Sustaining a missional lifestyle

Mission as an activity or a missional lifestyle?

Throughout my life as a fairly middle class individual, I have had the opportunity to experience different ‘mission activities’, such as social action, BESOM projects, community fairs, prayer walking and treasure hunting.  These have been stretching, uncomfortable, challenging and eye-opening experiences.  Often, they’ve involved stepping out of my comfort zone into a different culture, meeting people who live with a lot less than I feel I could live on, who have less opportunities and who often live in the less well-off parts of the city.  It is a chance to step across the boundary into something, which to be honest, is an alien experience, something I don’t encounter every day.  It does benefit me, as well as those for whom they’re organised. Perhaps it blesses missionaries who work in those areas long term, but need more hands for a particular activity, or the community. However, it can be difficult to see the lasting impact, as it is often going ‘to do’ mission and then returning to our normal life and the comfort zones in which we live.  These experiences left me for many years with the mindset that mission is a project.  Don’t get me wrong, it is important not to disengage from these opportunities, they are valuable and worthwhile, however, for me, this sort of mission is not about a sustainable missional lifestyle. 

A missional lifestyle, in order for it to be a lifestyle, has to be part of your daily life. For me, it’s about who you are where you are. It’s not avoiding challenge, but its about choosing to engage with those people God has placed in front of you at this moment. It seems to me that, at least in the past, mission was about leaving your normality, going to ‘do’ mission somewhere else.  How about relating to those people in the context where you are right now.  In many ways, I think this is a greater challenge. The people you see every day are the people who see your whole life, the good and the ugly. They see how you handle difficulty and challenge, how you communicate with others on a daily basis, how you talk about your work, your colleagues….. These are the people who you can relate to best whether it’s the challenges of being a mum or working for the NHS amidst difficult pressures and union action. In my opinion, these are the people who are close enough to you to see the difference Jesus makes in your life.  This is attractive, this is what will encourage others to know him too.  The acts of kindness or social action, I do believe, demonstrate Jesus too, but just not in a sustainable manner.

Too busy?

In this day and age many of us can often be heard commenting, life’s so busy, too busy, a bit busy….. the truth is that’s how life is. At least, the potential busyness of life doesn’t seem to get less. So, how do we engage with being missional now in the every day and the mundane, instead of when things one day are less busy? 

The truth is, if we keep mission as a project, it’ll be the first thing to go when life gets busy. If its part of who we are, where we are, on a day-to-day basis, it’s difficult to avoid!  Nevertheless, it may be that after taking part in a ‘mission activity’, you choose to incorporate this into your daily life. However, it requires an active engagement to prioritise what’s important, to be people who are focused, who know who we are meant to be, where we are meant to be and to do that wholeheartedly.

Where do you need to respond?

·         Is your life too busy to be interrupted?  Are you willing to be interrupted?

·         Are you able to recognise people of peace, those people who invite you, share food with you? Do you have time to invest in them, or do you put them in the diary in a months time?

·         Do you know Jesus in the every day, the nitty gritty of life?

·         Are you too busy meeting those who already know God, to engage with those people around you who don’t? Is there something you do anyway, like going to the gym or playing football, where you have the opportunity to get to know those who don’t yet know him?

Kirstie