Purpose #5: You Were Made for a Mission

Point to Ponder: The Great Commission is my commission.

Verse to Remember: “Send us around the world with the news of your saving purpose and your eternal plan for all mankind.” — Psalm 62:7 (LB)

Question to Consider: What steps can I take to prepare to go on a short-term missions experience in the next year?

[Read More] thoughts on Day 38 of Rick Warren‘s Purpose-Driven Life* including world-class Christians I know.

Today Rick talks about becoming what I used to call a World Christian, but he calls a “world-class” Christian to distinguish from a “worldly” Christian. He defines this primarily in terms of three shifts in our thinking:

* From self-centered to other-centered

* From local to global

* From “here-and-how” to eternal

* From excuses to creative ways to fulfill your commission

Since may parents came over from India while my mom was pregnant with me, I often say I was a world traveler before I was born! Since they were acutely aware of their debt to missionaries, they often spoke at churches on their annual “mission Sunday.” This coincided with a dramatic deepening of their faith when they moved to Rochelle when I was 7, and led directly to their (and my 🙂 public speaking career. My brother and I both went on summer mission trips to Europe while we were in high-school, and when we both graduated from college all four of us went on a medical mission trip to Swaziland (I taught physics to the nursing students). Since then, my parents have gone on numerous such trips (my dad does surgery, my mom prays with patients), primarily in Africa.

While I feel like I’m called to spend the next dozen years or so focusing on Spiritual, Economic, and Political Transformation in California (yeah, I need a better acronym), that hardly limits the global impact: there are more languages spoken Los Angeles schools than in the United Nations! Still, because of my heritage — and four Urbana conferences under my belt — I can’t help but look at things from a global perspective. I’m confident that someday my ministry will be international in scope, though I have no idea how that will work.

Until then, I am privileged to share in Christ’s global mission through friends who are taking the gospel to those with few chances to hear. I’d like to take this opportunity to honor some of them here:

* Pablo & Monica Abeleira, with Harvest Evangelism in Argentina

* Robby & Jackie Butler, founders of the new Mission Network focused on “mission discipleship” in the U.S.

* Eric & Joan Christensen, working with Caleb Project out of Singapore on ethnographic training

* Stuart & Sindia Foster, working with SIM on Bible translation in Mozambique

* Rich Mahn, teaching English in China

* Janice Peters, with Global Partners for Development out of Atlanta, building self-sustaining indigenous worship communities

Go team!

Prayer: God, I thank you for Bishop Zeigenbalg, who came to India 300 years ago (this July!) to tell my ancestors about Christ. Thank you for the chain of faithful believers who brought the gospel to him, and the chains that I am privileged to be a part of today. Father, glorify your name in all the earth. Watch over all those who serve, especially in lands where the Good News is feared and hated. Guard their hearts and their families from fear, dissension, and confidence in the flesh. May they — may we — never lose sight of the fact that we are ultimately the fruits of your mission to us. I ask this in Jesus name, Amen.