Surprise the World, Part 8
How journaling can inspire missional living
When I was a student at Lancaster Bible College in the mid-1990s, all LBC students were Bible majors. We didn’t have minors. Instead we had a program focus. I was in the missions program. As a missions student, we learned that it wasn’t appropriate to suggest that all people are missionaries. The reason was that missionaries, we were told, are people of one culture who enter another culture for the purpose of the mission of the Kingdom of Jesus, so that more and more people would become his disciples. That definition of missionary emphasized the foreign nature of missionary work. Now 30 years later, I find that definition lacking.
Times were changing in the 1990s. Our world was becoming more global, and frankly it had been globalizing for decades. Gone were the days when a missionary would pack up their entire lives and sail for a month or more on an ocean liner across the globe, with no plans to return home.
Instead missionaries would still pack up quite a bit, send those belongings on a container vessel, and they would fly around the world in a day or less. Then they would return home regularly for months-long furloughs and home assignments. What’s more, it was not just white westerners from European or North American countries who were becoming missionaries. Christians from Asia, Africa and South America were also serving as missionaries. Perhaps most shocking of all to us missions students in the 1990s was when we learned that other nations sent more missionaries to the USA than the USA sent missionaries to other nations. It seemed wrong. Why would we need missionaries sent to us?
Into the 2000s, the globalizing trend only increased. My local school district is a case in point, the Conestoga Valley School District. In my tenure here at Faith Church, we’ve seen CV move from a huge majority white demographic to where it is today, just barely a majority at 58% white, 42% persons of color. That trend shows no signs of slowing down, let alone reversing.
What this means is that we simply cannot accept the old definition of missionary any longer. Frankly, I don’t believe the old definition of a missionary, “only those who go to other cultures,” was ever correct. Not only has the world come to us, but all Christians were always to see themselves as missionaries. That’s right. You and I living in the places where we were born and raised should always have seen ourselves as people on mission for Jesus.
That brings us to the next chapter of Surprise the World: The Five Habits of Highly Missional People, “Sent: The Fifth Habit”, Chapter 7. A missionary is not only one who leaves their home culture and moves to live in another culture for the purpose of the mission of Jesus. A missionary is a disciple of Jesus who is sent on a mission. All of us are sent on mission by Jesus. We need to see ourselves as sent ones.
You might be thinking, “Wait a minute. Don’t missionaries need to have a supernatural calling from God in order to serve him?” While we do see God supernaturally call some people in Scripture, like Paul in Acts 9, that kind of calling is both rare and not required by Scripture for service. Instead we need to see that we are all called by Jesus to be disciples who make disciples. We are all called for the task of mission. We need to see ourselves as sent ones.
That doesn’t mean, however, that all Christians need to quit our jobs, sell our homes, and move to another country. Some will do that. There is still a real need for Christians to serve away from home. In many cases, missionaries can apply their current gifts and abilities in another place. Many missionaries do not need years of specialized training.
That, too, is a major difference from the previous era of the 1990s and earlier. It used to be that if you wanted to serve as a missionary, even if you were not going to another country to serve in a ministry role (think pastor, evangelist, Bible teacher), you still had to get a Bible degree in addition to job-specific training and cultural training, which also might include a couple years of language learning. It could take a person 8 years or more to get to the mission field.
No longer. I have missionary friends from Faith Church who exemplify this new reality. One was a diesel mechanic. The other has a business background. They both got college degrees in education and had long careers teaching in vocational high schools. With this training and experience, they are a perfect fit for serving the Lord at an international school in Africa. They did not need to get a Bible degree, and thankfully, their mission no longer required it. Of course my friends are excellent students of God’s Word, and they continue to learn it. But they didn’t need a Bible degree, and thus they were able to immediately move to Africa and serve God.
Like I said above, however, most Christians will not move to another country, but will instead live right where they are now, with a home, jobs, family, neighbors and a church in their own community. They will also see themselves as missionaries, as sent ones to that community. That is what Frost introduces in this chapter. What, then, do we sent ones do?
First, Frost points out that we are involved in the mission of reconciliation (87-88). Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:11-21 that God has sent us, all of us, to be involved in the task of reconciling people with God. We also strive to be reconciled with all people, and to help others be reconciled as well.
Second, we are sent on the mission of justice, Frost writes (88-89). Because God’s heart beats for justice in the world, we seek out any injustice and work to eradicate it. That includes personal and corporate injustice. From personal sin to systemic structures of injustice, such as racial justice.
Third, we Christians are on mission for beauty (89-91). That one might cause you to raise one eyebrow in suspicion. Really? Beauty? Yes! Not what might be called worldly or fleshly beauty. That kind of beauty is in the eye of the beholder. We are called to be on mission for what God would consider beautiful. We are on mission for beauty that glorifies God, Frost writes, such as involvement in the varieties of artistic expression.
Fourth, we are on mission, Frost suggests, for wholeness (91-93). This is the mission to pursue flourishing, what Jesus called the abundant life in John 10:10, and what the Old Testament Hebrew word shalom refers to.
To help us create a habit of mission, of living as ones who are sent by Jesus, Frost suggests that we begin a mission-tracking journal (93-97). When we write down how we are pursuing the mission of God, we are (1) processing events, (2) making sense of God’s work, (3) keeping a record of insights, (4) asking important questions, and (5) identifying ourselves differently. Frost says that journaling is the key to making missional living a habit. He writes, “It is about reshaping our identities around our fundamental calling as the sent ones of God.” (96)
In conclusion, let’s review Frost’s five habits of highly missional people:
B – Bless three people this week, at least one of whom is not a member of your church.
E – Eat with three people this week, at least one of whom is not a member of your church.
L – Spend at least one period of the week listening for the Spirit’s voice.
L – Spend at least one period of the week learning Christ.
S – Journal throughout the week all the ways you alerted others to the universal reign of God through Christ (sent).