So having pontificated...

 

So having pontificated, enumerated, elaborated, fulminated, explicated, elucidated, and otherwise commentated on my twisted understanding of the word "mission" I regress to the matter at hand.

Perhaps by now the reader has forgotten the quote of the day;

"There is a sweet connection and understanding 

that we don’t have with others."  

While it may sound a bit arrogant, there is a special connection between those who have engaged that international endeavor I refer to as mission.  It's an experience shared with complete strangers leading to:

• the ability to look at one's own culture in a far more objective fashion than those who have never spent extended times in other countries;

• the ability to appreciate, embrace, and laugh at strangeness while understanding the truly "strange one" is oneself;

•  the ability to appreciate true poverty being not just physical, economic or social, but spiritual; and
  

•  the ability to understand there really is no such thing as home this side of glory...

 just to name a few.

Missionaries look at life differently.  They do church differently.  The do life differently.  There is a strangeness to everything.  Convenience and comfort are seen to be the tragedy and the trap that they truly are.  Whining about the weather, or one's health, or politics, or one's neighbor is seen for what it is, petty.

And I think, in many cases, there is generated:

• an unquenchable longing within;
  

• a foreignness to every experience;

• a reassessment of the value of everything; and
  

• a desire to make a difference...

which won't be satiated this side of glory.

There is a glimmer in the eye when missionaries meet, particularly if they have been in service together, or in the same country, or field of work, or with the same or a similar organization.

It may be because we share experiences that few have.  It may be because we understand the confusion of life in general.  It may because we know the price so many pay for their faith in the countries in which we have served. I'm not sure exactly what it is. 

Whatever it is...

"There is a sweet connection and understanding 

that we don’t have with others." 

and a longing to make that connection as frequently as possible while knowing the connection to come will be even better, as we pray, Maranatha, Come Lord Jesus.

 

 

 

Misrepresentation or Misunderstanding?

 

THOSE WHO KNOW, WILL GET IT.

I just had an email conversation with a former missionary and personal friend that has the quote of the day - In talking of the connection we make with other (former) International Missionaries she wrote: "There is a sweet connection and understanding that we don’t have with others."  

I've long felt that "mission" is often misused to consolidate the broader outreach of a congregation.  As such it conflates the congregation's ministry (local/domestic) with its mission (international/global). 

The confusion comes from the broader culture's own misuse of the term in such matters a "mission statement." The term "mission statement," tries to sound bigger and better than the "purpose statement" which most simply function as. 

And in most cases this results from an ignorance of the derivation of the term mission - a Latin word meaning one sent.  The word was drawn from the Roman tendency to send a representative of their interests to foreign domains. The U.S.A. government still uses the word more reasonably in declaring its foreign embassies to be "missions."

A missionary represents the sender, and in that sense it might be used in situations where the congregational members truly understand the USA to be foreign territory.  The U.S.A. IS NOT THE CHRISTIAN'S HOME. Their home is heaven and they are not to represent the USA's interests, nor even their particular congregation's or denomination's interests, but those of their Heavenly Father as His representative.

But few congregations fully understand this.  Just take a look at the godless placement of flags in the sanctuaries that dot the landscape.  The USA flag takes the place of precedence by standing stage right of the Christian flag clearly indicating the congregation is staunchly (or ignorantly) declaring its fidelity to the USA government above God's righteous decrees.

(By way of confession, I actually moved the flags in a local sanctuary to give the Christian flag its rightful place stage right. And am keeping watch to see if anyone actually notices.)

This is the very reason I bristle at any Christian's use of the term "patriot," or "American Christian" or other such terminology that sets as precedent their allegiance to their home country over their role as emissaries of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Even more so, one doesn't go "on a mission" or do "mission work" one serves as a missionary for the King of Kings serving obediently, even unto death, willingly undergoing the machinations of unjust governance, accusations, and other mistreatment, while standing for Him who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

As Paul writes to Timothy: "No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs, but rather tries to please his commanding officer. Similarly, anyone who competes as an athlete does not receive the victor's crown except competing according to the rules" [2 Timothy 2:4-5]. I often think that most athletes have a stronger commitment to their goals than the average self-professing yet worldly Christian who is stuck in the muck and mire of everyday living.   

 

So why would any believer get caught up in secular activities, EXCEPT AND ONLY to promote God's values, God's standards, God's morals to a lost and hurting, broken and belligerent, hardhearted people?  

There is but one mission, the Missio Dei, the Mission of God.  If one is truly a born again believer there is no other goal, no other effort, no other focus, no other concern in the world but everything must, of necessity, advance the cause of Christ, in the name of Christ, or it is a useless, meaningless, worthless endeavor.