I belong to a men's group that meets Friday mornings at 6:15am (that's right) and we had a great discussion yesterday about being on mission for Jesus Christ.
We touched on mission trips, but the discussion wasn't about that. Those can be great if structured properly. I have talked to many people both local and international who feel Americans often treat these as vacations rather than mission trips, or worse yet take a "my way or highway" approach as to what and how they should be done once you are actually on the mission field. Another topic for another day.
"On mission" has a different connotation and is I believe more difficult than a mission trip. Because it includes how you live in your world not just going to visit someone else's. (And we know what Jesus said about not having honor in your own town.)
It includes teaching a teen group on a Wednesday night, mentoring a group of younger men or women, visiting a homeless shelter every Saturday morning just to love on the people and minister to them (and actually do it so effectively some of them think you are homeless too). It also includes going off to a foreign country to help build a city next to a garbage dump for people who up to then lived in the garbage dump as their only means of survival.
Missionality (not sure it is a word, but it fits). Not making it about a week, or month or even a year long mission trip. Not even talking about permanently making your life the international mission field. Those are great if done with love and with Christ first in your heart. It is about being on mission each and everyday of your life where you are right now. Being on mission when there are so many distractions to go off mission (people, places and things).
My group realized we are doing some of it (probably not enough), but we do not talk enough about it to gain encouragment from others and to provide the same type of encouragement flowing out of us.
You can be on mission so easily if you choose to. Live your life for Christ. Try to do as he would.
We had that conversation yesterday morning. This morning I read the following:
"The key to a missionary's devotion is that hew is attached to nothing and to no one except our Lord Himself...The duty of a faithful missionary is to concentrate on keeping his soul completely and continually open to the nature of the Lord Jesus Christ."
Oswald Chambers - My Utmost For His Highest
Try some missionality today.
We touched on mission trips, but the discussion wasn't about that. Those can be great if structured properly. I have talked to many people both local and international who feel Americans often treat these as vacations rather than mission trips, or worse yet take a "my way or highway" approach as to what and how they should be done once you are actually on the mission field. Another topic for another day.
"On mission" has a different connotation and is I believe more difficult than a mission trip. Because it includes how you live in your world not just going to visit someone else's. (And we know what Jesus said about not having honor in your own town.)
It includes teaching a teen group on a Wednesday night, mentoring a group of younger men or women, visiting a homeless shelter every Saturday morning just to love on the people and minister to them (and actually do it so effectively some of them think you are homeless too). It also includes going off to a foreign country to help build a city next to a garbage dump for people who up to then lived in the garbage dump as their only means of survival.
Missionality (not sure it is a word, but it fits). Not making it about a week, or month or even a year long mission trip. Not even talking about permanently making your life the international mission field. Those are great if done with love and with Christ first in your heart. It is about being on mission each and everyday of your life where you are right now. Being on mission when there are so many distractions to go off mission (people, places and things).
My group realized we are doing some of it (probably not enough), but we do not talk enough about it to gain encouragment from others and to provide the same type of encouragement flowing out of us.
You can be on mission so easily if you choose to. Live your life for Christ. Try to do as he would.
We had that conversation yesterday morning. This morning I read the following:
"The key to a missionary's devotion is that hew is attached to nothing and to no one except our Lord Himself...The duty of a faithful missionary is to concentrate on keeping his soul completely and continually open to the nature of the Lord Jesus Christ."
Oswald Chambers - My Utmost For His Highest
Try some missionality today.
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