01. Formalise to normalise

This is an important principle that we use as we journey with churches and fellowships into a missional lifestyle. It’s a very simple principle you will find everywhere; used for life skills, training, exercise, health adjustments, and just about everything that’s new, but it is seldom highlighted or commented on as a helpful process for transition in the church.

When we want to make changes to a lifestyle or begin to develop a new culture, those changes we want to make are usually a challenge to implement at the start. We don’t do change very well! Over time, we form habits and ways of doing things, and if the new lifestyle or culture we want to adopt requires these things to change, it can be difficult. The purpose of these changes is to create a new ‘normal’, which is different to the current normal.

Before these changes become the new normal, we have to put things in place to help us make the necessary changes. We need a type of framework (scaffolding) that holds the new things in place while they ‘set.’ In other words, we ‘formalise’ the new things until they become normal and ‘second nature’. That’s where the phrase second nature comes from!

So what are we talking about when thinking about mission?

Many things about mission are not second nature to us, usually because they haven’t been implemented or taught consistently. Over the years, this has changed, and it is now more the usual practice as part of discipleship, which is why new Christians find engaging in mission easier. For those who have been Christians much longer, decades perhaps, we find a greater need for support through change.

Mission isn’t an add-on, an optional extra, to a person’s discipleship journey; mission is central to it. However, in many churches, mission is nothing more than an occasional exercise to put on an event, run a course, or raise funds for those they support in mission overseas. It isn’t seen as something that permeates how we live our lives. Suggesting that it should creates all manner of reasons (excuses) why they shouldn’t or can’t! If you’ve been to a Mission Network Event, then you will have heard some of the excuses and the Scriptures that counter them.

Mission is the lifestyle of the disciple and the culture of the church.

To help you and your fellowships make this transition so that mission becomes second nature, we will work with you to put the scaffolding in place. We will help you formalise. It’s like a small child using the furniture as it learns to walk. It leans on them, steadying itself, as it puts one foot in front of the other. Eventually, the child gains more confidence, despite the odd setback. Learning to walk is formalised through regular practice, routines, trial and error, and using aids (the furniture). Eventually, walking becomes second nature–the child has normalised walking as part of their new lifestyle to get around. We all know there are tantrums in the process, denial (“I haven’t had to, so far!”), and so on, but through perseverance and encouragement, the child makes the change and adapts to a new way of life.

Normalising mission is the same; we need to put things in place (formalise) while the people learn this new way of living, with plenty of patience and encouragement along the way.

One of the biggest challenges, particularly for those trying to lead the way, is to live in the new culture being established before it has been established. You have to live the change before it has changed! Romans 4:13-25 helps to bring the right perspective: 

“¹³ For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith. ¹⁴ If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. ¹⁵ For the law brings wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there violation.
¹⁶ For this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (for he is the father of all of us, ¹⁷ as it is written, ‘I have made you the father of many nations’)—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. ¹⁸ Hoping against hope, he believed that he would become ‘the father of many nations’, according to what was said, ‘So numerous shall your descendants be.’ ¹⁹ He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was already as good as dead (for he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. ²⁰ No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, ²¹ being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. ²² Therefore his faith ‘was reckoned to him as righteousness.’ ²³ Now the words, ‘it was reckoned to him’, were written not for his sake alone, ²⁴ but for ours also. It will be reckoned to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, ²⁵ who was handed over to death for our trespasses and was raised for our justification.”

Read the passage for context, but pay close attention to the parts in bold. God had spoken a promise to Abraham, which gave him confidence regardless of how things looked. The author of Hebrews picks up this theme in chapter 11 and begins with this: “¹ Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. ² Indeed, by faith our ancestors received approval. ³ By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible.”

You have a promise spoken from God, which is His Word. In His Word, He speaks to us of what is possible, and more than that, what is expected from His people. The promise is that He has given us the Helper who “will teach you all things” (John 14:26), so that you “may be proficient, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:17), and “make you complete in everything good so that you may do His will, working among us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory for ever and ever. Amen.” (Hebrews 13:21).

My final words to you (adapted from Romans 4):
In the presence of the God in whom you believe, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist, hope against hope, do not weaken in faith. Let no distrust make you waver concerning the promise of God, but grow strong in your faith as you give glory to God, being fully convinced that God is able to do what he has promised.