Everyday Mission
‘Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.’ Romans 12:2
Many of us have our own ideas and conclusions on how the church should work, regardless of our past experience with the church. Some believe the church should be the main entity solving the problems faced in our community. Some think the church church should stay to themselves. The basic question that needs to be asked by those within the church should be: What does it mean to be the church today? What do we mean at Generations when we talk about everyday mission and why does it matter?
Creating a culture of everyday mission is more than just adding programs to the list of things to do. Everyday mission goes to the heart and the identity of who God is, who we are, and who we are becoming.
In Scripture we find that God the Father sends the Son and the Spirit into the world, and the Father, Son, and Spirit send the church into the world for the sake of the world. To say this another way, the mission of the church does not originate within the church, rather it is derived from who God is. It is the mission of Jesus and the Spirit through the Father that includes the church. God’s mission is to redeem the world, and the church exists to fulfill this mission. When we as the church participate in this mission we become a living embodiment of God’s intended future for the world. God is a missionary God.
The church is to be a sign and foretaste of God’s kingdom, a place where people can get a taste of the future in the present. It is in this way that the church becomes a tangible and physical representation of what it looks like to live within the family of God.
If we are honest with ourselves, we recognize that we are not always the kind of people that God wants us to be. We often are not the kind of people that we hope to be. But that is the beauty of God’s love. We do not have to have it all together. We do not have to be perfect. We do not have to say the right things. God’s love and grace extends to you right where you are, despite what other people say about you, your past, or your present.
Being a part of God’s family, the church, means that we are all together on a lifelong journey of becoming more like Jesus in our everyday lives. This is the hope we get to share with those we encounter where we live, work, and play. It is expressed by being on mission in our everyday lives, intentionally looking for ways to show the love, grace, and family values of God to those who are suffering, in pain, in need of help, and even those who have everything going right for them. God calls us to be on mission for those who do not know what it is like to be apart of the family.
At Generations one way we talk about living out everyday mission is through community action. Community action includes generosity, using what we have, and seeing and responding to needs in your everyday lives. We desire to mobilize people and resources to meet the needs present in our community. Here’s a few examples of this being lived out right now:
- This past week we had a meal train setup for a family in the church who is dealing with sickness and surgeries of multiple family members. Someone from within the church helped setup and coordinate this. Multiple families have responded by delivering food or donating money to meet this need.
- Our local FCRC (family community resource coordinator) reached out to Generations asking if we could help a family at one of the local schools who was in need of a mattress because their kid was sleeping on a 30+ year old, broken bed. A family within our church responded immediately by ordering them a mattress and it will be delivered later this week.
- Currently, we have a baby bottle campaign for one of our community partners, Options360 Women’s Clinic. We started with over 50 empty baby bottles on our table last week, and only have 20 left. People were encouraged to take a bottle home, fill it with change, and return it by Fathers Day. All the proceeds from this go to Options to assist in their care for women and babies in need throughout Clark County.
These are just a few examples of everyday mission on display. The church family responding to needs with generosity and using what they have to care for others, not expecting anything in return. This is a small representation of what everyday mission can look like. It could be as simple as mowing a neighbors lawn, watching a friend’s kids for an evening, taking a meal to a neighbor who is going through a tough time, etc. Get creative with it. It requires us to take a look at those around us where we live, work, and play, and ask God how can I best love this person today.
Are we being transformed by the culture of the world? Or are we fixing our eyes on God and identifying who God says we are?
Take a moment today to pause and reflect. Ask yourself the following questions:
- How can I be a tangible representation of God’s family to those in my neighborhood?
- How can I love those at my work the way that God has loved me?
- How can I display a different way of living to those whom I participate in shared activity with?