“You Are Now Entering the Mission Field”

by Jun 26, 2009Books, ChurchLife, Mission


I found this little excerpt from Total Church to be a challenging source of wisdom. May God help me to apply these insights. I’m not sure I have good answers to all these questions.

We sometimes ask people to imagine they are part of a church-planting team in a cross-cultural situation in some other part of the world:

  • What criteria would you use to decide where to live?
  • How would you approach secular employment?
  • What standard of living would you expect as pioneer missionaries?
  • What would you spend your time doing?
  • What opportunities would you be looking for?
  • What would your prayers be like?
  • What would you be trying to do with your new friends?
  • What kind of team would you want around you?
  • How would you conduct your meetings together?

We find it easier to be radical in our thinking when we transplant ourselves outside our current situation. But we are as much missionaries here and now as we would be if we were part of a cross-cultural team in another part of the world. Mission is central to us wherever we are. These are the kinds of questions we should be asking wherever we are. (p. 33)

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