What is Missional Living?
[I wrote this on a blog that was later merged into Missions Minded.]
Every week I wait patiently for my favorite podcast to download in iTunes. (And by waiting patiently I mean clicking “Refresh” only every other minute.) The podcast is the sermon audio from The Village Church in Dallas. Matt Chandler is the pastor and flat out brings it every week. Great Bible-base teaching. I encourage you to subscribe to the podcast yourself — like me, you’ll be hitting the “Refresh” button every week.
I get so much out of these messages, but until now haven’t come up with a good place to document what I’m learning (I can’t read my own handwriting). Since this is “nathanbabcock.com” and I’m Nathan Babcock, I’m going to pull out some of my favorite “Chandlerisms” right here! This is from the “What is Missional Living?” sermon from earlier this month:
“The majority of us have compartmentalized our faith. And what I mean by that is church and Jesus and goodness and God exist when I’m around church and church things, but it has not bled over into my marriage, it has not bled over into my wallet, it has not bled over into my job, it has not bled over into my life, it has not bled over into how I see my neighborhood, it has not bled over into how I spend my coin, it has not bled over into how I treat my children, it has not bled over into how I see athletics, it has not bled over into what I spend my time doing, it has not bled over into any of those things. Most of us are unmoved by our faith because we’ve compartmentalized it into this little section and said, ‘I’ll be a good person.’ And we’ll determine that by watching the news and going, ‘Oh, I haven’t mass-killed anybody…’ So we’ll compare against the darkness and go, ‘I’m not that bad of a person. I don’t cuss too much. I don’t watch inappropriate movies…’ And so we’ll live in that really weird, boring, unchanging, non-adventurous place where we’re neat Christian people going to a neat Christian church where none of the rest of our life is affected.
[If we're not an emerging church,] how do we engage culture then? Quit seeing people as there to serve your existence, but rather see them as souls that God has created, loves, and invited into reconciliation…Do you know why you can’t get coffee here? Because I’d rather you pick it up on the way in where you know your barista’s name…Do you know why we don’t have intramural sports here? We don’t have softball teams and flag football teams… Because I’d much rather you be right in the page world being the light of Christ.
We’ve been reconciled, so become agents of reconciliation.”
Good stuff. And convicting, as usual. Even as a missionary, often times I’m not focused on “missional living.” The question for me today: what do I need to change or do differently to become an agent of reconciliation?
Tiffany Walczuk said:
I have the same relationship with my “refresh” button in anticipation of the newest Chandler sermon among others!
“Quit seeing people as there to serve your existence, but rather see them as souls that God has created, loves, and invited into reconciliation.” —Wow, that was definitely convicting for me! How many people actually look at other people like that?!
“Do you know why you can’t get coffee here? Because I’d rather you pick it up on the way in where you know your barista’s name…Do you know why we don’t have intramural sports here? We don’t have softball teams and flag football teams… Because I’d much rather you be right in the page world being the light of Christ.” —Very very cool! I love the way he thinks! I would never have thought of that! And having worked at a coffee shop for a year and a half, I can speak from experience of how much it means to have a “regular” come in that knows your name, you know theirs, and you can connect on some sort of level, even if it goes no deeper than coffee talk. It has been a year since I worked there but I was just talking to my cousin on Sunday about how much I missed that and some of my customers! He’s on to something there!