day to days … in He is constantly inviting us into seeking theOne in partnership with Him.