Tribal vs. Missional

The book of Jonah isn’t about a man getting swallowed by a whale for going the wrong way. If it were we would only have chapters one and two. It also isn’t about Ninevah hearing the truth and repenting. If it were we would only have chapter three of the book.

If it is just a whale story and the repentance of Nineveh then what do we do with that pesky chapter four? Chapter four and the book end with this question from God asked to Jonah: “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?”

How do we answer that question? Do we care more about ourselves than the people in our community? Do we pursue self-preservation or self-sacrifice?

I enjoyed Tullian Tchividjian first book Unfashionable last summer. Trevin Wax provided an excerpt from his blog to Tchividjian’s latest book that really challenged me and I thought I would pass along. I encourage you to read the below excerpt from Tchividjian’s book, Surprised by Grace: God’s Relentless Pursuit of Rebels:

We can’t escape a stark contrast in this story—the tribal mindset of Jonah versus the missional mindset of God.

These two mindsets involve fundamentally different values. The highest value of a community with a tribal mindset is self-preservation. A tribal community exists solely for itself, and those within it keep asking, “How can we protect ourselves from those who are different from us?”

A tribal mindset is marked by an unbalanced patriotism. It typically elevates personal and cultural preferences to absolute principles: If everybody were more like us, this world would be a better place.

But in a missional minded community, the highest value isn’t self-preservation but self-sacrifice. A missional community exists not primarily for itself but for others. It’s a community that’s willing to be inconvenienced and discomforted, willing to expend itself for others on God’s behalf.

A tribal mindset is antithetical to the gospel. The gospel demands that we be missional, because the gospel is the story of God sacrificing himself for his enemies.

Both these approaches are robustly present in Jonah’s story. Jonah represents the best of a tribal mindset, the absolute best. He’s like the trophy for the tribal person. And God—ever-gracious, ever-pursuing, ever-compassionate—serves as the trophy for the mission-minded.

Jonah runs from his enemies; God runs toward his enemies.

Jonah serves himself; God serves the world.