It's not just the destination, it's the journey

It’s not just the destination, it’s the journey. It’s not just what we do, it’s how we do it.

Simple statements, but so incredibly important.

For this reason I have sent to you Timothy, my son whom I love, who is faithful in the Lord. He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church. - 1 Corinthians 4: 17

Relational Mission is not simply about achieving mission objectives – how these objectives are achieved is of paramount importance. We’re not simply trying to tick off a list of aims and goals, we’re trying to create and propagate a culture of what it means to be a family of churches on mission together.

How we go about this is just as important to God as what we achieve for him – remembering that he is quite capable of doing this without us! But it really does matter to God that we represent his family well wherever we go. Each year we are invited to contribute to the European Leadership Forum, a forum of hundreds of senior leaders drawn from across the nations of Europe, and each year they ask us to reflect upon and teach into how to create this culture of relationships that permeates our leadership and church life together as Relational Mission. It’s hard to exaggerate how precious and special this is, and how frequently this is commented upon by others looking in on us.

Paul draws a distinction between what he teaches and also his ‘way of life’ – it’s not just about the values, it is also about the culture that grows up around these values, our ‘way of life’. Mike Betts did a great job in summarising and presenting these in his book, Relational Mission – a Way of Life (known universally as ‘the orange book’). A culture of mothers and fathers, a deeply family-flavoured relational culture, a teeming and thriving apostolic and prophetic environment, and much more besides.

This was brought home to us recently at our RM Globally Fruitful conference where we gathered together many of our spiritual mothers and fathers who move among our churches and serve and support our leaders. Their work is often unseen and un-noted, but vital to perpetuating this relational culture and representing our way of life in every context. They are too many to name and number here (and I will probably overlook some if I tried to do so!) but their work is vital to creating the culture that we prize and long for among us, not simply delivering our mission goals, but creating the beautifully rich culture of the family that is precious to us, and dear to God‘s heart.

Every Blessing

Maurice

Want to be Equipped & Inspired?

Come to the Pioneer Europe Conference- 23-26 September 2025