Mission Starts at Home

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.

Acts 1:8

 

This verse may be one of the most popular verses that churches and pastors refer to in messages, vision statements, and as a rallying call for ministry.  I have seen numerous pastors and teachers explain this verse as a series of co-centric circles of geography.  This begins by calling for the disciples to be Jesus witness in the town they are in, then the region, the area, and the whole world, with each area larger than the last.  The rally call for many churches in this verse is the importance of mission in a variety of locations.  In those sermons, and books there is one location that I rarely here mentioned as a location that mission needs to occur in, our homes.

 

Typically the call to witness Jesus in Jerusalem is translated to local mission in the neighborhoods and town that we find ourselves living, and I believe that is mostly accurate.  I believe that Jesus description in this verse is a tangible reminder to the disciples of what mission looks like.  Mission is not just found in grass huts in Africa, or in the school down the road, mission is meant to be a lifestyle, not a location.

 

I have a deep conviction that in our fervor to see lives changed by God through living a missional lifestyle, it can be easy to forget that our first mission field is our homes.  Throughout the New Testament when lists of qualities and characteristics for leaders are listed, there is almost always a reference to how they manage their household.  The early church was not interested in leaders who poured into the church or missional living at the expense of their homes.  It was assumed that to become a leader, you had to first begin with your family as your first mission field.

 

I regularly hear Christians speak about God bringing their spouse and them together, and the blessing from God that children are, yet it can be easy to focus missional lives everywhere but with the most important people God places in our lives.  What if we poured as deeply and intentionally into our marriages, our children, and our families as so many of you do living missionally through the local church?  Instead of missional living being a program or process, it would be a part of the very fabric of our homes.  Spouses on mission together.  Parents on mission with their children, and siblings on mission hand in hand, the thought of it gets fired up just to write about.  So how will you take Jesus call into your home?  What will it look like for live missionally not in a location, but as the heartbeat that drives all that you do at home, at work, and wherever God calls you.

 

Pastor Bill