Seeing our town as a mission field

Tomorrow I am moving to the most unchurched part of America. I am moving there to become part of the core community that will plant a church, however as I have prayed about it my conviction is this change is about more than just being involved in a church on Sunday morning, it is about living as a part of Christ’s Church all week long. I have been thinking and praying a lot about that and about what my life might look like as I pursue that goal.

Often in America we think of the mission field as being something overseas. We forget that there are people in our communities that need God’s love, truth, love, compassion, grace, and mercy exhibited to them. We forget that Christ calls us to be examples in all we say and do.

If you were to see your town as a mission field what would you do to learn, reach out, and make an impact? It might be something you can do alone, or you might need to partner with others. Here are a few ideas I have been thinking about.

• Go on prayer walks through the community
• Look for random acts of kindness I can participate in every day as I am in the community
• Have eye contact with people, especially those that seem to view themselves as unlovable or uncared for (these people might be the hardest to get eye contact with)
• Contact local organizations to see how I can support, encourage, and bless them (for me that will likely be student organizations or schools, for others it might specialize with the elderly, mothers-to-be, homeless, single parent homes, etc.)
• Find out where the orphans, widows, and those without families are located. Network to help these people connect and find places they are accepted and cared for.

Are you viewing your community as an intentional place where you can serve and reflect Christ? If not, why not? Don’t wait around for others to invite you, get started today!

Changing a waste into something new

A few months ago Todd asked, “Are you wasting your life?” I wasn’t prepared for the question or the answer. After taking stock of my life I realized I wasn’t doing much with my life, even if I wasn’t exactly wasting it. That left me with a choice. Do I continue down the same path or does something change?

Since I lack knowledge, wisdom, and direction about what is best for my life I turned to the one who knows me best, God. It did not happen over night, but finally I surrendered to God and asked him to lead me to the place where I could learn, grow, serve, give, and become most like Christ. I wanted him to lead me to the place where I would thrive and could give my life away in service to others.

God answered my prayer. The answer wasn’t what I expected and the process of how it all happened still has me puzzled and shaking my head at times, but the decisions have been made and the steps are in motion. In three days I will be packing up my life and moving to another state to become part of the core community of a new church that is starting. The church is aiming to live with the Bible as the standard for life, and to build their foundation on the two greatest commandments: love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. Sometimes I am puzzled as I reflect on the fact that these should be the foundation of every church.

I do not know what my new life will hold. I am leaving family, friends, home, history, the familiar, comforts, activities, relationships, etc. for an entire life I know nothing about. I don’t know the people I am joining, what my time and relationships will look like, or what opportunities God will bring my way. That is both scary and exciting. The opportunities that lie ahead are unending. There is nothing to hold me back from a new life that is filled with living by God’s word.

Am I wasting my life? I was, but I am stepping out in faith with a desire to change that. I want my life to touch others and to make a difference. I want to serve God and love him with all I am and all I have. I want to love others and share intentional, intimate, interrelated relationships with them. Today closes a chapter in my life, and I choose a new life, a life that is all about God and others and not about me.

A shift in foundation

Building a foundation

My foundation shifted this week. Living in Washington I have experienced several earthquakes. They can be pretty unsettling and confusing, but I find the personal earthquakes we experience when our beliefs, values, or ethics are challenged or changed much more unsettling.

I was speaking with a friend this week who has been walking through a very difficult situation involving abuse. We were talking about how struggles and difficulties affect our faith in God. She said she has learned a lot through this and is still learning but a shift came for her when she stopped long enough to ask “Why?”, then she asked “Why wouldn’t God let me suffer and go through this? Look at all the suffering those in other parts of the world experience, why should I be exempt?”

Time stopped for me at that point. “Why shouldn’t God allow us to struggle? Why shouldn’t God let bad things happen to us? Why shouldn’t I experience pain, difficulties, loss, and grief? Why shouldn’t I have a life with as much strife as someone in a third world country?”

I haven’t quite made it past this yet. I asked some friends to pray for me this week as I was going through some changes and I felt a need for the details to come together. So often I pray for the circumstantial things in others lives, wanting the outward things to come together and make sense. Maybe what we really should be praying is for the inward things to change, and opening ourselves up to whatever circumstantial means God deems necessary to change us. If God believes I need to struggle, suffer, or experience difficulties so that I can be more like him, understand him more, walk closer with him, or love others in deeper and better ways…..than I want my response to be Bring It On!

Do others see Christ in your life?

Can others see Christ in your life? If you really love him, shouldn’t your life be transformed by that love?

Earlier this spring I came to a very painful realization about someone in my life that I cared about a lot. The closer I got to this person and the more I came to know about them and their family, the less I believed they were walking with God. The less fruit I saw, the more lack of self control and other unhealthy behaviors I saw, the more I doubted the things they said about God. One of the things that grieved me most is that they are in full time Christian ministry and leading other astray.

Around this same time I had been asked what in my life required faith. My answer was, “nothing really”. I realized I did not want my life to be one where others couldn’t see God and didn’t know without a doubt that I was a Christian. I want my life to be one where God’s transforming love is so evident that my life inspires others to seek out their own relationship with Christ.

Are there people in your life that might doubt your relationship with God? Are there people that are turned off to God, Christianity, or church because of you? Do others see hypocrisy in your life that you are unwilling to deal with? Are you willing to change? Is your life an example for others of God’s transforming love and amazing grace?

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:2)

A life that requires faith

A few years ago I shared a small office with a man at work. Every once in a while he would close the office door and turn his chair toward me. I came to recognize this stance meant he wanted to ask me spiritual questions. He wasn’t a Christian, but in his own words he “probably would be a Christian if it wasn’t for all the hypocrisy he saw in people who attended church.”

A couple months ago I was given a question that has lead to some big change in my life. I have often wondered how I would have answered if Carl had asked me this question.

“You say you are a Christian. What in your life requires faith and causes you to need God?”

I realized I really wasn’t living in a way that required faith at all. On my own power I could pay my bills, provide for myself, make decisions that kept me safe, take care of my health, plan for my future, etc. I realized how much “I” was in control, and how I wasn’t walking in the spirit.

What are you doing in your life that requires faith? Are you living in a way that you need God, or are you living only on the skills and gifts God has given you and those around you?

(**Warning: Answering this question may bring change to your life!)