Whilst trying to think of what to write about discovering and developing missional vision that hasn't already been covered in the excellent preceding posts, I struck upon the idea of turning the question around.
Instead of asking how can we (encourage others to) discover and develop missional vision, I pondered on the question:
"what holds us back from discovering and developing missional vision?"
Of course that's a very big question, no doubt with lots of big answers. None-the-less, I want to make just one suggestion.
I suggest that one of the things that holds people back is that they dont have a big enough revelation of the transforming power of the gospel of the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is such an incredible thing that whenever we get a piece of revelation about it, we can't help but be excited by it. Its this excitement that we need to help people discover if they are to get passionate about mission.
We see how this principle works when we look at how things like acts of service, healing on the streets and prophetic evangelism have inspired new generations to engage in mission. The amazing thing about the Kingdom is that it has power to transform and its this transforming power that we see at work in expressions of mission that use healing or prophecy or even Gardening! The Kingdom breaks in and begins to transform the lives of those involved.
Anyone who has been involved in these expressions of mission will testify to what an amazingly exciting thing it is to partner with God in this way - in his Kingdom transformation. It's especially exciting if you're passionate about the thing you're seeing transformed.
If you enjoy serving others, then demonstrating the power of the kingdom through acts of service is hugely exciting. Equally, if you love to engage with people on a personal level then seeing them personally impacted by a prophetic word or physically healed will really get your adrenalin going.
It is this excitement about the transforming power of the kingdom that inspires people to step out beyond their fears.
But our understanding of this is still so small! There's still so much we need to learn.
Colossians 1:19-20 says
For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in [Jesus], and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
Through Jesus' death, there is kingdom power to transform all things! A wise lady once asked "how many things can you think of that would be excluded from all things?"
Just let that sit with you for a moment before you read on...
It's this revelation that the kingdom can transform all things that will get people excited enough about mission to be able to break off their preconceptions and step out beyond their fears.
Think about the people you work or study with. They, like you, were interested enough in your field of work to study or train for it and to dedicate large amounts of time to it every week. If you suddenly found you had some amazing new insights for your field of work that could bless not only those you work with but the community at large, wouldn't you want to share them? Don't you think your colleagues would be interested to hear more?
Now I don't pretend to have much in the way of answers to what that might look like but I firmly believe that God's kingdom has power to transform your field of work, your field of study, in fact, anything you might be interested in. After all, that's what all things means.
I'd like to suggest a few examples of what this might look like:
Think about how someone with a fresh revelation of God's principles of communication could begin to transform the world of marketing. Marketing is about businesses connecting with their customers, it's about relationship and communication; these are really important aspects of God's kingdom. Imagine if marketing was done in love and mutual respect. What a blessing it could be. People would be blessed with good, reliable information about products and services that really suit their requirements. As it is all we do is curse our junk mail and spam emails on a daily basis! This a huge mission field and one that has the potential to greatly bless not just one or two but whole communities, even the whole nation.
What about the hospitality industry? What are the biblical principles that could transform the way the hotel sector or the restaurant sector operates? Perhaps Kingdom cuisine would be amazing food that's healthy and supports sustainable farming practices. You might argue that this is already the latest trend without trying to make it into a mission field. But that brings me to my next point...
The Spirit of God will move and can and does work through all manner of things (remember the donkey that spoke to Balaam?!). Perhaps the move towards sustainably sourced foods is a move of God? What an amazing Gospel message it would be for a colleague in the your kitchen at work who is passionate about these things to say, this thing that's on your heart is on God's heart too!
I'm just throwing thoughts out here so please don't get too caught up in the detail if you disagree about what Kingdom catering might be like. My point is that its just amazing to realise that there is such a thing as Kingdom catering, or Kingdom software design or Kingdom tree surgery for that matter. God cares deeply about all these things and yet our silence on these matters when we talk of faith gives the unconscious message that Christianity is irrelevant to these things. For your colleagues who spend their working days engaging with such issues, that's actually quite an off-putting message!
So if we want to get engaged with mission, we need to get a bigger revelation of the transforming power of the kingdom, which means a bigger revelation of the relevance of the cross, a bigger revelation of why Jesus came and a bigger revelation of God himself.
People need a vision they can get excited about. In fact, that statement is redundant because you can't have vision without excitement, the two go hand in hand. So we must help people to discover God's transforming truth for the things they have been created to be passionate about
So I'll end with the following questions:
"What would [add your vocation/passion here] look like in the Kingdom of God?"
"What can you do to partner with God in that transformation?"
Written by Stephen Richardson
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