We gather here, as we always do at the mission, in the name of Jesus Christ seeking to know his heart, seeking to know and discern his mind, seeking to hear from the Holy Spirit as he speaks to us through each other.
And today we’re continuing to talk about the general reality of our need for healing, but also of our need for clarity. Clarity in understanding our calling, clarity in our understanding of our place in service at the mission for such a time as this, clarity in who we are as the people of God.
We have all been chosen, by God, by the Holy Spirit through the agency of the mission, to serve. And each person in this room has been called to lead.
And because the mission is now, as it is always been, an incredibly dynamic, changing, growing, listening, discerning, worshipping community of believers; Because of this each of us who is immersed in direct service and ministry to the poor, and each of us who serve in the absolutely critical backbone roles, background roles at the mission, we need refreshing of our souls, we need reminding of some basic but important things, and we need to simply be together.
Yonge Street Mission is a spiritual community. No matter how it has changed over the years, and it has changed greatly over the years, we remain a mission, we remain on mission to bless the city, to bless our community, to bless our families, to bless each individual that we are privileged to serve.
And I want to offer a few thoughts today, hopefully thoughts of encouragement that might sustain us and even perhaps inspire us to continue growing as we serve, to continue to increase in our own thriving even as we seek to increase the thriving of our community.
Serve Out of Your Identity in Christ: Believe That You Are Who God Says You Are
1 Peter:2:9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
I have vivid memories of being a youth, not unlike many of the youth that we serve at Evergreen, of being a youth who had no idea why I was alive, why I was taking up any space on this planet, what my life meant or what my purpose was.
I had a philosophical bent so I did a fair bit of reading of atheist intellectuals. That reading did not help at all. Or maybe that reading helped me immensely.
It affirmed and convinced me of life‘s futility in a world without God, and in particular of the futility of my own life. That led to three or four unsuccessful attempts to take my own life.
Then I saw the gospel at work in the lives of some new people that I met. I saw the radically different way they approached the struggle of existing.
To make a very long story short, I became a follower of the One who they followed, the one who makes all things new, the one who gave his life for me and for all of humanity when absolutely nothing in us merited the offering of his life.
And so that jolted me from deep and profound commitment to some version of nihilism, to a Christian worldview, where everything had purpose because everything mattered to God.
And then I discovered the Church. I discovered that there were many other people who also heard the call of Jesus to follow Him, who like me were sorting out what it means to be part of a royal priesthood as Peter describes the church in his 1st letter.
I discovered that along with that royal priesthood I was God‘s special possession, called out of darkness and into his wonderful light.
And then I discovered this shocking and beautiful passage: Ephesians 2:4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
What this passage says about you is that you are greatly loved - far more than your mind or heart could possibly grasp.
You have been made alive in Christ even though you like me were spiritually dead in sin, by the grace of God that saved you when you, by the work of God’s Spirit, came to trust in Jesus.
What this says about you is that you have been raised up with Christ and - this should blow your mind - you have been seated beside Christ in the heavenly realms. And all this is NOt by works, but by grace attained through the faith that God implanted miraculously in your heart to believe the gospel and receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour.
And then what this says about you is that you are God’s handwork and that whatever it is you are doing at the mission and elsewhere in your life, you are doing the good works that God prepared ahead of time for you to do. And that is NOT all:
Galatians 4 says: God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.[b] 6 Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba,[c] Father.” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.
Jesus came “that we might receive adoption to sonship” (Galatians 4:5), and He was successful: “You received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children” (Romans 8:15, NLT).
So I want to say briefly, though emphatically, that It is essential to live and serve out of a clear understanding of your identity in Christ. It is critical to understand yourself as a beloved adopted son or daughter of the most high king of the universe.
All of your personal issues, related to self-confidence, related to your service in the kingdom of God and your calling to the mission can be meaningfully addressed by your decision to embrace and live out of your identity in Christ.
So when your world is in flux, when you are doubting yourself, when things are just this side of chaos in your ministry at the mission, when you are doubting God, learn to say to yourself: “I am a beloved, adopted child of the most high King of the universe“.
Be clear on how deeply and intensely you are beloved by the King of the Universe. Jesus Christ.
Serve from Below
Philippians chapter 2 and John chapter 13 give us insights into Jesus’ style of leadership. We read this in Philippians 2:3: Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. 5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
John 13:12 When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. 13 “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. 14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. 15 I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.
The default human approach to authority granted to us, the thing we tend to do if we don’t reflect much, is to lord it over others in our exercise of leadership.
The default human exercise of power is to use it to accomplish our goals, for our ends.
The example of Jesus is that we are to serve from below. Whoever is greatest among us is the best servant. So the one here in this room who is the greatest leader is the greatest servant. Perhaps also the greatest version of you is the one that is the servant.
We all have the capacity to abuse power, to abuse our influence, to take liberties that we don’t deserve to take because of our position, because of our status.
[Comment on internal struggle the mission faced regarding how authority was exercised by former staff member]
But all that is yesterday. What matters is that going forward we follow the example of Jesus, who showed us in John 13 what it means to lead from below, to lead as a servant.
When Jesus says take up your cross and follow me, he means follow him in mission, follow him in purpose, follow him in character, follow him in empathy, follow him in his style of leadership, which is leading from below.
When he calls us to deny ourselves, in part he’s calling us to reject anything and everything within us that thinks or behaves contrary to the gospel, in opposition on any level to the leadership style of Jesus. And leading from below is for all Christians regardless of our role or our status at the mission.
