SpaceX Mission Statement: “to revolutionize space technology, with the ultimate goal of enabling people to live on other planets.”
Jesus revolutionized what it means to live.
Elon Musk in his efforts at TESLA and SpaceX has dramatically re-imagined manufacturing. Unlike the large corporations and agencies that are institutional entities with budgets, schedules, and legacy practices, SpaceX moves fast, innovates, and lowers costs with higher performance.
Jesus turned the institutional rules that the Pharisees created upside down. He radicalized the understanding of the command to love. Today the church looks a lot more like the synagogue of the Pharisees than the kingdom of God.
For context, let’s compare SpaceX’s cost to put something in space to their competitors:
- SpaceX’s Starship: Plans for $70 per kilogram
Versus
- Ariane 5: Historically charging upwards of $10,000 per kilogram.
- Atlas V: Costs can exceed $18,000 per kilogram.
- Ariane 6: Estimated costs around $9,000-$11,000 per kilogram depending on payload.
For context, let’s compare what the church often teaches (though well-meaning in its efforts) to the perspective of Jesus.
Lk 11:46 But He said, “Woe to you lawyers as well! For you load people with burdens that are hard to bear, while you yourselves will not even touch the burdens with one of your fingers.
Jesus warns against piling people up with dos, don’ts, and how-tos, making living the Christian life unbearable, undoable, not worth the effort. This sets folks up for failure, for self-righteousness, and for looking like hypocrites to the world at best and pompous asses at worst. The goal of being disciples and the way of loving one another is lost.
Mt 11:28 “Come to Me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is comfortable, and My burden is light.”
The question is how we recapture Jesus’s radical vision for the church.
How did Musk turn around Tesla and create the working environment at SpaceX? He spent time in the plant solving basic problems of manufacturing side-by-side with his engineers. He gained a deep appreciation of the challenge and creativity needed to succeed in making things.
Jesus, the creator of the universe, humbled himself and came alongside humanity such that he experienced everything we experience and he walked in the way with us. He modeled with great empathy a way of being–how we were made and what we need to become.
The questions could be asked, how are we imitating Christ in the church today? How are we failing to imitate him? How are we misrepresenting him?
Making disciples shares many of the same disciplines and challenges of manufacturing rockets. Musk has reorganized his operations to become more capable and human than traditional/institutional structures common in large corporations. Many of his key insights and practices reflect Jesus’ teachings that are needed in the Christian community today.
What would it mean for churches to be more capable and human?
What is the mission Jesus gave to his disciples? A common answer is “converting the lost.” There are biblical passages that indicate this is one of the answers to the “how” question but not to the “what” question. “How” is the process of accomplishing the mission; i.e., to realize the vision of the mission. For Musk, the “how” is building rockets to realize the vision of revolutionizing space technology. The “what” is to have space technology that enables people to live on other planets.
For us as disciples, when we pray the prayer Jesus taught us to pray, our primary request is that God’s kingdom would be realized on earth as it is in heaven. When we pray, “Thy will be done…,” we echo Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane and like Him, commit ourselves to bringing in His kingdom. Conversion is only the beginning of the “how” in being a disciple. Becoming a disciple is becoming a follower of Jesus. The full “how” is being in Christ and keeping His commandments. The “what” is realizing His kingdom.
Most of us are realizing the kingdom in our multitude of roles in our family and community. What we do in each role is eternally important, it is how we love our neighbor and one another. It is also how we engage others to come and follow Christ. If the main thing is conversion, why do the epistles teach us primarily how we are to love one another in our roles and vocations?
“I think it’s important to have a future that is inspiring and appealing. There has to be reasons you get up in the morning and want to live. Why do you want to live? What’s the point? What inspires you? What do you love about the future?” — Elon Musk
Jn 13:34 I am giving you a new commandment, that you love one another; just as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are My disciples: if you have love for one another.”