“Then Jesus said to them ‘Go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age.’” Matthew 28: 18-20
“Christian mission” is something that has always been on my heart. From back in high school I felt a call to work for the Lord in some capacity. I spent a couple of years working for a Christian organisation where I had the privilege of organising small teams and individuals to be able to travel overseas and experience short-term mission trips. I was so encouraged by their experiences and seeing God at work in their lives. My first mission trip was to Russia in 2007. 3 friends and I packed up and travelled to the other side of the world to serve the church, community and youth in Moscow and a town about 12 hours out of Moscow called Voronezh. It was an amazing trip but it wasn’t life changing for me, I came home and life went straight back to the way it was. It wasn’t God’s timing for my heart to be opened dramatically to a missional calling. I was also young and very naive.
My next 3 mission trips were to Fiji (2017-2019), were post marriage and children and were vastly different, changing my faith and life forever. But they are stories for another time. Or rather a number of stories for other times. If only I had somewhere I could share these stories to encourage others. 😉 Watch this space.
What I’ve been contemplating the last few years (and this isn’t ground-breaking research, many people have been discussing this for centuries), is this:
Are all Christians missionaries?
There are differing opinions to this question and whilst there isn’t a clear-cut answer, we are all called to the same 2 commandments: to love God and to love others. Yet there seems to be a lack of urgency for the gospel in so many believers and I don’t know why. Is it that we forget we’re here on earth temporarily, with a clear message to share? Is it that we do not know that we all have a mission? Is it that we do not spend enough time educating ourselves on and reflecting on God’s redemptive plan from the beginning of time and what our role in it might be? And I’m not just talking about the confident evangelists among us, I’m talking about every single person who has a personal relationship with Jesus.
We are living in the period of history between the first and second comings of Jesus. The first: when he came to earth as a man “to seek and save the lost” (Luke 19:10). The second: when he will come to judge all people and bring complete restoration. We also know that as part of that restoration, there will be “people from every nation, tribe, people and language” worshipping the Lord for all of eternity (Revelation 7:9).
The beauty of following a God who creates us all uniquely is that our response to these 2 commandments look vastly different. So in your own, unique way, with your own, unique talents, God is calling you to share the good news of Jesus with the world (read to the end, that may not be as scary as it sounds). To help them realise that all of us are sinful and fall short of God’s expectations every day. That on our own we could never restore the relationship with our creator, but that solely by God’s grace and mercy He has done it for us.
As I mentioned earlier it looks different for different people. For friends of ours a call to love God and love others is them working for European Christian Mission, an organisation who plant churches across Europe that share and show the love of Jesus. Yet, they are doing this work from Sydney, mobilising and encouraging people to support this mission from afar.
For others it is to work for secular organisations who are in desperate need of the presence of people who love Jesus. People who are able to spread the message of God’s love and faithfulness to those who need it, and don’t we all need it! For others, it is raising children to be more like Jesus. To be world changers, who will make a difference in this world because they have the confidence of knowing who they are and whose they are.
Personally, I know that for this current season in our lives, we have been sent by God to Sydney, Australia. It has been a wrestle within me for about 15 years, with my heart wanting to be elsewhere. But I’m finally content to rest in God and trust that we have been called to our lives here. Called to love God, and to share our faith with those in our family, neighbourhood, friendship groups (OPC I’m looking at you) and to be God’s hands and feet to teach and pray over those that God has entrusted into our lives.
Considering my family’s life has settled here in Sydney, I truly believe that God has brought the nations to us. To echo the verse above, “Go and make disciples of all nations.” Do you ever wonder what God is doing with you in such a multicultural country? Bringing people of other nations to you when you aren’t able to go to them. What an extraordinary blessing.
My prayer for us all is that God would open our eyes clearly to those people and ministry activities around us that would allow His name to be glorified in the way that we interact with and serve others. The most effective way (outside of prayer) to spread Jesus’ love with people is to do-life with them. Build genuine friendships with people and I guarantee that they will see something unique in you: the power of the Holy Spirit.
Look around you. No matter where you are, God has put you there. So make the most of it. You are there for a reason. “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” Matthew 9:37-38. Jesus is calling you to spread His good news. Are you listening?
I firmly and wholeheartedly believe that every single follower of Jesus is called to be a missional Christian. Don Everts has written a marvellous book entitled “Go and Do: Becoming a Missional Christian,” which I commend to you. On pages 50-53 he unpacks the geography of how the good news of Jesus first spread throughout the world. What follows is a brief summary of these pages: Jesus’ disciples were expecting Him to be a powerful King who would come and defeat their Roman oppressors. Instead in Acts 1:8b Jesus said to the disciples “you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
We see these clear geographical concentric circles where:
- Jerusalem – the disciples where located and would have known the call was an immediate one, to start spreading the news of Jesus to those around them now;
- Judea – Jewish villages in the region surrounding Jerusalem. They had Judaism in common and some of the villages they were familiar with but others they weren’t;
- Samaria – geographically further than Judea and a people group the disciples did not “like, trust or want to be around.” This was starting to feel real for them. And risky; and,
- The ends of the earth – “Jesus was calling them to cross national, political and continental boundaries, to go far outside what they knew, understood or had experienced.” Not only a global calling, “the ends of the earth was a familiar Old Testament phrase…God used to stretch his people’s provincial thinking, to draw their eyes to the horizons and remind them of their global role as his people.”
I’d really encourage you to buy Evert’s book, it is a very practical guide that will open your eyes to God’s mission and the part you have within it.
I cannot tell you how many times I’ve tried to talk God out of allowing this blog to happen. Futile, I know, but it can be terrifying to put yourself out there. But what I’ve learnt is that if God puts something on your heart, listen to Him. Because although we may feel powerless and unable to fulfill His mission, He is not. Proverbs 19:21 “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.” Surely Covid-19 has taught us of our powerlessness over the past few months. But despite the pain and devastation that it has brought, it was not a surprise to God. God allowed it to happen in order to bring good from it. Let’s keep clinging to that.
Cheers guys, I’m praying for you!
BB
