Do you ever have those moments when you are studying and praying over something so hard that one of the simplest sentences blows your mind? Before I tell you what it was…I want to make clear, yes, of course I ‘knew’ this, but it hadn’t ‘hit’ me yet. And yesterday, well, it smacked me in the face like a well-made Russian snowball (they are pros, trust me).

‘The church doesn’t have a missional strategy; it is the missional strategy.’ Emphasis not mine, Michael Frost’s actually, or Alan Hirsch…they wrote ‘The Faith of Leap’ together where I read it.

My mind has been catching up with my heart recently, and when I say recently, I mean the last year or so. My heart has been mission lead and focused since I decide to jump on the Jesus train, to the chagrin of my mother. But my brain had a bit of catching up to do…

I believe in this statement completely. Why? Because there would be no church if Jesus hadn’t performed miracles in front of the disciples, died on a cross, rose again, and then appeared to the disciples. The disciples wouldn’t have had anything to tell. They would have been story-less. Instead, they were overflowing with stories, and had plenty to tell everyone. So they went…Jerusalem…Judea…Samaria…to the ends of the earth.

But at what point did Church get in the way of the mission? At what point did people start thinking they had to memorize scripture or travel to Africa to be a missionary? At what point did we turn mission into a department instead of a way of living every. single. day.

You are a missionary in your home with your kids. You are a missionary in your neighborhood. You are a missionary at work. You are a missionary at your kids’ soccer game when you reach out to the newly divorced mom or dad. You are a missionary when you play in your front year instead of the back yard.  You are a missionary at the Target checkout line when the person in front of you was a complete, well you know…you are a missionary every single time you are compassionate, kind and sacrifice something because you love Jesus.

The church IS the missional strategy! Jesus sent the disciples out to tell a story, to guide others into a grace filled life, to give them hope in the Kingdom of Heaven…so those redeemed could have eternal life AND go tell everyone else. We are not missional. We are the mission, everyone we know is and then some. We believe in the reign of God. When are we going to act like it in our daily lives?

//Stephanie//