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  • Living Like A Missionary

    We have set out over the next 5 years to be “Intentionally on Mission….Purposefully Making Disciples.”  This follows our great calling from Jesus.  Right before He was betrayed and murdered on the cross, He turned to the Father in prayer “…As you have sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world” (Jn. 17:18)  Jesus repeats this prayer/calling to the disciples after He gloriously rose from the dead, He turned to His disciples and said “…as the Father has sent me, I send you.”  (Jn. 20:21) As followers of Christ, we are “sent ones!”  What does this look like to be a “sent one” in the unique sphere of influence that God has put you? 

    Consider for a moment if you were part of one of our church planting teams at MVC.  You and your team were getting ready to move to the Czech Republic to see God’s fame spread across this great, but godless country.  How would you approach your time there as a “sent one?”

    Tim Chester and Steve Timmis, in their great book “Total Church”, give some great questions you would want to ask yourself if you were part of this church planting team:

    • What criteria would you use to decide where to live?
    • How would you approach secular employment?
    • What standard of living would you expect as pioneer missionaries?
    • What would you spend your time doing?
    • What opportunities would you be looking for?
    • What would your prayers be like?
    • What would you be trying to do with your new friends?
    • What kind of team would you want to be around you?
    • How would you conduct your meetings together?

    Chester and Timmis go on to challenge us by saying:  “We find it easier to be radical in our thinking when we transplant ourselves outside our current situation.  But we are as much missionaries (or sent ones according to the above verse) here and now as we would be if we were part of cross cultural team in another part of the world.”

    Imagine if we approached our lives here in the Front Range of Colorado with this same intensity, purpose, intentionality and passion?  What could God do?  Why don’t we approach it this same way?

    Let me encourage you to now go back through those questions above in the context in which God has placed you.  Pick your neighborhood or your workplace or your school and see yourself as a “sent one” into that environment to proclaim the Gospel.  Live like a “sent one” purposefully and intentionally living your life through the above grid and watch how the Lord can be magnified in and through your life!!!!