Jesus is almighty God, he is a king of the universe. Father, Son and Holy Spirit, God reigns as the absolute highest and most glorious authority in the world. He is a creator of all things, and the one who continues to cast forth new galaxies even as I speak right now.
His example when here was to not behave really according to his full authority, according to his full power, according to his strength even. Rather he chose to lead in relative weakness. Jesus “made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant”.
So if we are going to lead this mission, all of us collectively, and if you are going to lead this mission toward success in its mission, it’s mission to glorify God and discern the mind of Christ, our mission articulated in our quest against poverty in Toronto, we are going to lead by the example of Jesus.
I would be so bold to say that we will only be successful in our BHAG if we lead as Jesus taught us to lead.
You are allowed to Be Imperfect.
One of the most comforting quotes outside of Scripture that I have read is this: “When God called you, he factored in your stupidity”.
Leaders are imperfect. The best of us struggle to lead well, to navigate our insecurities, to evaluate our own performance without beating ourselves up. We can take heart from virtually any person, aside from Jesus, in the Scripture who God used for His purposes and glory.
All of them, David, Moses, Peter, Paul, James and the huge number of female and male leaders that we see, were deeply flawed people.
A strength they all shared was that they knew or they painfully figured out over time and with the help of others that they were deeply flawed and they knew they were completely dependent on God. So we must allow each other to be imperfect, to learn from our mistakes.
Lead up, down and sideways - In Yourself.
It’s critical that we lead ourselves first and well. Work on loving yourself, on caring for yourself. This is universally difficult. But the call to love others as we love ourselves necessitates this.
Take care of yourself. Take care of what’s up - your mind. Feed it well. Don’t binge on junk.
Learn to love the Scriptures, to know the word of God, to interact with the scriptures on the regular, so that they become the water that you swim in, the stuff that nourishes your soul and challenges your mind and heart.
Take care of what’s down. You're the steward of your body and your health.
No matter how God uses you, you want to make sure that your healthspan matches as closely as possible your lifespan.
You have agency and decisions you can make and act on by his power to get healthy and keep yourself healthy. Honour God with your body. Make a plan, set a goal.
Work on your habits so that they increasingly align with your goals. We don’t rise to our goals, we fall to our habits. So it is critical that as we follow Christ, we elevate our habits, our lifestyle.
Take care of what’s sideways...your heart. Guard your life from sin, from self-destructive habits. We all have both, or the potential for both, in our lives.
Jesus came to set us free...”It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” Galatians 5:1
So take care of what’s up, down and sideways in your life. Do that well, and you’ll be equipped to love our community members and each other as staff.
Having a mentor can make a huge difference in learning to thrive in ministry. I had Rick Tobias and Greg Paul as my key mentors.
They are largely why I am still serving God with passion at the mission.
Find someone who can gently come alongside you and encourage you, challenge you, and help you take care of your soul.
Lead up, down and sideways - At the Mission
You can and need to lead those who are your leaders. A little story: By now most of you know Pastor Jonathan who serves at the church, at reception and with philanthropy.
What you don’t know is that I came this close to not hiring Pastor Jonathan, because I was looking to hire through a DEI lens, and thought it best to hire so that the leadership at the church reflected the community we serve.
I ignored his first application because he was white and somewhat privileged. I only took a second look at his resume because Pastor Arleen challenged me, be it ever so gently, that in overlooking him because he is white, I was guilty of reverse racism.
She was right. She led up, she led me and helped me navigate through my bias and make one of my best hires ever.
As an aside, Jonathan is unbelievably talented at random stuff he shouldn’t be good at. He opened Pastor Arleen’s ordination service speaking at length in perfect Spanish, to honour Arleen and the many present who were Latin speaking, and the man does not speak spanish.
The other Sunday, we didn’t have a drummer and Jonathan filled in wonderfully on the drums, and the man does not play the drums. How is that possible?
Leaders have limitations and biases and blind spots, and so we must learn to speak to our leaders, and as leaders we must learn to accept insight and even direction, when it's warranted, from those that are positionally below us in the hierarchy of the mission.
One of the problems of leadership is that very often people at the top of the hierarchy are emotionally, spiritually and experientially distant from our community members.
Given their responsibilities, they don’t really even have a choice in that matter. And then there’s the fact that we don’t know what we don’t know. See this chart.
So being open to listening to input, including critical input delivered respectfully and graciously, or not, that is a critical quality of being a leader.
Now that we are actively clearing the decks so that more forthright and transparent, and less centralized, power-based decision-making is happening at the mission, we’re potentially in a time where the type of thing I’m talking about can flourish, for the good of our whole community - staff members and those we serve.
Likewise we need to lead well those who we supervise. We need to listen to them. And then listen some more.
And then when we think we’ve listened enough, keep listening as we’re making decisions, so that we can make dynamic course corrections with our friends and colleagues That we’re working alongside in consensus toward the best possible outcomes for those we serve.
Listen to peers, to those “above” and “below” you. And listen to the community we serve.
And we need to lead sideways. Who here doesn’t need encouragement sometimes? Who here doesn’t value an uplifting conversation or comment from someone you work with?
Who doesn’t benefit from knowing and being known? I encourage you If you're not already, you likely are, to take the time to get to know your team.
Go for coffee, ask about each other’s lives and well-being. Pray for each other. Love each other in these ways, and can only enhance the joy of serving at the mission..
So, that’s all the time I’ve got, and I’ve likely gone over. Let’s Encourage one another to serve out of our identity in Christ, out of our identity as beloved adopted Daughters and sons of the most high King of the universe.
Let’s serve like Jesus served, Let's lead ourselves and the mission with servant hearts. And let's lead up, down and sideways. In Jesus name. Amen.
