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Living a Missional Lifestyle
There’s something about being a part of sharing the gospel that is far more adventurous than just writing a check to some random ministry, hoping that the money gets put to something useful and not just another 52” plasma screen TV to have announcements circulating that aren’t important enough to be formally announced. There’s something about traveling to a third world country, going to the bathroom in a hole in the ground, and going out to various towns sharing the gospel, and not just writing a check to support someone as they travel. There’s something about living a missional lifestyle, and not just going to church on Sunday morning and leaving unchanged. Our churches should not just have a mission, and not just write checks, but dare to get their hands dirty and live out that mission.
Jesus laid out how to live a missional life in Matthew 28:19-20. “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
The first thing that Jesus commands his followers to do is to go. Missional living is about going. The word go in the Greek is in the continual, which means that it sounds more like “as you are going.” It becomes a habit of everyday life. In John 20:21 Jesus is talking to His disciples and says, “Again Jesus said, ‘Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.’” The gospel was not meant for us to accept it and let it incubate inside of us, never letting it be released. “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” –Acts 1:8. We have been empowered by the Holy Spirit. We are not just randomly going; the Creator of the universe is right by our side, walking with us each step of the way. Going through life is that easy part. It is that intentionality to live on mission that often presents a challenge. Everyone goes through life, but Jesus commands us in Mark 16:15 to “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.” While we are going, while we are “doing life,” we are commanded to tell. If we are not constantly sharing the gospel in word and in action, are we truly following hard after Christ?
The next thing that Jesus says in Matthew 28 is to go into the entire world. Jesus hung out in cultural centers, where large groups of people were and with people who were hurting, broken and lost. The church is made of hurting, broken and lost people who are now healthy, made whole, and found in Christ. Luke 5:31, “Jesus answered them, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.’” The gospel is not just about righteousness, but a healing for the sick. “Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” – 1 Corinthians 6:9-11. We were all hurting, broken, and lost before we were reconnected with God through the saving grace of Jesus.
Jesus said to go and make disciples, not to go and just plant churches. People who are fully devoted followers of Christ make it a priority of discipling others. The first Christians were not called Christians, they still viewed themselves as Jews who have found the Messiah. The were called “People of the Way.” It was a lifestyle of people following hard after Christ while reproducing themselves in others. Who is your disciple? Discipling someone doesn’t have to be just dictating biblical knowledge and hoping it gets memorized. Some of the best times that I have spent with one of my mentors is when the two of us were laying under his car changing the oil talking about life.
Christ left us saying that He will always be with us, all the days of our lives. “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’ So we say with confidence, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?’” – Hebrews 13:5-6. What an awesome promise. We are never alone in the journey.
If we, as a church, stop living missionally, we become a nice country club that eventually becomes more about the kingdom and less about the King. If the King is not our priority, we will fail in every attempt of creating a missional community.
