Core business

(This is the first of what will be regular "thought for the week" style posts by various members of the staff team)

The first reading this Sunday is one of the three versions Luke gives us of Peter's involvement in the first conversion of the Gentiles. It is portrayed as the work of both God's revelation to Peter in a (nightmarish) vision, and the work of the Spirit honouring Peter's obedience to that vision in preaching to the Gentiles – Cornelius and his household.

In many ways this could also be called Peter's "conversion" as his conception of church and gospel is radically changed. Like the story of Paul's better known conversion, Luke tells it three times. Once as part of the main narrative, and twice as reported speech by the recipient of God's revelation. Peter's conversion and Paul's conversion are both fundamental to the story of the church moving from a Jewish sect based in Jerusalem, to a worldwide community founded in Rome.

Mission can't be solely located at the periphery of the church as the job of specialist and enthusiastic visionaries like Paul. It belongs also at the heart of the pastoral mission entrusted to Peter – it is core business. That is part of what we're trying to do in re-organising our human resources, a process everyone is being invited to join in.

It also isn't simply about "converting" those outside. The mission of God converts Peter the insider and Paul the outsider alike. The church can't do mission without changing, which is perhaps why we tend to avoid it. But God's mission changes everything, and it really needs to start with us insiders, as it started with Peter, the ultimate insider.