Rob Harris I love the word "missional" and what it emphasizes. We're not supposed to "do" missionary and evangelistic work, we're supposed to "be" it all the time. The phrase "missional church" sounds just about perfect to me, and in my opinion it's a great catchword for churches and for Christians.
But I'm a missionary organization leadership guy, and today, right now, I'm getting ready for a missionary conference which begins in two days. So the office team and I are packing up all the banners and brochures and application forms we use to meet others who are in the process of searching for God's place for them. Another leader on our team, Rob Marmion, is traveling today to be at another separate large event tonight, where he'll tell people about our GoConnect trips, which are designed to take Christians to visit and briefly participate in mission projects. Sometimes it seems strange to me that we are expending such effort - and expense - to meet other Christians, and to take these other Christians around the world. The logic would most naturally dictate that since we're a mission organization, we should be expending our resources exclusively among the unreached, or at least among the unchurched. Right?
But of course it's much more complex than that, and it always has been. There's the model of Jesus to be considered. He was very specific and very intentional about the twelve men he chose. And then he spent significant ministry time investing in them. "Recruiting?" "Training?"
And there's the teaching of Jesus in the Great Commission to be considered, yet again. It always comes back to that; if there is to be a "go to all nations," then there is sending to be done, and sending is simply a tremendously complex process if you want to do it right. Kontaktmission has recognized something which has too frequently been forgotten, that the one who is sent can use lots of help when he or she arrives in the host country and culture. Being ready to receive a missionary on the "business end" of the missionary trip is possibly even more complex than the sending part back home.
Eventually it comes down to this: the Great Commission calls for missionaries. Oh yeah, in the real world it does. If nobody is going internationally and intentionally, then the Great Commission is not being carried out as Jesus intended it. Just waiting for people to eventually take the Gospel around "as they go" is not as effective, and not as in-line with the practice of the first disciples, as the sending of missionaries with strategy aforethought. The very first Christians did it, and they did it carefully, setting aside those men, those teams, to go, then supplying them with what they needed to do so. A simple glance at statistics will show that mission efforts in the last couple centuries have had a very positive effect. The gates of hell are not prevailing in those places where mission work has been done well - with intentionality and excellence.
So today we're packing, and tomorrow we're off on our missionally-motivated "hunt" for the next missionaries we can help send. It's a very intentional activity, at every step along the way. And when I consider the enormity of what God has allowed us to do and called us to do, I know in my heart that preparing to hunt for missionaries is the most missional thing I can do on a Tuesday morning. Pray with me, please, that some more will be found who will actually go live missionally in Europe.
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