How to "do" missions...

We just had our annual Missions Conference this past weekend at church.

One of the main driving points of the weekend given by the main speaker, Brian Newby, was how we often miss our missions opportunities because these opportunities look too familiar, too mundane.



Just as the Israelites missed Christ as their Messiah because they were looking for something spectacular and awesome ("Isn't this Joseph's son?" the religious leaders asked when Jesus declared Himself the saving Messiah - Luke 4), we often miss our part in God's big mission because that part may look too common, too "every day".

 

As Brian stated, "God has a global mission to restore the world to Himself." Global means everywhere. Global is not restricted to across the world, in the thick jungles, or hot sandy desserts of another continent. Global includes your city, your town, your neighborhood, your family.

If you are a child of God, His mission involves you. And maybe He does want you to pick up, dig those roots out of the ground, and move on to someplace foreign or exotic to bring His Gospel to those who have never heard. But have you ever considered that there are some who have never heard right there in your neighborhood?


 
 

Just as Christ was too familiar to the Jews, we can get stuck in a trap of thinking that this place where we live our daily lives is too familiar, too mundane, to be a place of missions, of bringing God's light to a lost world.

As Brian said, "An unsaved soul in America is just as lost as an unsaved soul in Africa."

God's mission is right here in my house. It's right here in this tiny rural neighborhood I live in. And God's mission is right there wherever you are too. Where I go, God's mission goes. Where you go, God's mission goes.

And as Brian exhorted this past weekend, let's not miss this great mission from God because it may look a little too familiar or we think the mission is only reserved for a select few.

"You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven." ~ Matthew 5:14-16