Somewhere along the way we have retreated back to the Old Testament philosophy of the priest as mediator between God and man.  The New Testament calls the church a “Kingdom of Priests.”  Every person who accepts Christ as savior has the capacity and potential to lead other people toward redemption through Jesus.

Although there are a few clear qualifications for  church leaders, anyone who has accepted Christ is a potential mission carrier.  Jesus focused the bulk of his leadership on 12 men, who in turn were expected to go out and raise up other followers of Christ to lead yet others to Him.  It was the way of the first church.  Paul often references in his letters men and women who were responsible for starting and leading new faith communities.  The pattern was simple:  follow Christ and invest in spiritual growth, step into a mission field, begin to introduce people to Jesus and gather them together in homes for mutual growth.  This process repeated until the entire known world had believers scattered throughout.

In the book of Acts, the believers were often forced from their homes by persecution. These simple believers became leaders of communities of Christ-followers in small cities around the known world. It was strategic!

What would it take for us to return to that initial blueprint for the local church?

“Forced to leave home base, the Christians all became missionaries” (Acts 8:4 The Message).

Isn’t that a beautiful paraphrase to the quote in the New American Standard Bible that says “those who had been scattered preached the Word wherever they went.” Isn’t this the heartbeat of the missionary movement? We put a person or couple on an airplane, they go live in a foreign city trying to evaluate culture and then meet needs and build relationships. Then they simply wait. Wait on what?  They wait on God to allow the seed to germinate and grow in the hearts of their “Mission Field.” Then they simply invite people into the only purpose worth living and dying for… God’s purpose to redeem His relationship with all creation.

It’s interesting to me that the church has become a “come and see” movement, instead of a “go and reach” movement as Jesus commanded about 2000 years ago. Luke tells us in his story of Jesus that “the Master selected seventy and sent them ahead of Him in pairs to every town and place where He intended to go.” He then gave them a few simple instructions and sent them on their way.

Where in your neighborhood or community does Jesus intend to go and who does He want to send ahead?  He longs to go to every corner and hidden place and He wants to send anyone willing. What greater compliment could we hear about the modern church than “the Christians all became missionaries?” I want to be about that business.

What would that type of movement look like? To. be honest, it scares me to death… and that excites me. It’s bigger than you and me and even bigger than all of us together. That sounds like a God vision.

Jesus emptied Himself of the Godhead and came to live as one of us (Phil. 2:5-8).

That is one of the most basic theological truths. However, so often we miss what it means to our daily lives. I often use the phrase “broken bread and poured out wine”, which is not in the Bible. However, his mental image is a perfect example of what it means to be a follower of Jesus. As a person living a life of oneness with my Savior, I must grasp the simplicity of salvation. Bob George puts it, “He came to give His life for me, to give His life to me, to live His life through me.” I must empty myself of my pursuit to be my own Godhead! I must be willing to be sent to the trenches as Jesus was. I must allow Christ to come to the places where I live and work… through me. That is the essence of missional living.

Now, to be a missional community is to simply do this together. To be a missional movement means to not only pour our individual lives out, but to be “broken bread and poured out wine” in our corporate lives together. Jesus said that even He, the one person who actually had a right to judge, did not come to judge, but to bring life to a dead world (John 12:47).

We must make sure we provide opportunities for Christ followers to plug into Christian community, but let’s not stop there. Let’s adopt the idea of saying to those who need Jesus, “Don’t come to us, we’ll come to you.” Then let’s put our feet behind it and be embedded missionaries in our communities, places of business and in our social circles. That would be living up to our identity, simply extensions of the original church.

How can I, as a missionary, define my mission field?

First, you do not choose your missions field, that’s Gods job. You simply identify and define where God has called you to serve. In Acts 17:26, Paul says, “From one man He made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.” (NIV) Did you catch that? God not only determined the place where you should live, but also the time frame! Wow. His plans for us are detailed! He placed you where you are in the company of the people you know with specific purposes for your life… NOW!  We often think that if we could just get out of our life situation, then we could do mission.  Jesus said He placed you right where you are on purpose.

Second, determine whether your mission field is geographic, relational, or both. Every mission field has one thing in common… people who need a relationship with Jesus. Your mission field is not among the strongest believers, it is among those who need Him. A geographic mission field is defined by the boundaries of a neighborhood, workplace or some geographic location. A relational mission field is found in an area of your life that contains consistent relationships, such as the bowling alley or the ball field. Determine wif your mission field is geographic or realational.

