#Getreal about Mission

By Ps Dev Menon

I think we all know, as Christians, we are meant to be on mission.

There is the command to GO into the world, the example of Christ and the apostles being sent, and more than that, the very nature of our God is that He is missional. It is the nature of His love. 

But what if I don’t want to go?

For some of us, we do want to go, but we don’t know how or have never taken that first step. We lack experience or we need to get over that initial ‘hump’ of self-resistance. All it may take is for someone else to bring us along with them. 

I remember the first time I was asked to do street evangelism in central London. It was a harrowing experience, and I almost threw up thinking about it. But as I joined the more experienced team, it wasn’t as bad, and gave me a better idea of what evangelism was all about. Those few excursions with other brothers and sisters were the catalyst. 

For others, we don’t go, because no one reached out to us. After hearing more than 500 testimonies in the catechism class over the last decade, I have realised that we tend to replicate our own experience. If we had people who intentionally witnessed to us, were compassionate to our needs, intentionally discipled us, it is far more likely we would do the same. 

However, if we perceive that coming to church was on our own initiative, or we just grew up in church due to our upbringing, we are far more likely to expect the same of others. Worse still, if our experience of hearing the gospel was negative (from a pushy colleague or exasperating parents) we may even loathe the idea of telling another person about Jesus! 

What may be needed is for someone to reach out to us again, even if we’ve been in church for decades, to reset our experience of mission – perhaps reset our perception of God even!

For others, we don’t go, because of fear. Now I don’t just mean the fear of having to share the gospel with someone, I’m talking about more primal or deep-set anxieties and fears – the fear of loss, even the fear of death. “What will happen to my life if I go?” 

If these fears are not addressed, any experience of going may have the opposite effect. It may reinforce those anxieties and we will double-down on never wanting to try again. Any call or push to go on mission will find us moving lower down in the pews, or perhaps even looking for another church. At the most we will do something to get others off our back or to relieve the increasing guilt. But we really, really don’t want to go! 

I’m hoping that even as we to be a church where everyone is clear that they are on mission, and where everyone becomes missional everywhere, that we are open enough to listen to those who are resistant, struggling or find themselves being unmotivated to go. That we are a church willing to work with the heart rather than just the form. That we can talk to God and one another about anything that we are truly feeling or thinking! 

Isn’t that what #getreal is all about?