5 Reasons To Live Missional

It is easy to get stuck in a rut. I predict that is what will happen to my golf game come spring--I'll begin and gain some initial improvement, only to get stuck in a rut by mid-summer. I don't like it, but it happens. This also happens with living on mission: it seems that getting stuck in a rut becomes more common than I would like.

I'm not sure if the apostle Paul had seasons where he got stuck in a rut. His letters don't give that impression, yet he was human. The way he writes in 2 Corinthians 5 reminds us that getting stuck in a rut is not the norm, rather living on mission is. There are five reasons he gives to live on mission that hopefully will break us free from the rut of missionless living.

1. We live on mission because people are eternal (5:1-5). It helps to shape the way we see each day and each individual person when we step back and take an eternal perspective on things.

2. We live on mission because we are persuasive by design (5:11). Salesmen know that their livelihood depends on their persuasiveness. I believe that only God can open a person's heart by the Holy Spirit, yet God has also created us to be persuasive by the way we live and communicate the gospel.

3. We live on mission because of the love of Christ (5:14). I interpret this to be Christ's love for us. His love is always primary. The fact that the Son of God came to this earth, lived perfectly and died on a cross under a brutal execution for sin is the message that we carry and the world needs to hear.

4. We live on mission because of new creation reality (5:17). This verse was the first one that really gripped me when I was converted to Christ as a teenager--I am a new creation! This is the message of hope that many long for and is what we bring them in Christ!

5. We live on mission because we are ambassadors of reconciliation and substitution (5:20-21). The message we bring is not just new creation but even greater: people can be reconciled to God because Jesus went to the cross to die the death they deserve. This is the most important truth in the universe. It is more important than anything congress will pass today. It is more important than anything that makes the headlines on your favorite news channel or website. This is truly good news, the gospel. And the world needs to hear. We are the ambassadors.

The common thread in all of this is the gospel. This can all be boiled down to the power of the gospel. The reality of the gospel is enough reason to live on mission daily.

Where are our priorities?

This morning I finished Acts in my Bible reading plan. As I reflect back on Acts, there are obviously many themes that emerge. But if I were to boil it down to one main theme that dominates Acts, it would be summed up into one word: conversion.

Conversion, i.e. the new birth, is central to Acts. The apostles preached with the goal of conversion. Paul's conversion is a major hinge in the book and it is mentioned three times. Whether Paul is preaching to straight-laced Jews or godless pagans, his preaching is aimed at their conversion (compare the accounts in Acts 17).

The beauty of the conversion stories are diverse: the great numbers early in Acts (ch 2), a man who persecuted Christians (Paul in ch 9), a Gentile (Cornelius in ch 10) and a business woman and suicidal prison guard (both in ch 16) just to name a few.

So finishing Acts today has pricked me by asking: where are your priorities Ryan? Do you labor in prayer for true conversions? Do you share the gospel regularly, clearly and compellingly? Are you praying and trusting the Holy Spirit to bring about genuine, even radical conversions in the lives of people you have an influence on?

These are some good questions to ask ourselves. Quite possibly, if I were to have coffee today with the Apostle Paul, he would ask me some of the same ones.

"But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God."
--Paul the Apostle in Acts 20:24

Calvinists Who Love Evangelism

The picture may look like an oxymoron to some.  It is a gospel tract (used for personal evangelism) with a picture of Charles Spurgeon (a Calvinist-Baptist preacher).  Some Christians, especially in my denomination (Southern Baptist) stereotype those who hold to Calvinism as non-evangelistic. They think that those who have a high view of God’s sovereignty in election and predestination are not eager in evangelism. This may be the case for some, but not true consistently.

I was a member of a Baptist church in college that held Calvinistic theology.  More missionaries went out from that church than my non-denominational church I was in as a teenager that taught a more free-will theology.  The seminary I went to is considered the Calvinistic one in my denomination.  Many of my friends I graduated with are either on the mission field or planting churches and working hard in evangelism.  My heroes, William Carey and Adoniram Judson both held to a high view of God’s sovereignty in election, yet gave up all their comforts in life to share the gospel with pagan people. So the stereotype does not hold true consistently.

As I write this, I’m preparing to go to an evangelism conference this weekend led by a man who holds to more of a free-will theology. I may not agree with some of what he says, but I always desire to grow and become a better evangelist and that’s why I’ll go. I confess that I don’t always seek opportunities when I should.  At the same time, some of my most joyful moments in ministry have been sharing the gospel with unbelievers and I try to consistently present the gospel to unbelievers in many of my sermons.  When I fill a pulpit where I don’t know the congregation, it is usually an evangelistic message.

I dislike the label Calvinist.  First, I’m not sure how Calvin feels about us attaching his name to it in light of 1 Cor 1:12-13.  Second, the TULIP acronym comes not from Calvin but from the Canons of Dort, so more accurately it ought to be labeled Dortism.  Either way, I hold to all five points of TULIP because I think they are all biblical and logical.  But I also see that it is biblical to be earnest in evangelism. Paul tells Timothy:  “…do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry” (2 Tim 4:5).  This is why there are Calvinists who love evangelism: because they love God and His Word and want to obey it....just like Mr. Spurgeon.