On-Mission Mondays: Reaching Our Tribe

Every Monday I post about being “on mission” with Christ. I've been promising to get back to what I've learned from Milfred Minatrea’s book, Shaped By God's Heart: The Passion and Practices of Missional Churches. Maybe next Monday. Today I wanted to pass along something Wade Burleson posted at his blog, “Grace and Truth to You.” It was an email he received from Tom Willoughby, a Southern Baptist pastor in Missouri. Willoughby described a recent Wednesday night study at his church that evolved into a discussion of what it meant for an American church to be "on mission" in their own neighborhoods:

I caught my Wednesday Night group off guard. . . . I told them that they had just been appointed as missionaries to reach a tribe whose name I made up. I said that they had just been dropped into the valley where their tribe is located (incidentally, I said that the tribe was about 9,000 strong located within a ten mile radius (this happens to be the number of people within a ten mile radius of our church). I then asked them how, not knowing anything about their tribe, they were going to reach them with the Gospel? I set up a dry-erase board and we began 45 minutes of brain-storming. They came up with some excellent ideas. Better than I could have imagined. Such as:

Pray
Make friends
observe customs and practices
identify their leaders
learn what they enjoy
observe clothing
learn the language
work with kids first to gain access to parents
dress like them
learn their style of music
make sure that in giving any type of gift that we do not create needs that they cannot meet themselves
learn their spiritual views
have patience
be kind and loving

Well, the list went on and on. Finally, one guy named Tim, in his early twenties I recently led to Christ is sitting their next to his wife and I see the light come on. He says, "You know, everything that's up there could also apply to the people around here. We could do all of those things right here in El Dorado." Exactly!

After the obvious follow-up, I then shared with them that the missionary in this tribal region viewed all of his supplies as tools to reach the people. Nothing was irreplaceable. If that is the case, then how, as missionaries to El Dorado must we view our possessions? Everything we have becomes a means to an end.

And then I asked them, if we are not willing to do the things listed on the board in El Dorado, then obviously we are not serious about reaching people, so, what are we here for?

You could have heard a pin drop. It was beautiful! People stuck around afterward thinking about what needed to happen to reach our community. Please pray that God will continue to use this study to spark a fire within the hearts of our membership.