September has arrived and a new school year is about to begin! I enjoy September – it feeds my love of organising, sorting and planning … and – the best part of all – buying new stationary!

In ministry life, as we prepare for a new start and plan our programmes for the term ahead – it can be a time when the What! takes centre stage in our thinking. But, before we rush in, lets take some time to also reflect on our Why? and our How?1

The core of our Why? is calling – what is it we feel God has invited us into and called us to do. Perhaps the most famous instruction or calling given by Jesus to His followers is what we refer to as ‘The Great Commission’.

You can find the Great Commission at the very end of the book of Matthew – its the last 5 verses of the story of Jesus time on earth. Jesus has been crucified, died and has risen again. He has spent time enabling his friends to understand what that has all meant – affirming, encouraging and caring for them and His final act is to commission them to carry on the story – to share the good news of salvation far and wide as the invitation to know and love God is extended everyone. Jesus is basically saying – given all that you have learned about who I am … and having met me and experienced my grace, goodness and love for yourselves – go! Go and share that good news! Tell others! Don’t keep it to yourselves – extend the invitation! The good news of God’s love and the freedom that we have through Jesus to be loved as His children is for everyone!

What a mission! What an invitation! And what a task! And it’s a commission that is foundational to our Why? today. But, while it might be the most well known instruction/calling/invitation that Jesus gives – it isn’t the first.

Before the friends of Jesus are called to ‘Go and Do!’, they are first invited to ‘Come and See!’

In John 1: 35 – 42, we read of Jesus calling his first followers.

As an interesting side note, we don’t know for sure who the second person is that chooses to follow Jesus along with Andrew – the passage just tells us that Andrew was one of 2. Lots of scholars think it was probably John, the writer of the gospel … partly because he writes the story with details such as the specific time of day that suggest he was there in person but also because John famously leaves his name out of his gospel writing. In the book of John he doesn’t refer to himself by name – so just naming Andrew as one of the two would fit wth that writing style.

Regardless of who the second person was, we have this incredible invitation from Jesus to these 2 friends to ‘Come and See’.

The Westminster catechism, which was a statement of Faith written in the 17th century, states that our main reason for being is to ‘love God and enjoy Him forever’. Before we are invited to join in with the work that God is doing in our communities … to go… we are invited first to come and see… to spend time in His presence, enjoying His love and learning more of His Grace – that’s our core Why!

So, while the Great Commission might be the most well known instruction that we read of Jesus giving to anyone in the bible – it is definitely not the first. Before we ‘Go and Do!’ we are invited first to ‘Come and See! … and I think it’s crucial that we remember that because the ‘Come and See’ is what inspires and enables our Go and Do. It’s the come and see that reminds us of our ‘Why’ and informs our ‘How’.

One of my favourite passages in the bible is a ‘Come and See’ invitation from Jesus – you can find it in Matthew 11: 28-30 – and it says this …

 

Come to me… Before we can ‘go’, we need to learn how to ‘come’ to Jesus.

And actually, the go is only possible if we first learn to come. If we are going to extend this invitation to others … if we are going to create safe space and enable every child to feel seen, heard, known and valued … then we need to accept the invitation for ourselves and know what it is ourselves to feel safe, seen, heard, known and valued by our loving Father God… to learn what it looks like for us to come to Jesus and abide with Him.

If we are going to journey well with the children in our care this term and care well for the teams we are journeying with, then learning to ‘Live Well’ ourselves is non-negotiable! Coming to Jesus and spending time with Him learning healthy and unforced ‘Rhythms of Grace’ is so important. The ‘How’ matters!

So Jesus invites us – come to me… but don’t just come – Come and See! This incredible invitation is an invitation to come and spend time in the presence of Jesus. Watching, noticing, experiencing, seeing! Come and fully see me… come and know me… come and watch how I do it… and then join in with that!

And it’s an invitation, I think to a repeated rhythm of life. It’s not a linear, one-off – come and see, now go and do. It’s a repetitive, looped rhythm as come and see inspires and fuels the go and do – we come and see and we go and do and we come and see and we go and do – as everything we go and do comes out of the invitation to come and see.

That come and see/go and do rhythm is a rhythm we see Jesus modelling time and again in gospels – the stories of his life on earth – as He regularly withdraws to a quiet place to pray… often at quite inconvenient times when things are busy and there is work to be done. But Jesus knows that to do life well, He needs to be walking closely with His Father God – watching what He is doing… waiting for His lead, His guidance.

I am an activist at heart – I like to get things done! I find it so easy to run ahead of God – make my own plans, do things in my way. Come and See is an antidote to that for me. Time spent in the presence of Jesus enables me to see where God is leading… to notice where He is at work. My role, then, is simply to join in with that! A ‘Go and Do’ that is inspired and fuelled by a ‘Come and See’.

So, at the start of this term, as plans are being made, programmes written, rotas drawn up ready to launch into the incredible invitation to ‘Go and Do’ – let’s remember that our first calling – and the calling that inspires and enables all other callings and invitations – is to Come and See. Each day – Come and See. To come to Jesus and recover our lives as we find real rest and peace. To fully see Him and know His goodness, grace, mercy, acceptance and love. And to accept the invitation to see and join in with the work that He is doing in our communities!