GROWING TOGETHER

Missionary and evangelistic efforts are at the heart of Christian life and witness, and, as you can tell, the theme of this Perspective. (Usually the term "missions" is used when we are taking the gospel from one culture group to a different culture group while "evangelism" refers to sharing the gospel within the same culture group.) In this page devoted to practice we want to work together on how our commitment to missions and evangelism can be realized in our day-to-day living. The following practical suggestions are intended to stimulate your thinking with the hope that you will come up with many more ways to bring missions and evangelism into daily life situations.

1. Romans, one of the great books of the New Testament, is filled with majestic theological themes. Some scholars have suggested Paul wrote it with the hope that the Christians in Rome would help him on his missionary journey to Spain. "I desire, as I have for many years, to come to you when I go to Spain. For I do hope to see you on my journey and to be sent on by you, once I have enjoyed your company for a little while" (Rom. 15:23-24). If Paul's intention was to inspire the Christians at Rome toward missions, that gives a whole new meaning to his theological discussions of sin and justification and righteousness. Read through the book of Romans with that idea in mind and see what you learn.

2. Read a solid mission biography like some of those listed in this Perspective or watch a good missions- oriented movie such as The Inn of the Sixth Happiness. Use this as a backdrop for two weeks of journal writing. The first week lay out your own beliefs and convictions about the validity of Christian mission. Use your own thinking about these matters but try to draw on biblical, theological, and anthropological sources. The second week consider your life in light of the Christian missionary mandate. Work to discover your place, however small or insignificant, in this great enterprise of bringing the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ to all peoples.

3. Identify one person in your daily activities that you see frequently but hardly know. This might be someone who serves you like a waitress or a grocery store clerk or a gas station attendant or a secretary or even a co-worker. Determine for one month to reallyget to know this person. Look him or her in the eye and say hello. Ask questions. Learn about hobbies and interests, hopes and dreams. Often through this process a natural way emerges to share your faith in Jesus. You will be surprised at how open and responsive people are to genuine caring and sharing. And even if this doesn't happen, you have still developed a friendship. This individual has actually become a person to you that you can now always pray for, "against which there is no law." Besides, you never know when a need or a crisis occurs and the friendship you have developed with this person will be a natural bridge of God into his or her life.

4. Try prayer walking in your neighborhood with a friend or two. Pray for your neighbors: the marriages, the kids, even the dogs and cats. If you sense any special need at a particular home, go up and knock and let people know exactly what you are doing and see if they would like prayer for anything. There is no need to be devious or secretive about this. Just say, "Hi, we're John and Maggie from down the street and we've been walking through our neighborhood praying for God to bless the families around us, and when we came here, we just thought that there might be a special need and wanted to see if there is anything we could do to be helpful or anything special you would like to have prayer for." See what develops; you might just discover a divine appointment for a special need.

5. Take a short-term mission trip. These are not hard to arrange, our main obstacle being the will to go. If nothing else, the sheer cultural interaction will be good for us. But, of course, we always come away with much more. Remember, we go primarily to learn: we are the students, they the teachers.