2025 July news-letter article

Greetings disciple (who has been called to make further disciples),

I believe I have mentioned this in passing within the past two months, but I have recently been mulling on a thought: mission vs. missions.  The latter has the connotation of “doing missions”, while the former could best be thought of as living “on mission”.  Think of missions (not just a plural) as projects, out-reach events, and trips.  Think about missionaries; most of us are thinking about professional missionaries, getting paid (way too little), theologically trained, and serving “on the mission field” in some far-away place.  It is good and helpful to consider these things.

However, here’s a stumble we can experience if we aren’t careful: missions is out there.  A trip to some other place; a project is over there; an out-reach event is in a different place than where we are currently.  The “mission field” assumes another country, or another state.  Walnut Cove is a mission field too, and we’re here in it!  We don’t need to take a trip, we can do missions right here!  Heck, for that matter, we don’t even need to have projects or out-reach events.  We can just live our lives as missionaries wherever we go and whatever we do.  After all, when Pastor A.J. preaches on Matthew 28 (the Great Commission), he tells us we are called to make disciples by going, by baptizing, and by teaching; I remember him say that we can be “going” to school, or to the grocery store, or to work, or the bank, or the ball game.  Just tonight in bible study he quoted Charles H. Spurgeon as saying “every Christian is either a missionary or an imposter”.

So which is it, is a missionary me, living my life here in Stokes County, or is a missionary a man or woman living in a foreign country?  Both!  Bear with me, there is a point coming, I promise!  We are all called to be ministers/servants; we are all called to be missionaries.  You have a moral obligation to be a disciple, who makes disciples.  This assumes a willingness to participate in evangelism, sharing the great Good News with lost people who need to experience the salvation of Jesus.  This can be done along the way in your day-to-day life; this can also be done in strategic events/programs/projects/trips/etc.  Either way, it requires intentionality to be a missionary.  Whether on a trip, or participating in a local project within our church family, or just living day-to-day with your co-workers or class-mates or neighbors, we must be intentional if we ever want to evangelize and disciple anyone.

Missions helps us cultivate this intentionality.  Many of you can attest, that participating in a trip can focus us to pray, study scripture, prepare ourselves to maximize our efforts for Kingdom impact.  Really, we ought to live our lives every day in that mind-set.  In many of my experiences, I have learned things on a mission trip that serve as a learning laboratory, practices and principles that we can apply here in North Carolina.

Let me warn you against making either of two grave mistakes.  First, do not view missions with an “over there” mind-set.  Don’t view missions as a special occasion thing.  We should live an “on mission” life style all day, every day.  Second, do not focus so much on living the missionary life style each day that you devalue strategic trips and partnerships.  Yes, we have plenty of lost people here in Walnut Cove, we certainly don’t have to go to a far away land to evangelize and make disciples, but Acts 1:8 calls us to have an “ends of the earth” heart behind missions.  Matthew 28 calls us to make disciples of “all the nations (or ethnic groups)”.

By living a missionary life day-to-day, we allow God to reveal and hone our gifts.  This cultivates within us a desire to exercise these gifts in a strategic way, working together to maximize our impact.  We should do mission projects in and around our church.  We should build partnerships; we are using the Acts 1:8 model of concentric circles.  We are working to strengthen partnerships here in “Jerusalem”, around our “Judea”, out into “Samaria”, and to the “ends of the earth”.  As we discover, and strengthen, and solidify our partnerships in each of these circles, God will call us to better equip ourselves, and give, and pray, and go.  All of these things will focus us on maximizing Kingdom impact, seeing souls saved and lives changed.  This, in turn, will underscore our need to live day-to-day “on mission” with great intentionality.  Thinking about “doing missions” is helpful for our church corporately, and helpful for us individually.  Thinking about living “on mission” is helpful, individually and corporately too.  Thinking about one can help us better appreciate the other.  Just pondering the idea of mission vs. missions forces us into a “both and” mentality.  I hope a spark may ignite in your heart as it has been in mind in recent months!  Let’s each be missionaries, together!

Is your life a channel of blessing;
is the love of God flowing through you;
are you telling the lost of the Savior;
are you ready His service to do?
--A.J.