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Mission – Part 2

Life is a long-term mission trip, and each week we have a short-term mission opportunity. We don’t need to go abroad to proclaim the grace of Christ. By all means, go if you believe you should, but most often, full devotion and being on mission simply mean taking the next step the Master puts in front of us.

Most of us don’t need to cross an ocean as much as we need to cross the ocean of indifference in our hearts.

Just do the next thing in response to Who He is and what He has done for you. Yes, at some point the next thing for you might be to travel to some distant land, but it is more likely that there is someone on your street, in your grocery store, next to your cubical, or even in your house, who although they are in geographical proximity to you, you remain distant to them. Being mission-minded begins right where we are.

This is why I tell my friends at Watermark all the time that one hundred percent of our budget goes to missions. Because we are always on mission. Our trips overseas are not “missions” trips—they are merely trips into other lands where we continue the mission we live out every day as devoted followers of our King. The tragedy is that too many churches who think of missions as something overseas too often send people over there who have not been on mission over here.

Instead of taking vacations with a purpose, how about living our lives with one?

Our journey together in these pages has been an exploration of the incredible life Christ truly wants for you as His beloved. It is an invitation. A divine proposal to a better way, not a divinely-imposed way. His invitation is to all of us. Not just leaders. Not just for those who have a “call” to evangelism. All of us.

Every one of us who are fully-devoted disciples will share in this mission. We are a kingdom of priests, not attenders of weekly services led by priests.

For all of us, this begins by fully engaging with Christ ourselves. We must decrease and He must increase until His passion naturally becomes our mission. Here are a few questions to help you evaluate how you might be doing at taking your mission seriously.

Of the people who live in the ten houses closest to you, how many of their names do you know? How many of them can you call on your cell phone? When is the last time you shared a meal with them? Do you know where they are in relationship to the faith? How many people far from God have you initiated a relationship with this week? If God answered every one of your prayers this week, how many people’s eternity would be changed as a result? When was the last time that you personally shared your story of grace with someone? When was the last time you personally, clearly presented the gospel to someone? What is worse: someone who lives in a part of the world where they have little or no access to the gospel, or someone on your own street who has access to you but with whom you have never shared the gospel? Pray for the “10/40 window” all you want, but make sure you see the need sitting right outside of your window.

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