Missional

For centuries, Satan has tried to find ways to stop the spread of the Gospel. In the first century, his method of choice was one of physical means. Christians were stoned, beheaded, and much worse. Nero, a first-century Roman emperor, was famous for his persecution of Christians. He would crucify them, feed them to lions, and often use them as human torches to light his garden parties. However, the persecution of Christians did not end in the first century. Over two million Christians were murdered in the early twentieth century within the Ottoman Empire. That was only 100 years ago! Physical and social persecution has been prevalent throughout history since the resurrection and continues to this day.

Typically, persecution comes to mind when we think about the enemy’s presence in this world. Although Satan still uses physical forms to stop the spread of the Gospel today, it is not his primary means of attack in the modern Western world. As he has intended, we often overlook the most predominant means by which he is defeating us daily. In his 2000 years of experience, he has developed a new way to stop the spread of the Gospel. So what is his grand scheme that has been so effective in stopping the spread of the gospel in our first-world American context where everyone has access to Jesus? He has made it awkward for us Christians to tell our counterparts about our faith. It is that simple; he has made us more worried about what people might think of us than about the eternal destination of those around us. We are surrounded by people at work, school, the gym, and even church who do not know Jesus Christ, and we are not doing anything about it. Something has to change; we must resolve to live life on mission.

When most people hear that they need to evangelize or be on mission, it scares them. Their minds go to the international mission field or people knocking on their front door wanting to argue with them. I am here to tell you that these are not what we mean by living life on mission. As believers, having a missionary heart is at the foundation of everything we believe. If we truly believe that God is real, that heaven and hell are real places, and that the only way to get to heaven is through Jesus, then how could we not tell everyone? Colin Marshall and Tony Payne said it well in The Trellis and the Vine when they wrote, “The Christian without a missionary heart is an anomaly. The missionary heart will be seen in all kinds of ways: in prayers for the lost, in making sure our behavior offends no one, in gospel conversations with friends, and in making every effort to save some. We are slaves without rights, even though we are free (cf. 2 Cor 4:5; Phil 2:7).” We must be cautious to understand and apply the “offending no one” part while still ensuring that we don’t get so caught up on it that we hinder ourselves from evangelizing. I fear that oftentimes we do not balance the two of these very well. We are far too worried that the good news of eternal life may offend certain people, and it will. Jesus is radical. He went from town to town in first-century Rome offending people. He loved them enough to tell them the hard truth, so why don’t we?

I hope I am not coming across as some holy, righteous man who has it all figured out and shares the Gospel with everyone he encounters. I am not that guy, but I desire to be that guy very greatly. My heart has been burdened with a desire to give everyone I come into contact with a chance to experience eternal salvation in the presence of the Holy God. I don’t know exactly what that looks like, but I’ve been trying to prayerfully figure it out and grow more and more into the evangelical person that I want to be every day. I invite you to join me on a journey of sanctification in pursuit of what it may look like for us to live our lives on mission as we dive into more specific areas of missional life in this series of articles I have named “Missional”.