A MISSIONAL PEOPLE One of the popular terms today within the church is missional.

We need to be a missional people, but what does it mean to be missional? The word, and resulting movement, rests on the foundation that our God is a missional God. The Bible describes God as actively and purposefully pursuing His humanity. For instance, Acts 17 tells us that Paul stood up in Athens and said, From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28 For in him we live and move and have our being.
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This missional nature of God is powerfully present in Jesus. Jesus defines his lifes mission with the statement, For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. (Luke 19:10) The Bible is clear. Not only is God a missional God, but He also calls his people to be a missional people. To be a people who reflect the heart and passion of God for the world around us. Matthew 28 tells us that after Jesus death and resurrection, the calling he leaves to His followers is, 18 All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. (Matthew 28) Being missional therefore is rooted in the purpose of God and His calling to us. It challenges us about the kind of life were called to live as followers of Jesus. The forgiveness, grace, and love of God that weve experienced now becomes the catalyst for Christ followers to go about life purposefully and in a way that reflects the heart and passion of God for our world. What does that mean in practice? Think about the word missionary. A missionary is a person who has been sent on a mission. The mission begins first of all with a sense of calling. That calling usually begins with a burden or a sense of need. It is usually to a specific place and people. A missionary then studies the people and

culture of that place to be able to communicate the gospel within the context of that place. When they get there they live with purpose. They may have a job in the marketplace, but they know that their real focus is on communicating the gospel to whatever people God has called them to. Many of us are familiar with this model, but what the call to be missional does is remind each Christ follower that they are meant to be missionaries wherever they live. In other words, as a follower of Jesus I am to live my life with purpose wherever I am. Being a missionary may involve following a calling to go to a specific place and people. But being a missionary is also Gods calling to each Christ follower wherever they live. We dont go on mission. We live on mission. The implications of this are huge for the church, especially in North America. The North American church is described increasingly as consumeristic. Church often becomes more about a weekly experience of receiving, than going out into the world in the power of the Spirit and living the gospel out in whatever context we find ourselves in. At Pacific Church our calling is to be a missional, disciple-making church. God has called us to be a people Transformed by the Gospel: Life, City, World. This calling captures the interrelated spheres that intersect and in which we live. The Gospel, the reality of who Jesus is, what He has done, and what He is doing, needs to impact each individual personally (Life). Its Jesus who makes us into a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). As we encounter Jesus personally, our entire being is revolutionized by Jesus, and our eyes are opened to the mission of God in the world. We begin to live this mission out in our life. How we live each day is impacted by the reality of Jesus. Our very life becomes a witness to who Jesus is and what He is about. This impacts our families, our friendships, our workplace, and our recreation. There is not one area of life that is left untouched by Jesus being present and at work in our life. What this means is that we enter into life differently, purposefully. We engage in relationships with eyes and ears, mouths and hands, legs and hearts, that have been open and impacted by new kingdom of God values. Because Im a citizen of a New Kingdom, the Kingdom of God, the Holy Spirit, God, literally residing inside of me, empowers me to see and to engage life so that I love, I forgive, I

extend grace, and I serve as Jesus loves, forgives, extends grace, and serves me. This creates ripples in our life. The ripples that come out from experiencing Jesus forgiveness and grace at a personal level reach out to our city because we now have the heart of God for our city. We seek the good of our city, the renewal of the city, justice in our city because the Gospel compels us. This is why we serve the poor, feed the hungry, provide recovery for the addicted, and house the homeless. Specifically, we at Pacific engage in ministries like Streetlight in the Downtown Eastside because we know that we honor Jesus by caring for the least of these (Matthew 25). In other words, this is what it means to live on mission. We see and engage our city as Jesus sees and engages our city, and in serving our city, we serve Him. The ripples also reach out to our greater world for the very same principles that apply to our city. We go out into our world because God calls us into our world. We partner, for instance, with Food for the Hungry, and tangibly support a village in Peru because we are on mission with God to care for the least of these wherever they may be. What is so significant about being missional and wrapped up in our calling of Transformed by the Gospel: Life, City, World, is recognizing that we live on mission, as opposed to doing missions. Too often we can get excited by a project. We can become excited by a people overseas, and about a missions trip, and perhaps we even go every year to serve those people. But to live on mission is to understand that daily life is all about honoring God by serving others wherever you are. Living on mission, being missional is all about recognizing that the greatest mission field is actually within your own family, neighborhood, Life Group, worship gathering, and workplace. In fact, perhaps one of the greatest evidences of how much we have been gripped by the mission of God is actually evidenced by how we behave when we gather together. If, when we gather together, our attitude is what can I receive, then the chances are great that this attitude reflects the rest of our lives. If our worship gatherings are about coming together to reflect the great mission of God, a mission that first of all begins at home, the chances are great that we are a people that live all of our life surrendered to the reality of who Jesus is and what He invites us to join Him in, in our world.