Once you define your mission field it is time to begin to evaluate how God wants to use you. Here are a few suggestions to start that process.

A .) Take a “Mission Trip”: take a stroll through your neighborhood or workplace and  stay open to hear from God. Pray as you walk. If you have a chance to strike up a conversation, do it. If not, just enjoy the walk.

B.) Take in the sights and sounds: When you find yourself in your Mission Field, take in information from all 5 senses… what do you see, smell, hear, taste, feel?

C.) Try to imagine the hurts and life struggles of the people in your mission field.

D.) Ask the question, “What is good news for these people?”

E .) Pray for God to give you a person of peace and relationships among those living or working in your mission field.

God’s work begins as a mustard seed, the smallest of all seeds.  He chooses the weak and small things of the world to confound the strong and wise.  He longs for you to be on mission with Him.  Now put one foot in front of the other and take the first step.  He will take you the rest of the way.

Grace is 7 and Gabe is 4. Daniel is 2, but today he was sick, so he stayed home with mom.

That left Grace, Gabe and me to spend the day together.

The plan? A birthday party and a church event.

The birthday party was a blast! Monkey Park is a favorite kids destination and party venue in our town.

When we arrived, we made our way to Pavilion #1 where the party was underway. Turns out there were two parties in Pavilion #1. The mom from Party B had reserved the pavilion and arrived after Party A was already set up. Party B’s party leader graciously allowed Party A to use the left side of the pavilion while they partied it up on the right side.

Turns out Party B had the coolest balloons. Lime green with party hats and streamers drawn in white and a big “Happy Birthday” printed in a really cool font. Not only were they cool party balloons, but they were cool party balloons filled with helium!

GABE LOVED THEM…

… and loved them so much he couldn’t stop bugging me about wanting one!

Those of you who have fathered a child may understand what it feels like to hold your little one in your arms knowing that you haven’t the ability to give him the one thing that would wipe away the tears. I stood there with my boy in my arms as helpless as a fireman trying to explain to a child that he can’t retrieve her favorite pet from the burning house.

THERE WAS NOTHING I COULD DO.

Then there was the church event. MISERABLE… at least for the children. A 2.5 hour recital of the book of John completely from memory! It’s true… all 21 chapters (4,146 verses)!!

Pretty cool if you are an adult, but imagine what it would be like if you were 4 and 7 years old.

For those of you who know me, you know that we’ve chosen to be missionaries where we live and we are no longer connected to the traditional church structures. My kids know God, but they’re not too familiar with the institutional church.

The first question Gabe asked as we sat in the unfamiliar pews in the overwhelming sanctuary was, “Hey, what are these books? It looks like they have music in them.” Then as I passed some change to them and instructed them that it was for the offering plate, Grace piped up with, “Dad, what’s an offering plate?” As you can imagine, heads turned from every direction. Humiliating!

The icing on the cake was that we were with a group and there was no hopping in the car to relieve the kidos.

Two thirds the way through the recitation I decided to take the kids for a walk downtown to give them some time to reboot their systems.

There we were in downtown Columbus, GA, 35 miles from our earlier birthday party venue.

As we walked a block and a half down 12th Street and crossed over 1st avenue, I couldn’t help but to question my spiritual parenting decisions. Had I made the right choice for my family to step out and live missionally? Should they be in a traditional church at 11 AM on Sunday mornings? Shouldn’t they know the difference between a hymnal and an offering plate?

Just as I was wrestling over these questions Gabe yelled out (in a typical 4 year old hyper boy way) “Hey, there’s my balloon!” I looked up and I kid you not, it was a lime green balloon with party hats and streamers drawn in white and a big ‘Happy Birthday’ printed in a really cool font!! The exact same balloon in the guarded possession of the Party A master leader.

Tears welled up in my eyes. “Do you know who gave you that balloon Gabe?” He said in his innocent little boy voice as matter of factly as if it came with absolutely no surprise, “Yep… God did.”

I needed that balloon more than Gabe could ever need it! God spoke deeply into my heart and said, “Chill out Kevin. Obedience modeled to your children is more important than a perfect attendance certificate in the best Sunday School class in the whole wide world. You have chosen well!”

