There’s a joke going around that when a person was offering medical advice, he said that he wasn’t a doctor, but had played one on TV. A series of ads touts that if you stay at their hotel, you’ll get such a good night's sleep that you’ll be able to do extraordinary feats. When it comes to missions, what does it take?
The current thinking is that everyone is a missionary. I disagree. What I say is that all missionaries are evangelizers, but not all evangelizers are missionaries. Missionaries intentionally cross barriers to convey the gospel. Barriers can be cultures, distance, or languages. If all you’re trying to do is witness in order to bring people into your own church, then that’s not missionary thinking. That’s evangelism thinking.
When I came to the Cincinnati Area Baptist Association, I was challenged to help churches be missional and not attractional; to be sending and not receiving. As a long-term mission field, we who live in Cincinnati have long been adept at receiving volunteers from the South. The good news is that over the past eight years, it has been a joy to have pastors ask where the greatest needs are in the association. What churches need encouragement? Even with the Florida Baptist Partnership underway, I’ve had four pastors want to plan mission trips to Central Florida, where CABA has been assigned. This is missionary thinking.
So, if you believe everyone is a missionary, why don’t we train church members as missionaries? We lower the bar in Sunday School and hope believers will sit and get, then one day we hope they’ll do something for Jesus. That’s not missionary training. While I was a trainer at the IMB, it took two months of intentionally training godly couples, most of whom had seminary degrees and many years of experience, how to be a cross-cultural career missionary.
Missionary living is possible by everyone. I’ve reached deep into my past to create an ideal list of seven missionary lifestyles and habits. Maybe you’ll add to it.
1. Abide: In John 15, Jesus said that when we abide with Him, we’ll produce much fruit; fruit that will last. A calling to missions comes out of abiding. Spend time in the Scriptures, letting the Holy Spirit train you and shift your motives. As Henry Blackaby and Claude King used to say, “See where God is at work and join Him.” I would add an admonishment to listen carefully and be ready to move as He leads. This is where living “missional” is similar to living as being sent out from Jesus.
2. Focus your family and your life on a least-reached people or place. Your spouse should have buy-in. Your kids should be in tandem, not a distraction. Invest in your family and other families as together you form a team who can work cooperatively and effectively. Teams work better than lone wolves.
3. Spend time in the harvest field. Be a disciple-maker that makes a smooth continuity from evangelizing to discipling to leader development. Jesus said we are to make disciples and do it here, there, and everywhere. The Apostle Paul wrote that we’re to be Jesus’ ambassadors. Ambassadors not only represent the king, but go! Missionaries live well beyond their comfort zone.
4. Live sacrificially and within your means. Debt should not be a distraction. I think this is a truism for new churches, too. They should not focus so much on tithes, offerings, and giving that they can’t give lavishly to missionary work of others in the SBC, SCBO, and CABA. And don’t go the other way as well by being stingy while you count the cost of missionary living.
5. Live within a margin of reality. Missionary living is stressful and requires recovery time. Recreation should not be another form of exhaustion, but get-aways that refresh and renew your own sanity and your family’s well-being.
6. Plan for two-to-three-year stretches. Jesus’ earthly ministry lasted three years. The Apostle Paul spent two years in Ephesus. Plan for big chunks of time and then plan for a year off in which you both celebrate and seek what should be next. Trust the Holy Spirit to leave workers in the harvest as you transition.
7. Remain a lifelong learner. Remake yourself as required by the next mission of God as you live and work for Him and His glory.
So, being a missionary is more than acting like one or getting a good night sleep in a nice hotel. Living as a missionary begins right where you are; your life, your family, your job, your church, and your schedule. If you’re not a missionary here, you’ll never be a missionary there. The Holy Spirit is ready to equip you, so saddle up!
--Mark Snowden directs the Cincinnati Area Baptist Association
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