Right now I am in the midwest (Minneapolis, Minnesota to be exact) and it is perfect. Usually when I come up here it's very cold and full of snow. About the only subject on people's minds is the weather and I probably talk about it well over a hundred times during the week. Therefore, when I arrive back home the first thing I talk about is the weather.
Not this time. It's about 65 degrees, blue skies and the people are all really nice. I participated in a Worship Service at our sister Church, Ebenezer Lutheran and got to have lunch at a really cool place called "Psycho Suzi's" (great deep dish pizza).
I am up here to participate in a class on what it means to view ourselves as missionaries to the culture where we live and I am very much looking forward to that. I'll keep you posted on different elements of the class this week and I'm sure I'll have some interesting questions to ask.
First question: What are some ways that you could be a "missionary" to the people where you live?
1 comment:
Question:
What are some ways that you could be a "missionary" to the people where you live?
Response:
My initial response is to go out to the unknown in my community. Recently, I find myself as a missionary much closer to home...
To be frank, I used to be discouraged by those who claimed to be committed to responsibilities toward their household family rather than the needs of the church.
This was based on an understanding of Luke 14:26 ("If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple.") ...Even knowing that "hate" is not "anger/bitterness" but something closer to "prefer less".
I've since been shifted in my response to this passage in two ways:
1) Family has entered the mission field. Rather than seeing my family as an obstacle to Christ's call, they are the focus of that call in as much as the Holy Spirit secures on His behalf. I pray for discernment between spiritual distraction and their needs.
2) Before I challenge how my relationships with my family intersect with the gospel (and with the call of this verse in particular), the latter portion of the verse is being applied, "...hate...even his own self." There are a number of known areas in myself that have been given greater priority than has been given to Christ. It seems selfish to call these part of a mission field, but to God's glory: they are.
I guess the point here is: "Going out" as a missionary doesn't put you any further away from yourself or from your family - you are where God put you. So the "ways that you could become a missionary" are found in the simple things, like washing your child's dirty feet with the love and patience God first showed to you through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
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