The Gap

I believe there is a gap between what we think mission and evangelism is and what they are in reality.

Often there is this notion of ‘attempting great things for God’, ‘leading many people to Christ’, or ‘taking the city for Jesus’. I’m sure you have heard these phrases if you have been around church for any length of time.

By comparison, I have rarely heard mission spoken of as loving your neighbour, of living with integrity, or simply falling in line with whatever God asks you to do.

Most of us dream of doing something great. Sorry, let me re-phrase… we dream of God doing something great thru us… Well that sounds more spiritual doesn’t it?…

But, what if mission was less exciting than it is sometimes portrayed?

What if mission were much more invisible and at times looked just like people getting on with their ordinary lives?… Would we still want to do it?

After 5 years of living as a missionary in the northern suburbs of Perth I am increasingly convinced that mission is rarely as glamorous as it is sometime made out to be. There seems to be a gap between our imagination and reality.

There is even a gap between our actual experience of mission and our perceived reality. Lately it has become almost hip to help the poor. Social justice has made a comeback in the Christian church and everybody has a wrist band.

I don’t have a wrist band because I suck at social justice and I would feel like a hypocrite. As much as I get inspired by the idea of serving the poor and helping the needy and broken, I find it hard to actually do, and it sure isn’t as funky as it seems in conferences.

As I write this I have just said goodnight to a 7 year old boy who is living with us at the moment. His mum has MS and a mental disability and has been taken into hospital – apparently because she is having an MS attack. A member of mission team who visited her today tells us that she seems to have a worse case of BS than MS. She knows how to describe the symptoms and act the part of the sick person. And she knows we will look after her son and she can have a holiday on the health system.

Sometimes I feel quite screwed over in that. I certainly do tonight as after a very busy month our family routine is disrupted yet again.

I guess this is mission… yeeha. Exciting…

We have few stories of people having life transforming encounters with God, yet we have many stories of people being blessed and cared for and served as we have been living here.

I won’t tell you those stories because they really aren’t very exciting. In fact they’re quite dull.

But maybe that’s just the point.

Surely mission ought to be what we do in the ebb and flow of everyday life as we live amongst people and seek to be the salt and light Jesus spoke of. Sure, there will be moments of great joy and enthusiasm, but for the most part it will consist of just getting on with life and finding where God is at work in the midst of it.

I used to think this was boring.

Now I find it quite exciting to become aware of God as I chat with my neigbbour, as I go to the bank, as I walk the dog.

And I can’t help wondering if this isn’t how God actually intends for us to function.

The ‘gap’ has certainly got much smaller…