Why We Would Have Never Found God

If I am going to blog about Missional Lifestyle, I think you need to know what I mean by the term missional. I had a conversation with a pastor friend a few years ago about the term. I soon realized that his definition was vastly different from mine.

By his definition, missional meant acts of kindness, like handing out water in a park, without ever telling others who Jesus Christ is. He didn’t think that was enough. I agree with him. Acts of kindness are noble, but people need more than anonymous kindness. They need to meet Jesus Christ.

A one word definition of missional is sent. That is the key. A missional lifestyle is a “sent” lifestyle.

Sent where? To do what? By whom?

That is what I write about.

A lot of my writing answers the questions of “sent where” and “to do what”.

I want to explore “By Whom.”

If you are on mission, you are sent by someone into a different context than from which you come for a specific purpose.

So whose mission is it? Yours? Mine? The Church? Who sends us?

Missio Dei. It is God’s Mission. God sends us.

Missio Dei is a Latin term translated means “mission of God” or the “sending of God.”

In the church, we have relegated mission or missions to an activity of the church like choir or VBS or ushering. However it is not an activity of the church.

It is the very essence of the church.

If we do not understand that we are sent by God into this world, then we do not have a reason to exist. When we grasp this truth, we disciple differently, we worship differently, we study the Bible differently, we live differently.

How is God a missionary God? Think of it this way. He could have created all this world and put humans on it then left it to its own.

Many people believe that is what God did. That is why so many people believe that religion is man-made and that all of them lead to the same god.

It is a nice thought and respectful of what others believe. Most religions do place the emphasis on the human race to look for a way to find God. So theoretically many paths could lead to this God.

But the God of Christianity claims that He sent Someone into our context, our world, to find us and to reveal to us exactly who God is.

If God had not sent Someone to us, we would have never found Him.

That Someone is Jesus Christ.

Jesus proclaimed that He was sent by God. Either he was lying, was crazy, or telling the truth.

I believe he was telling the truth. That is why I call myself a Christ follower. Christianity is more than a religion. It is a relationship with a Person. Now Jesus sends me in the same way. Not to judge or condemn. Simply to reveal who God is, and be in relationship with others that do not know Him.

If you are one of my non-Christian friends, please leave your thoughts.

Do you believe that God sent Jesus Christ to find us? Or, do you believe God expects us to find Him by our own means?