The Mandate of Missional Living
- 09.21.09
- Love, Missional Living
- 8 Comments
Our churc
h just spent the weekend with Kevin Higgins, the director of Global Teams – an organization that equips and sends missionary teams all over the world. We’ve partnered with Kevin over the past sixteen years and have seen an entire church movement emerge in South Asia as a result. Kevin and I spent a lot of time this past weekend talking about God’s call on His people to engage in missional living both locally and globally, a concept that ALL followers of Jesus must come to terms with.
Being missional simply means joining with God in His redemptive mission. We believe that God is at work all around the world among all the peoples of the world, and so we send workers (missionaries) out to demonstrate and proclaim the good news of Jesus among those people. As a church, our global emphasis is strong, but what about our local missional emphasis?
Foothills Fellowship has focused our missional efforts over the years on North Africa, Japan, South Asia, and the Middle East (and we’ve even sent people from our church to these places to live), but if we’re not living in one of those places right now, then God has called us to live missional lives right here in Albuquerque. (Or if you’re reading this from another location, then God has called you to live missionally right where you are!)
THAT’S local missional living, and frankly, we don’t do well at this as followers of Christ, do we? If we did, our pastor’s sermons would be replaced often with stories of how the lives of our friends, co-workers, and neighbors were transformed by the saving power of Christ. Our churches would be pulsating with worship because we would be marveling at the wonderful work of God through us. Our baptismal waters would be flowing weekly, and our worship centers would be full of new believers hungering for discipleship.
But this really isn’t happening, is it? I contend that it’s not because God is dead, or uninterested, or unloving, or uncaring; it’s because we’ve not fully caught the vision and calling that we all have to live missional lives right where we are.
In Matthew 22:36-39, Jesus said, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
When are we going to realize that – in God’s economy – loving, serving, and caring for our neighbors is right up there with loving Him? In His mind, those two are inseparable. Loving God and loving others: it’s what we’ve been sent here to do!
So, in order to engage in local missional living, we must be people who daily join with the Lord in His redemptive mission, which is a way of life, not just another once-a-year act of kindness toward our neighbors. It’s a way of living our lives where we are constantly radiating God’s redemptive plan to those around us, and as we do this as individuals, families, and churches, we’re trusting God for spiritual fruit like we’ve never seen before!
Wish I could have sat in the corner to just listen to you and Kevin talking.
I also find it interesting that with your so called ‘controversial’ social issue blogs, church sign blogs and football blogs you get an abundance of comments and dialogue. But, your last four blogs on elders, leadership, fasting & missional lifestyles, which create more dissidence in the society at large as the lifestyle of misfits, not a single comment submitted. Me thinks we find these sometimes too personal. Any comment may cause us to have to actually change our lifestyle. Reading Psalms 82:4 in my devotions, which states, “Rescue the weak and needy; Deliver them out of the hand of the wicked.” I was struck that this short statement represented missions at the most essential level. What else is salvation if it is not delivering souls out of the hand of the wicked one. But we must then spend time with the weak and the needy. Most of us (myself included) can barely endure the time looking at the weak and the needy in the mirror every morning.
Pray for me and my neighbors here in Japan. The weak and the needy spending time with those who refuse to acknowledge their weakness and neediness.
Leon: I too find it interesting how posts like these don’t generate many responses. I’m afraid that when I’m not using sarcasm or humor that people aren’t as interested in commenting. Too bad, because I would love to talk about these things as well. However, I do know that as many people read these posts as the others. I have ways of knowing these things!! So, I will continue to write these types of posts even if no one wants to talk them through. Blogging is another way that I can lead and teach the flock God has called me to, and therefore, I will continue! Thanks for reading and posting. If no one else wants to discuss these things, at least we can! Praying for you today…
One of the great things about God is that no one who follows Him is without mission field opportunities somewhere. I think it’s awesome that God doesn’t say that serving Him in a big way is exclusive to those who are called to leave their home and move or even leave their country. No one is left out. Not only can God use anyone, He can use anyone in any situation. And the cool thing is if one is regulary spending time getting to know Him and His will for their life, you can be a missionary and not even know it. I believe that God’s will for everyone is to love and serve other people. And if you truly want to be in God’s plans for you….you will be. I would encourage anyone who reads this to live your life working to know God better and be open to what He has in store for you and He will use you. Guarenteed. Whether it’s in Japan or ABQ or Ohio.
Below is a quote sent to me by another missionary… challenging words which are all about living missionally… the quote came originally from http://missionsmisunderstood.com/
“I spend a lot of time thinking about how we market missions. I know there are lots of people out there trying to advocate for unreached people and raise support for missionaries working among them. But usually, it seems that missions marketers (they prefer the word “mobilizers) appeal to the “doing” side of things. They cite statistics and show pictures of unreached peoples in an effort to motivate people to action.
What I rarely hear, though, is the “being” argument for missions. That followers of Jesus will constantly be frustrated spiritually until they get on mission. You’re not a real Christian unless you’re a going Christian.
The value of marketing missions as “being” is that it moves us away from worldly metrics (how many, how difficult, how lost), and toward Godly ones (obedience, Christ-likeness, prayer). Missions as being helps people understand who they are in Christ. It establishes a posture for every aspect of life. Framing the conversation around being changes the way we think about missions. Instead of focusing on what missionaries do (construction, medical care, preaching, evangelism), we can focus on who missionaries are (sinners who obediently move in and between cultures to incarnate the gospel). We often hear “I don’t want to do that” but rarely would someone say, “I don’t want to be that.””
Although I sense a little bit of bitterness toward 10-40 window missions in this guy’s quote, I like this emphasis on missions as “being”. This is something that often seems overshadowed in our western conception and organization of Christian life and activity.
I also like the interaction of Leon! Nice!
OK, I have read the other posts on leadership, fasting, etc. and I apologize for not commenting. I agree with Mike 100%. I guess I am more apt to comment when I disagree which is not very often.
Missions like all fields goes through phases. The “10-40 window” term has been around for a long time and served us well to describe the need. “Unreached” defined by percentages joined the “10-40 window”. Now as a missionary in Japan neither of these threatened my status. Japan lies well within the “10-40 window” and the “unreached” definitions. But the new term “unengaged” which destinguishes things even more narrowly. Japan definitely does not fit the “unengaged” definition.
But all of these definitions only define the “need” mostly applying these geographically. I am not pooh-poohing this. Extremely helpful. But only one snap shot of the larger scenery.
Jesus said, “”For you always have the poor with you; but you do not always have Me.” Matt 26:11 The Bible gives a high priority to ministering to the poor and down trodden. You find them in every country. Yet Jesus points to the proirity of a relationship with Him.
We must consider that Jesus wants us first and formost. And like Him we go to those who need healing, comforting and to hear the Gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven. In other words, missions is not so much about a task, but rather about becoming intimate with Him and His heart, both individually and as a church family.
OOPS, excuse my spelling in the previous… headed out and wrote it too quickly… more to come if time later