You have a choice to make when it comes to the Janesville airport (Southern WI Regional).
Getting to the airport access road is easy enough. As you leave Janesville, WI, follow Route 51 south and pass the ubiquitous Kwik Trip gas station. As you drive a bit further, your eye will catch the sprawling, nearly one million square foot, Dollar General Service Center that supports 800 DG stores.1 After passing these WI landmarks, you are almost there.
Turn right onto West Airport Road. Ingenious name for the road, is it not? Now comes the choice. You can follow the road to the end and arrive at the airport to get to your flight, or take a slight left to the adjacent country club. The airport and country club are geographically close, but for illustration purposes, they are worlds apart.
Churches and Airports2
I imagine that you have noticed that airports are full of two kinds of people. First, there are the “sent.” There are a number of people who have a ticket and are on their way to a destination, or are now arriving at this particular destination. Second, there are the “senders.” There are a considerable number of people who are supporting the effort to get the sent onto and off their planes. Pilots, airport staff, mechanics, you name it—there are lots of people making sure that the sent get sent and return.
Airports are full of sent and senders. When you approach an airport, you belong if you fill one of these roles. It is really difficult to explain to airport security that you just want to enjoy airport food without a ticket to be sent nor clearance to be a sender. That just does not work. Belonging requires being part of the mission of the airport.
Think about this picture of an airport and connect it with churches. Churches on mission are a group of people who are senders and sent. We are joining God in His missional work—either directly being sent or supporting that sending by stewarding our skills, talents, and abilities.
I love the picture presented in 3 John, verse 8 of senders working alongside the sent in God’s missional work: Therefore we ought to support people like these, that we may be fellow workers for the truth. We are called to be “fellow workers for the truth” as sent and senders. There are two roles to choose from.
The problem is, churches can make an easy detour off the road to the airport.
Churches and Country Clubs
Remember that turn off West Airport Road that leads to the country club? Churches can opt for a country club option. Country clubs have memberships, they are designed to meet the preferences of those who belong. Members belong with the intent that services will be provided to them. There is not a sending and sent aspect to this belonging. This is a fitting design for a country club, but not a church.
Churches can veer off West Airport Road when we lose sight of the mission that God has called us to of being senders and being sent. When we get focused on our preferences,
zeroed in on what the members want rather than our calling, we become more of a country club than an airport.
Country clubs are the default that churches move toward. Our preferences and wants have a gravitational pull toward serving the members rather than risk-taking that leads us to belonging to a mission.
Belonging
We are called to belong to a missional movement. We are called to join God in His good work of actively advancing His Kingdom. We are sent as disciple-makers. We send as faithful disciples. Churches are not called to simply gather once a week and meet the preferences of members. We are called seven days a week to be the church, both gathered and scattered. Our belonging is rooted in this sentness as a Kingdom family.
I look forward to seeing you at the airport. As we send, and are sent.
1 https://newscenter.dollargeneral.com/news/dollar-general-celebrates-grand-opening-in-janesville-wisconsin-of-its-14th-distribution center/7350a468-107d-42a2-a4cb-ee0a3ca74cd8, https://claycorp.com/project/dollar-general-distribution-center-wisconsin
2 Thank you to J.R. Briggs of Kairos Partnerships for introducing me to this idea of churches as airports.
