THE MISSIONAL MINDSET by Lance Ford

I will bless you…and you will be a blessing…

and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.

Genesis 12:2,3

So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and

place it before God as an offering.

Romans 12:1-2 (The Message)

Have you ever thought of Jesus as a missionary? He was and he is. He woke up every morning with a missionary mindset—viewing his resources, his relationships, and his time on earth as a gift from his father, to be stewarded to the fullest. That is the way a missionary thinks. The barrier for most Christians is centered on a tragically wrong perception that missions is something we do over there.

We do evangelism and outreach over here but missions is something that is to happen on the other side of national borders or perhaps on the other side of town in that neighborhood. A missionary views and approaches the world she lives in as the place she has been sent to. That word—"sent"—is the key word to understanding what it means to be missional. The word mission means to be sent. The word missile means sent. As Christians the very DNA of Jesus is in every one of us.

Imagine the impact on our world—our neighborhoods, or places of work, the places we dine, the stores we shop—if the dormant, spirit of the missionary were awakened in our churches. What would happen if we de-professionalized the idea of what it means to be a missionary? Imagine, just from one church—say, a small 90 member church—what could happen if tomorrow morning the person who is a teacher, the plumber, the health care professional, the person who is a janitor, all left their homes and walked through the day as people who were sent on a mission by the Lord Jesus? Imagine if they carried their wallets, not as their own, but as their missionary budget.

Imagine the guy who is “just” a janitor. He stops by a fast food restaurant for lunch and notices as a beat up car pulls in and a Mom and three children walk in to the restaurant. He is listening, on purpose, to the voice of the one who has sent him. He notices she doesn’t have a wedding ring and figures she is probably a struggling single mom. This is a perfect time to use some of his budget to pay for this family’s meal. This is the spirit of the missionary, the one who is sent. A missional church is a church that views every member as a missionary and the place they live as their mission field. Now, imagine the energy in the small group meeting at the end of the week when all these missionaries gather to tell their stories!

Comments

[Tom Gard]

Last night I started reading Thomas Friedman's, The Earth is Flat, which as you know is about how globalization is creating more and more of a level playing field. Then I thought about a friend of mine who is a recent graduate of the Presbyterian College of East Africa, Harison Wachira Ndung'u. Harison visited Lawrence Presbyterian Church, Wendell, MN last summer for three weeks. Lawrence Church has 48 members and for several years now has supported the Presbyterian College of East Africa by offering scholarships to two seminary students per year. As I thought about Harison and his work with families, HIV orphans and others in need, I began to think about the 30 million shares of PDSF stock I recently acquired at .0001. When the stock returns to a value of .10 it would be quite easy to do as Oprah did and build a school for AIDS orphans in Kenya. But, that may take months for that to happen. In the mean time, I became aware of Wi Fi TV (WTVI)which enables users to talk via cell phone or computer to anyone in the world for .02 cents per minute. What this means is, Churches in first world countries can stay in touch with third world churches and mutually benefit one another. The opportunities for being mission minded, global Christians are limitless.
Pastor Tom Gard
Lawrence Presbyterian Church
Wendell, MN