Confusion on Being Missonally Minded

Jesus was clear and He gave a clarion call to those who would choose to follow Him. Here are but a few clarion points from the mouth and life of Jesus regarding His desire for His followers to be strongly missional. "I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves." Matthew 10:16 "Go and make disciples of all the nations." Matthew 28:19 "As the Father has sent me, so send I you." John 17:18-20 "He called them to Himself so that He could be with them and send them out." Mark 3:13-14 "He sent them ahead of Him into every city and village that He Himself was about to go." Luke 10:1 "Follow Me and I will make you become fishers of men." Matthew 4:19 It appears to me that many believers today are confused about the idea of being missional. For many, church has been demoted to a meeting, a sermon or an experience. This is completely opposite of being missional. Gathering together as followers of Jesus in meetings is important and necessary, but it is NOT the focus of being the church. The Apostle Paul strongly instructs us that "Christ is our life." (Col. 3:4). This can only include that everything we do should be focused on Jesus Christ. He is the Head of the Church, the Creator and Sustainer of the Universe so it follows that our whole attitude should be focused upon Him and His clear focus for our lives on earth - to be missional. It is true that in the church there is confusion on this issue. I would say that much of the confusion comes from the enemy of souls, the Devil himself. Living for Christ is a battle for souls and a focused life upon Jesus. Our command by our King is to be on the offense. We are to storm the gates of Hell (Matthew 16:18) and we are told that those gates will not prevail in holding back our attack for the souls of people. On the other hand, the enemy of our souls is about killing, stealing and destroying people (John 10:10). The Devil is all about deceiving and confusing people to look elsewhere for their purpose and focus of life. There are many tactics used to distract us from a missional way of living and thinking. Some of His tactics include fear, discussion on gifts of the Spirit, leadership, the purpose of the church, busyness, the desire to be accepted and the list could go on. Let me briefly expand on each of these tactics used by the Devil and see if you have bought into any of them at one time or another. Fear: This is the belief that no matter what you say or how you share the truth of Jesus (words, deeds or a combination) that you will be a failure or not able to complete the task with success. Many people believe that it is better or easier to just keep our mouths and lives shut. Someone else will do it. Spiritual Gifts: Many have written that only a few folks have the gift of evangelism or are gifted Evangelists. Therefore the overwhelming majority of believers are 'off the hook' from having to share their faith in any strong way...whew! The Purpose of the Church: Often the purpose of the church is simply to bless and worship God which usually is interpreted that we do not need to be aggressive in sharing Jesus. We come together, get blessed, sing Jesus songs, hear a sometime good and sometimes boring talk and go home feeling good about our experience. We'll leave the missional part to missionaries, evangelists and pastors. Busyness: There are many very active believers in churches across the world. They are busy doing ministry for the Church and her people. So busy in fact that there is little time to think about being missional and charge the gates of hell. The busyness is actually a relief because they are no longer responsible to take ground and batter the gates of hell, they're busy. The Desire to be Accepted: There are also those who do not wish to share Christ because it may just muddy the waters of a good friendship. Better to have a friend who thinks I'm cool and than to offend him or her with the Gospel of Christ. Of course most folks don't want to be confused on things Jesus has taught us. Most, I believe would rather obey Christ than fight Him. However, the enemy has been powerful to distract and confuse the bride of Christ away from being missional for way too long. Being missional is the strong example of the believers focus right through all of the New Testament. We'll take a peak of some of those examples next time. So what do you think about the confusion around being missional? Jot a note, a question or leave a comment.