Thinking Missional
What does Missions mean to you? Is it a sense of going? Is it someone who is "set apart"? Is it for someone else? Mission can conjure up a whole host of ideas in people's heart. If you say "There goes a man/woman in a mission" There is the idea that the person is purposeful, authoritative, driven (perhaps even JCB like - no one is going to stop them) Sometimes the church has even fallen into that trap - we are going to go, change and impose our way and culture on someone else. We are also aware of the other side of missions too though. Missionaries like Gladys Aylward who was not accepted by the mission authority. Instead of giving up Gladys was obedient to the calling she felt, spending her life savings on a passage to China. I have been in missions for 7 years now and it is fair to say that I have got used to not fitting into other people's boxes. In my time I have had conversations with people who struggle with the fact I am in ministry and my h...