Something more than its own welfare

‘Christ died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will
no longer live for themselves.’ (2 Corinthians 5:15) That’s why the
goal of the church has to be something other than its own welfare.
I have a pretty good feel for how hard it is to make my own welfare
something other than the goal - so I’m sympathetic as to why the
church struggles with the same.
But for as long as our own prosperity is the goal we deny the process
through which Christ’s new life emerges among us. The cross. The ‘not
my will but yours be done’ process. The ‘sell all you have, give to
the poor and then come follow me’ descent into divine consequence.
So then the question becomes - what is it about the missional church
that would make it any more inclined to dying to self-interest than
other expressions of the church?
The new frontier mentality is a plus. People concerned about their own
welfare aren’t likely to sail uncharted waters in the vague hope of
finding a New World. They’d just as soon stay at home.
Being committed to moving helps.
Have you ever noticed how many of the great commands of Jesus begin
with motion words? Words like ‘Go sell all you have’ and ‘Come to me
all you who are heavy burdened’ and ‘Go into all the world’ and ‘Take
up your cross and follow me’.
Going public as 'in going into the streets' helps. Many of us have
been shut in the closet of private spirituality for so long we’ve
forgotten how Christianity thrives in the open air, out in the big
wide world, where both rationalism and superstition abound, but where the voice of God is its only anchor.