When we read about a Missionary going to a far-off foreign place, we expect that what will be required in terms of planning and preparation, and even lifestyle, will be very different from life at home.
This different context means we easily understand they will likely have to live somewhat different lives.
If we happen to have the opportunity to go on anything from a short-term to a longer-term mission, we see how differently we have lived through this period. We accepted that the requirements demanded much more of and on our person; that these could be distinctive, but also rather specific.
What is true for the Missionary leaving for a foreign shore is true for the Missional life when staying at one’s native earthly home.
Our problem is we don’t see this truth with anything close to as much clarity as required, and so live this life in Christ in these more normative places like there is a fundamentally different shape required. On one hand, this can be externally reasonable. But, on the other, we need glasses to see that this present world, in a cosmic sense, is as different as New Zealand from Mongolia, and that what grounds true human flourishing is the same in both. The failure of integration happens when we become existentially-domesticated by the familiarity of our physical locations instead of being always redefined through the Gospel, and because of the trajectories in the Word of God, such as Common Grace.
The solution?
To become more intentional in plan; through real clarity of idea; with a definitive process, and into verifiable application. This can mean collaborating and co-labourating with those that intention this purpose, if the opportunity arises. Our lives long for this type of cohesion and coordination; where the most important ideas more emphatically resonate into every nook and cranny of existence. The challenge is not so easy in the warp and woof. I am sure we have all been there. Maybe still are.
The Missional activation is one of the specific living goals and expectations inside this RELOVUTIONARY Philosophy, but also one motivation-toward-application of this 2019 church plant. If this sounds like a radical plan, you will easily confuse the outwardly-domesticated-stage of a Hollywood production, with a faithful application of the biblical worldview in the mundane and sackcloth and ashes of days. As we build this planned-for-team, there is opportunity. Obviously, there is much more required in the make-sure-the-fit is right, but you can start any process, by communicating your level of interest to me personally.
One reality that becomes more than words as you age is that you grasp what it means that reality’s present time is on a shot-clock. And it is easy to just attend church each week when this process is about you. This should never knee-jerk-like-translate into a fearfully-motivated-lurching from one predicament to the next, trying to externally fill your void with something close to meaning. This is the Gospel found for those with His passport.
As a result of this Gospel, you now want to use your time as Jesus used His; with an ever-clearer-and-crystallising mandate to do the Father’s will. You can, because of what He has finished, for you. You are now more freely overflowing with liberty, gratitude, thankfulness, and fuel for life.
And that there is no other greater resolution than to live out the Gospel lines, which have forever changed, and so defined your existence; even as God authors this unfolding in time and space.
Life as Mission.
This is the Missional Life.
For the Fame of His Name