Two weeks ago, I started a four week series on “Faithfulness.” The four week series focuses on faithfulness in four areas of life: to Christ, to spouse, to children, to mission or personal ministry. I wanted to save the most significant one (living relationship with Christ) for last. So, the first week I hit on “Faithfulness in Marriage." Last week I hit on “Faithfulness with Children." This week I’m going to focus on being Faithful in Missional Living.
I just ran across a blog from Brian Howard that exemplifies much of the same thing this series is about. His blog helps us to think through not missing out on real life. Brian is the former co-director of the Sojourn Network in Louisville, KY. He leads Church Multiplication for Pacific Church Network and is the Executive Director of Context Coaching Inc.
Now, I want to preface this with knowledge that some people hate the use of the word “missional,” while others love it. The word is not as important as the context and reason you use the word. For me, it just clarifies how intensively purposeful we need to be in joining in God’s mission of reconciling mankind to Himself through the gospel.
- I could have called this “Faithful in Ministry Relationships,” because I believe it is in the crucible of gospel-intentional relationships where this faithfulness needs to be worked out. When we say we’re wanting to reach a city or a region or a people group with the gospel—we’re not talking about buildings and parking lots and trees—we’re talking about living people in need of reconciliation with a holy God (2 Cor. 5:17-21).
- I could have called this “Faithful in Personal Ministry,” because I believe that each follower of Christ is called to different forms of personal ministries using the gifts and abilities God has given to further His Kingdom. I believe God has given the church various persons who are to lead, teach, and equip the people (the church) for various works of ministry (Eph. 4:11-12) so that the body of Christ matures and grows in depth and breadth (Eph. 4:12-16).
- I do not believe “making disciples” is an “optional version” reserved for second-tier Christians who want to go beyond merely being saved and avoiding hell. I think that new believers need to be taught and equipped to live the life they’ve been given, while on the earth, (Gal. 2:20) to be used for His Kingdom in ways they couldn’t imagine.
- I believe regeneration and new birth from the Holy Spirit changes the identity and posture of each person. They now live for Christ and His Kingdom and not themselves. They now live for His purposes and goals for their life—not their own.
- They have been “bought at a price,” (1 Cor. 6:19-20) and therefore surrender personal ambitions that steal time away from His purposes and they surrender personality preferences that have been used to justify inactivity and dare I even say disobedience to the Great Commission (Matt. 28:18-20).
For me, “Missional Living” simply refocuses my attention to the reality that I am in a spiritual war with a real, living enemy. It means being intentional with small decisions in planning and scheduling how we live each week to realign our lives with God's great mission.
Look at Acts 17:24-27
“The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us…”
These verses reveal that God determined that I would be here at this place, at this exact point in time, (“having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place”) with intentional purposes. God determined and thought it best, in all His wisdom, to have you exactly where you are and at this exact point in time—to further His purposes. The neighborhood and work place and town and community you live in were determined by God. He placed you there to be an image-bearer for His glory.
Are you living your life for that “next” big thing? Are you merely getting through everyday life while anticipating that “next big step” for you or your family? Or are you living right now in light of eternal matters.
We need to learn to “Live…120%…Right Now!”
WEEK 3 — FAITHFUL IN MISSIONAL LIVING
1. Engage with the people right in front of you everyday.
Have you ever thought about how many events, services, trainings, conferences, studies, classes, and meetings believers go to along with the number of hours spent in all those activities? If you figure two hours at a worship service on fifty-two weeks and two more hours some other time during the week—that’s over two hundred hours minimally each year.
How many hours each week do we as believers go face-to-face with lost people in our neighborhoods, workplaces, and communities without ever intentionally engaging with them to clarify the gospel?
2. Engage with the community.
The church in America, generally speaking, has done a good job at the “church gathered,” while really struggling with the idea of the “church scattered.”1 The church gathered is where worship, Bible teaching, equipping, training, fellowship, and accountability take place. The church scattered is where the people (church) move beyond the building walls to engage with those in their world both near and far.
We must learn to engage in serving our local communities to show them the love of Christ and show them the gospel through our sharing of their burdens. We must become a people who develop patterns of church scattered.
3. Engage with culture—especially lost culture.
We must do away with the isolationist mentality that many churches have struggled with and even promoted. The metanarrative of the Bible reveals God, the second Person of the Holy Trinity, coming to engage with a dark and fallen world that is full of sin to an extent we cannot imagine. That pictures immeasurable holiness transforming darkened depravity through moving towards it and engaging it.
Salt mocks dead meat if it refuses to touch it (Matt. 5:13). We will need to move towards people who are much different from us in their politics, ideologies, sexual practice, and religion. Standing on an island screaming for others to change first in order to be accepted by the church will never work.
4. Engage with the lost world far away.
Jesus said to “open your eyes and look upon the fields. They are ripe for harvest already” (John 4:35). Many times, we as individuals and the larger church in general, become guilty of naval gazing. We spend so much time focused on ourselves, our local church, and our own Christianity that we never learn about the peoples and places in the world who have never heard of Jesus, who have no churches to attend, who have no Bibles to read, and have no Christians in their proximity who could clarify the gospel with them.
The 10/40 Window contains 95% of the world’s most unreached, unchurched peoples. It contains two-thirds of the world’s population in the largest religious blocs (Tribals, Hindus, Chinese, Muslims, and Buddhists). It also contains the great majority of the poorest of poor in all the world. With advances in technology, communication, travel, and economic availability, we are more able to reach the furthest parts of the world in a much more opportunistic way.
Sankie P. Lynch
Pastor of Families
sankie@nbchurch.info
nbchurch.info
nbfamilies.info
1. Much is discussed in:
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