Help and Hope in a Divided WorldSýnishorn

Beginning with Both in Mind

After devoting more than half my life to Christian humanitarian work around the globe, I was exhausted, discouraged, and restless. But, as it turns out, it wasn't my faith that was in danger of falling apart; it was my Calling (or lack thereof) that is often labeled as “missions” work.

The dictionary defines a missionary as:

• someone who attempts to convert others to a particular doctrine or program
• someone sent on a mission—especially a religious or charitable mission to a foreign country
• one who is to witness across cultures

This, to me, is the traditional meaning of those words. But in the context of our faith and the original intent of Jesus, what should the definitions be?

What if missions is really more about truly loving our neighbors? What if it is more about teaching people how to live on earth, not just how to get to heaven? What if we didn’t have to choose between the physical and spiritual when meeting people’s needs? What if we didn’t have to choose between social justice and salvation? What if it could really be about both?

The best-selling author Bob Goff once said, “There’s nothing wrong with matching shirts and wristbands. We just don’t need them anymore. . . . We don’t need to go on ‘mission trips’ any longer. Jesus’s friends never called them this. They knew love already had a name.”

When we forget about “missions” and call this what it really is—living out our faith—I believe a new, freeing world opens up to us.

As a result of this small shift, we will see “mission trips” as simply an exercise of our faith, not the culmination. Our imaginations will expand beyond a single “missions emphasis week” and spill over into every day of the week, wherever we are. We won’t be satisfied with part-time faithfulness or waiting around for God to clean up the world. We will seek justice and healing and restoration of the world because, as children of God, we ourselves have been justified, healed, and restored.

Missions is how we live. It should consume us in our homes, across the street, in our churches, in our places of work, and yes, in places of injustice around the world too. It should inspire us to seek human flourishing and to bring the Kingdom of God to the home we all share.

Matthew 25:44-45 (NIV)

“They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’”