living missionally
Chris and I had an INCREDIBLE weekend at the Acts 29 Boot Camp. There were incredible messages, fantastic discussions, and so much encouragement from other church planters – we both absolutely LOVED our time. Being there made me even more excited for the launch of Resonate and absolutely thrilled at what God is going to do in the city of Atlanta through this church plant. There was one thing specifically about Acts 29 that really stood out to me that’s been resting on my heart since we were there — I was totally out of the loop as to what Acts 29 was really about simply because I hadn’t taken the time to ask or do my research. That thing that stood out is living missionally.
Did you know that 95% of believers cannot name 1 person that they have led or are leading to Christ? How TRAGIC is that? This is the MAIN call as believers is to make disciples, and that statistic pretty clearly shows that we aren’t doing a good job of that. I was thinking about my own life and I am definitely no exception to that statistic. I have lots of Christian friends, am involved in church, go to my small group, etc – but how much interaction do I have and SEEK with those who don’t know how incredible walking daily with Jesus can be? The main call on our lives is not to privately deepen our relationships with the Lord, spend time with friends and feel really good about ourselves for doing all of that. Our own walk and friendships are obviously valuable and important, but how many times do you use those as excuses not to tell other people who Jesus is?
It really saddened me to think about what we as believers have done to reach and directly impact our communities. We have created small groups that are “closed” to new people (especially if they aren’t Christians…gasp!) and are specifically for people in our stage of life – not that these are a bad thing – they really can be so beneficial to our spiritual growth and accountability, but it is absolutely NOT how we are called to disciple. Don’t just check something off your list.
One of the things I LOVED about this weekend was hearing about living missionally. Connect with others who live in your community and deeply pray for your community, but then DO something about it, deeply KNOW your community. Open your home to neighbors who you don’t know that well (or AT ALL – scary!!), talk to people on walks, establish to your neighborhood that your house is always open for hang time, dinner, a glass of wine or a beer…get to know your community and pour Jesus into it. I am BEYOND excited about the potential that this concept and lifestyle could do for the city of Atlanta. In truth, I am probably one of the most selfish people you will ever meet when it comes to time- and this is probably going to be the absolute hardest thing for me in this whole journey. I like my alone time, I like being at home the majority of the time and not investing in others…hahah! The idea of opening my home more nights a week than it is “closed” truly does terrify me, but the rewards that could come of that time are eternal, and the risk is too great not too.
So my challenge to you: how are you living missionally in your community? Are you like me and can honestly say you are NOT doing this at all? If so…what’s going to change and what is it going to look like?
