Mission and Missions

Today I took some time to go through a preparation email that I got from Urbana last week. It went through the distiction between mission and missions. For the Christian, mission is God's purpose: calling and drawing people to Himself. Missions is what we do in that overall goal; the little things that we do on a regular basis, and the big things that we do every once in a while. It's smiling and helping someone who is lost find their way, and it's serving dinner to the poor in a soup kitchen. It's working at a church camp, and it's going overseas to spread the gospel. All the time, every day, we are involved in missions.

There was also a link to an interview with Rick Warren of Saddleback Church in California. He wrote The Purpose Driven Life and has spoken at numerous churches and conferences. In this interview, Rick outlined five transitions that need to be made for us to be effective in our missions for His mission:

1. Self-centeredness --> God-centeredness
2. Local orientation --> global orientaion
3. Temporal values --> eternal values
4. Security --> service
5. Comfort --> sacrifice

Each of these things touch on different aspects of what it means to be a Christian. We are called to cast off our former identity to embrace one informed by who we are in Christ. This requires us to think like Christ did about the people in the world and how all of them are worthy of love, not just the lovable ones. It requires us to keep in mind that the things of this life will pass away, but He never will. It requires us to serve others with the same heart. All of that requires a sacrifice of our time, energy, love, comfort, resources, abilities, and so much more.

See the interview itself for more expansion upon those thoughts. :)

"Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is. His good, pleasing, and perfect will." ~ Romans 12:2