There I was all worried about the fact that my kids didn’t know what an offering plate was and God showed up on 12th and 1st to teach my little boy one of the greatest lessons of his life.

They may not know what a hymnal is for, but they can worship with the best of them. They may not know what to do with their 75 cents when the plate passes, but they know what it means to give to God.

My little boy knew where that balloon came from. And for that, I am grateful!

Two years ago God began to rip apart my motives.

The trend toward top down leadership in the church over the past couple decades has been a blessing and a curse.  We have learned to rally people to a cause, leverage resources to build organizations and effectively utilize volunteer labor.  Some say that the mega-church pastors are some of the greatest leaders in the world  because they work with no money and little power to run some of the most well oiled organizations known to man.

However, what has this done for relationships in the body of Christ.

For me, it birthed a philosophy of friendship that is a barrier to unconditional love and sacrificial giving.

I embraced the practice of transactional friendship!  WIIFM – “What’s in it for me?”

In other words, I love other people simply for what they have to offer me or my organization.  It’s ugly, but it’s true!

I am now having to work hard to love people simply for who they are, with all the wounds and selfishness that I bear myself.

The element of professional ministry that was the strongest push toward people pleasing and transactional friendship was the weekly salary.  As a full-time church planter, my greatest fear was that the money wouldn’t be there on payday.  If I wanted to insure the money would be available to pay the mortgage, I simply had to make sure there were people at our Sunday meetings and that the checks were in the mailbox from outside contributors.

“More people=more money“ drove my calendar, my conversations, my investment in people and my decisions for the community.

That’s my story, what is yours?

Most of us lean toward those who have the most to offer us personally.  We interact with everyone, but we invest in those who offer a return!

What a beautiful picture of pure friendship in Jesus!  Who had anything to offer him?  Yet He invested!

Jesus’ investments put him on a cross.

He loves us anyway!

”But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.“  Rom. 5:8

God has not called us to plant churches and gather people!  He could care less how big our organizations are.

HE HAS CALLED US TO BE FAITHFUL TO HM AND LOVE PEOPLE FOR THE SAKE OF LAVISHING HIS LOVE UPON CREATION.

Today this missionary leads one of the most fruitful disciple making projects on the entire continent of Africa! God had a plan and the enemy wanted to thwart it.

We are three years into stepping out to follow God as a missionary in Auburn, Alabama and I fully understand the work of the enemy against those who have turned their back on safety and security and have gone headlong into a greater purpose and mission.

Some things we learn from the scriptures and some things we learn from the irreplaceable institute of the day to day grind. If you have children you know what I mean. You can pound a reality in their brain until your pounder falls apart, but some things they’ll never believe until they walk through the fire.

There is an enemy of God and he is very concerned about the progress of the Kingdom of God. He will do whatever God will allow to suppress the plan of God!

I sat and listened to the story of a disciple-maker in Northwest Arkansas last weekend. The closer He tagged onto the coattail of God’s plan for his life, the more intense the battle raged. Three lives were lost during a short period. Can the enemy take lives in order to hinder God’s work? Well, I’m still not sure how it all works, but I’ve seen 2 lives snatched from us as a direct and/or indirect result of our following closely behind the Will of God.

I’ll not understand how things work behind the scenes until I pass into another age, but whether the enemy or God is responsible for those deaths, or whether they were simply fate, both God and the enemy has a keen understanding of how to use those experiences for their purpose.

Those lost lives and difficult circumstances may be the very death or the very life of the dreams we follow. I think the tipping point is what we do with those experiences.

If I choose to hold them with an open hand and give them to the redeemer of all things lifeless, He will be faithful to resurrect the death that follows in the wake of the warfare. If I choose to grip them tightly and roll around in the feces of self-pity and hopelessness chalk one up for old lucifer himself.

1 Peter 5:8-9
Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.

Matthew 11:11-12
From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it.

Come Broken and Weary, come battered and bruised
my Jesus makes all things new, All things new
Come lost and abandoned,
come blown by the wind
He’ll bring you back home again, home again
Come frozen with shame, come burning with guilt
my Jesus loves you still, loves you still

Rise up oh you sleeper awake
The light of the dawn is upon you
Rise up oh you sleeper awake
He makes all things new
All things New

-Andrew Peterson, “All Things New” on the Resurrection Letters: Part II Album