Photo courtesy of Nina Strehl via Unsplash
What comes to your mind when you think about living life on mission? Many technical artists never think past our own spheres of technical influence in weekend services and weeknight group Bible studies. Some of us, after all, have given up higher paying jobs for the mission of supporting our local church. Others of us work full-time jobs and then serve many more hours with that same mission in mind.
We don't even have to pray to ask God what we should be doing. He tells us plainly.
We all know that we are called to “go into all the world and make disciples.” We don't even have to pray to ask God what we should be doing. He tells us plainly. We all would agree, that is the mission handed to us by Jesus before he left earth and ascended into Heaven. See Matthew 28:16-20. Not one of us could challenge that this is why the church exists. For some of us, I wonder if we have narrowed the scope of our mission to the way we serve our local churches via technical production.
One summer I was part of a group of men in our local church that prayed, fasted, and met together regularly, specifically to ask God for our next steps as individuals and together as a church. We met together each Wednesday evening for a couple of months and studied other men and women whom God called. We examined our own lives and how we were living life through the perspective of going and making disciples.
As the weeks went by, I realized for myself that I wasn't personally being as intentional as I could be. And I was convicted by a principle: “Faithful with a little, faithful with a lot.”
Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. – Luke 16:10
As I looked at my life, I wasn't being very faithful outside my sphere of technical influence. I thought of the friends and family in my life. I thought of the neighborhood I live in. I wasn't being intentional to “go” right where I was and if that was the case, how could God trust me enough to “go” somewhere else? I wasn't being faithful with the “little.”
That conviction grew and is continuing to grow. I thought of the several hundred people that live around me and knew some of the stories of hurt and brokenness in our neighborhood. I invited several neighbors who know Jesus to be intentional to pray together for our neighborhood.
Towards the end of [that summer] we sponsored a neighborhood cookout and continued to pray in the weeks leading up to it. Continuing on, I want to be faithful and intentional to go to those around me.
... your family, your neighborhood, your co-workers, and it is those outside of your immediate sphere of influence. Who are the people in your life who do not know Christ?
Here's the thing: if we know Jesus personally, the trajectory of our lives has been forever changed. We have experienced a grace that's unimaginable and profound. We are covered by His mercy, not getting what we deserve. We are comforted by His love, forgiven and free. That isn't ours to keep hidden. We must go [forth].
Living life on mission is greater than how you serve in your local church. It is that, for sure, but it's much more. It is your family, your neighborhood, your co-workers, and it is those outside of your immediate sphere of influence. Who are the people in your life who do not know Christ? So I would like to ask you to wrestle with these same questions I've been wrestling with:
• Are you being intentional? ("Going" doesn't happen by itself.)
• Is there a faith component to your going? (In every case, the men and women God called had to trust Him with an outcome that was beyond their control.)
• Are you too comfortable? (Again, in every story where God called someone, they experienced discomfort, fear, and/or inadequacy and wrestled with questions.)
Read the stories of Abraham, Moses, Joshua, Jonah, Gideon, Mary, Peter or Paul. Notice how God interrupted their lives and ask God for your own specific next steps. You don't have to pray to see if you are called, you already know that you are.
