Where's Your Little Light Shining?

At our church growing up there was this giant map of the earth on the wall outside the sanctuary. You know, the one where Greenland looks like it's getting ready to take over the planet, and Russia was labeled "USSR" long after the collapse of said Union. It was a nifty map, though, because it was lined on either side with the pictures of families and individuals, and each picture had a little red button underneath it. You could push the little red button and it would light up a little light somewhere on the map, showing you where that particular person or family was located. This was super high-tech stuff. I don't remember ever caring particularly who any of those people were, or where in particular they lived, or why they lived there, it was just an amusing little novelty in between Sunday school lessons to be able to push the button, see the little little, push another button, see another little light.

At Momentum, we've been talking a lot lately about God being a "sending God." About the Father sending the Son, the Son sending the Spirit, and they together sending the church into the world. I think we get that. At least I think we think we get that. God is on a mission, and He sends His church to carry out that mission. Easy enough, right? Evangelism...missions...justice and all that...it's important. We get it.

Recently some good friends came and did a Q&A session/dessert party at Momentum. They are missionaries over in eastern Africa, and they came and shared with us about the way they live, about their efforts to learn the culture, and about their strategies for manifesting the gospel in a way that their friends there can understand and access. They talked about the tangible things they do to meet the needs of the people they meet there, and how those acts of service help build relational bridges from which discipleship can begin. After all, these are the things missionaries do. They orient their entire lives around a mission, a goal, a purpose. They learn new languages, study cultural meta-narratives, and pretty much spend every hour of every day investing in people and seizing on opportunities to point people to this Jesus. Bible study, prayer, fellowship...these are not ends within themselves, but disciplines that better equip the missionary to accomplish their mission of pointing people to Jesus.

I get to thinking about that map again. About church sanctuaries lined with the flags of 50 different countries. About people and families over in Timbuktu and Who-knows-where; little lights on the map; big ole flags hanging proud. It's obvious that we care about global missions - about evangelizing the pagan peoples in far off lands. But what about the people here in my neighborhood? What about the people across town, in the rough neighborhoods where none of us want to venture. Are missionaries being sent there? Are missionaries being sent to my neighbors across the street? What grand strategies are being devised to reach them? What little red LED is lighting up there?

Seems like maybe the distinction we've made between the people who live and serve way over there, the people "called to missions," the "missionaries," and those of us normal Christians left here to live our normal Christian lives, us "uncalled ones," is a false one. Maybe we're all called to be missionaries. Maybe each and every one of us who claims to follow Christ should be living with the same intentionality and focus as those missionary friends of mine. No longer seeing church attendance, Bible study, or fellowship as ends in and of themselves, but as means to be better equipped to carry out our singular mission of pointing people to this Jesus (and perhaps tracts, four spiritual laws, and standing on street corners with bullhorns has nothing to do with this...). Maybe we should all be devising strategies to better bridge the gap between our culture and the Gospel of the Kingdom, like missionaries in far off places do. Like aliens sent to live in a foreign land do.

Like Jesus said to those who had chosen to follow him, "As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you..." Maybe Jesus has sent you to shine your little light right where you are. To live your life with the greatest intentionality. To live like you're on a mission from God.