Daily Bible Reflections: Missional Living
This is my latest post from Daily Bible Reflections. The original entry can be found here, where you can subscribe to the daily devotional if you are interested.
“The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates tore the garments off them and gave orders to beat them with rods. And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safely. Having received this order, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bonds were unfastened. When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul cried with a loud voice, Do not harm yourself, for we are all here. And the jailer called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas. Then he brought them out and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household. And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and he was baptized at once, he and all his family. Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them. And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God.” - Acts 16:22-34
Lots can be said about this passage, and indeed lots has been said about Paul and Silas’s flogging and imprisonment in Acts 16, but that is not what I want to talk about. If you would like textual notes and proper exegesis, Matthew Henry does a great job.
What I want to talk about is missional living. Yes, I realize that this has become a throughly hackneyed buzzword today to a point of almost becoming jargon, but the heart of it and the spirit of the movement is commendable and Christ seeking.
Lets start with a definition. Missional Living: a philosophy of life and ministry centered on Christ and living a life as he did - engaging culture in order to redeem it. Making disciples wherever you are. Refusing to seperate your life into ‘ministry’ and ‘not ministry’.
Reading through the accounts of the earliest church fathers in the book of Acts, we see precisely this kind of relational outreach being not just incorporated into the outreach, but defining the lives of disciples like Paul and Silas. They did not start a ministry organization with an obscure name and a cool logo and have discipleship committees and host ministry seminars. As we see in this passage - Paul and Silas make the decision “well, we are in jail. Hey look at that - we are chained to this big Roman guard. He must be elect!”
Do you see the difference? Don’t misinterpret my argument - I am not saying that ministry organizations are wrong or un-scriptural, but anyone in ministry (an we are all called to be the aroma of Christ to an unbelieving world) must not be willing to separate their lives into neat little sections: this part of my day being relational outreach, then I take lunch, then I hang with my family a bit, and then maybe I’ll go to a soccer game and do some ministry again. ITS ALL MINISTRY! I know that if I were in jail, still bloody from the savage beat down I got in the middle of the mall today, I would definitely call myself ‘off the job’ of making disciples, at least for the night. But as we see here, Paul and Silas see no difference between their life and their ministry - their life IS their ministry. Even in their personal worship time in a stinking and dirty Roman dungeon, they take every opportunity to preach the gospel in any way they can - because it is their calling and their very life.
Don’t worry, I am not going to end this post with a list of questions about how you can be living your life more missionally - but not because that would be ineffective, only because it would contradict the whole argument. You see, its not about specific things you can do, its about living your life for Christ, and seizing every opportunity you are given to preach the gospel. You needn’t go ‘on missions’ to be a missionary. You are called to do so wherever you are. Your school, your workplace, your family, your church. These are not just places, but mission fields which you are called to engage and redeem for the Kingdom. So stop worrying about how to do ministry, and start living ministry.
Heavenly Father, prepare my heart this day to live in submission to your will, to take every chance I have to be the aroma of Christ to a hurting world. Lord teach me to trust your sovereign will and to see your hand at work in every way, presenting me with the privilege of being your disciple and aiding in your calling of sinners to yourself. Lord shine through me that my family, my colleagues, my peers, and my bosses would see your loving kindness in my actions and my words. Lord be glorified in my life. I ask these things for the sake of Christ and His conquest for men’s hearts. Amen
-MD Letteney
