terms of understanding its nature in the world, and its mission. In the twentieth chapter of John’s gospel, we find the disciples, on that first Easter Sunday, huddled together in fear behind closed doors. A church with its doors locked! Hardly an encouraging sight. Into that room, heavy with despair, came the resurrected Jesus, proceeding to commission His disciples. At the center of this commissioning are the breathtakingly awesome words, “As the Father has sent me, even so I send you” (John 20:21,