Every aspect of our lives should be seen as a means by which people can encounter God. This is how we define being missional! Extraordinary things happen when ordinary lives, like ours, are under the reign of an extraordinary God. All facets of life (work included) are considered acts of worship because the compartmentalization of sacred and secular fails to be persuasive categories for the Christian who sees all of life as subject to the authority of a Sovereign Christ.
Below are a few excerpts concerning ordinary mission from a great book titled, Everyday Church by Tim Chester:
“Here is an exercise to help identify opportunities for everyday mission. Think of all the activities, however mundane, that make up your life: (1) daily routine (traveling to work, eating meals, doing chores, walking the dog, playing with children); (2) weekly routine (grocery shopping, watching favorite television programs, exercising); and (3) monthly routine (gardening, getting a haircut, going to the movies). You should have a long list of activities. For each one, ask whether you could add; (1) a community component by involving another member of your Christian community; (2) a missional component by involving an unbeliever; and (3) a gospel component by identifying opportunities to talk about Jesus.”
“Clearly not everything you do can be done with someone else, but this exercise reveals just how many opportunities we do have in every day life. You might knock on a friend’s door as you walk the dog to see if he wants to walk with you. You might offer an elderly neighbor a car ride when you drive to the supermarket. You might meet a member of the Christian community for breakfast one morning each week or agree to ride the same bus. Instead of reading your Christian book in the lunchroom, you might take the opportunity to get to know your colleagues. None of this is adding anything to your schedule, for these are all activities in which you are already engaged.”
“One of the key benefits of everyday mission is that it enfranchises each and every one of us. Everyday mission requires everyday missionaries rather than superheroes of the faith. We need to recapture the sense that gospel ministry is not something done by pastors with the support of ordinary Christians but something done by ordinary Christians with the support of pastors.”
Normal,
Ron Surgeon
No place left- Acts 19:10