Where do we go from here?

Made For : an audio journey

How has God uniquely shaped you for His mission in the world? Let's take a moment to consider again, that mission is not our work and it isn't the invention, responsibility or program of the church. Instead, the mission we hear about flows directly out from the character and purposes of God, with a singular goal of drawing every person into relationship with Him.

Full Transcript below, or at missiongap.org/podcasts

'Made for' CONTRIBUTORS:

• Andrew Scott – From Ireland, living in the USA. Serves as President of OM in the US, and author of “Scatter: Go Therefore and Take Your Job With You”
• Belén Peters – From Chile, living in the USA. Serves as Career Advisor with Elevalto, career advisors for Jesus followers looking to take their life and skills to another part of the world.
• Decio De Carvalho – From Brazil, living in Puerto Rico. Serves as Executive Director of COMIBAM, an alliance of national mission groups across twenty-five Ibero-American countries.
• Ewout van Oosten – From the Netherlands, living in the Netherlands. Serves as Global Director of TeenStreet, a youth discipleship movement in over 50 countries.
• Glenn Packiam – From Malaysia, living in the USA. Serves as Associate Senior Pastor of New Live Church, and author of “Blessed Broken Given: How Your Story Becomes Sacred in the Hands of Jesus”
• Jessica Shumba – From Zimbabwe, living in Zimbabwe. Serves as National Director of OM in Zimbabwe, mobilising Zimbabwean Jesus followers to share Gods love.
• Katherine Lee – From the USA, living in the USA. Serves as Content and Creative Director for the Fuller Leadership Platform at Fuller Theological Seminary.
• Lawrence Tong – From Singapore, living in Singapore. Serves as International Director of OM, a global community of Jesus followers, united to share God’s love with those who don’t know it.
• Vaibhav – From India, living in India. Serves among people unreached with the love of Christ, focusing on the Tribals, the rag pickers, farmers and migrant workers. (Last name omitted for security)

Bible readings: Mason Peters, Mariela Morbelli, Carla Moran, Matt Tooker, Anthea Godsmark, Philip Godsmark

Hosted by: Geoff Peters - Geoff is a huge fan of coffee and market research, but what really gets his heart pounding is inspiring people to share God’s love with the world. He is a deep thinker driven to understand the fears, concerns, beliefs and motivations of Christians better. Through the Mission Gap Project, Geoff hopes to encourage believers to step beyond the safety of their comfort zones and love others for Christ.

Transcript: Series three episode three, where do we go from here?

Geoff:

For our final episode in this series, I invite you to contemplate your individual unique purpose. How has God uniquely shaped you for His mission in the world? Let's take a moment to consider again, that mission is not our work and it isn't the invention, responsibility or program of the church. Instead, the mission we hear about flows directly out from the character and purposes of God, with a singular goal of drawing every person into relationship with Him, consider that the joy and connection and purpose you experience and I experience in our relationship with Christ should be readily passed on to every person on this planet.

Speaker 2:

1 Peter 4:10, God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another.

Geoff:

So where does that leave us? Here's Andrew. I asked him how he thought we can be reflections of Christ in our daily lives and how that becomes a part of the way we live for God's mission.

Andrew:

We can never be anything we want to be. We can only be who God made us to be and being who God made us to be is going to be a much wonderful, more wonderful thing than being something we can [inaudible 00:01:51] in of ourselves. So being who God has made us to be and living that out. So these made me to be a businessman, an engineer, a nurse, a plumber, an electrician, an artist to embrace that and say, I am this for the glory of God. So when I go into work, I'm going to go in with this mindset, I'm representing God. So my work ethic is going to change. My attitude to my co-workers is going to be a reflection of God. My conversation is going to be a reflection of God. I'm going to find ways through my life and my words to point people to God.

Geoff:

Katherine Lee and her husband both grew up in church and over the years have heard different messages regarding mission. I think it's important to acknowledge what has been unhelpful and what may have confused our understanding of living out God's purposes. Here's Katherine.

Katherine:

I think there's a conversation there around desire and giftedness and obedience, for sure. I think we came from a church background that taught at least my husband, that you pray until you hear from God, what you're supposed to do with your life. And that was a very strong model for him. And so, because he didn't hear, he felt like he was either doing something wrong or that the bus had left the station and it was too late for him. He just has really, really struggled with that.

Katherine:

Whereas I grew up in a family where my dad said, "You're going to get an education because I didn't." I mean, my dad didn't get to go to college and he just pumped me full of you can be whatever you want, you can do whatever you want. It's just your choice, which I don't actually think is a true story either. I think there are limitations on us. That's something I think I was discovering in considering medicine. It's a challenge to be really present to your family if you want to be a hospitalist and pulling crazy hours. So I think that wasn't a true story, but I felt the freedom to explore and be what God called me to be. And I wasn't worried about hearing boomy voice telling me what to do.

Lawrence:

I think the mission world today, many of us are still locked in the model that was created 200 years ago.

Geoff:

That's Lawrence. He challenges us to think differently about God's mission. He reflects on traditional models and the strength of those, but also talks about how we could do things differently. Now it's really the role of every Jesus follower to find our own way to serve God's mission. Maybe that means taking my family, my job and my skills to an employer and a part of the world where Jesus followers are few and far between or choosing to study at a university where I can be surrounded by people who have never met a Christian. It's God's mission, but He's asked us to make the moves.

Lawrence:

And we somehow never seem to move out of the particular financial model, church supporting and all this. Now that is important. I [inaudible 00:05:10]... I'm supported by my church. And there are groups of people that are praying for me. I don't want to change that. But I'm also open to the fact that God is not locked in one particular methods. And there are many ways that God can use a person. I've seen that enough in many parts of the world.

Lawrence:

I've seen pastors in China who are great Bible teacher, great evangelist and because the church was poor and small, they supplement the whole thing by driving a taxi. Was God glorified? Absolutely. Paul became a tent maker. Was God glorified through the lives of Paul? Absolutely. And so we are wired differently. We are gifted by God differently. Surely this is even more exciting now because some places in the Middle East, in Central Asia, where a person could not go on a missionary or pastor visa, but you can go on a professional visa. And then when you go there, you lift out your life for Jesus. You become a light. And in that particular area, and that light will attract people to you, to your lives, to your faith.

Speaker 3:

Matthew 28:18-20. Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me, therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

Geoff:

Belén reflects on the deep joy and fulfilment that comes from living in service and love of others.

Belén:

I think that what I've learned, the more I share God's love with people is that you get it back. It's like when you choose God and you choose to be in a relationship and to be His love, to be His representative, to work in His name, to reach out to people and tell them, "Hey, God loves you." It makes you... What I'm trying to say is that we live in a society that is very hedonist, that everything is to make me happy to give me joy. And so we are at the centre of it but pleasure or feeling good it's the goal. And our Christian life is not that way. We live to love and to give, to please God, but when He's pleased and when we love people, we are fulfilled.

Belén:

I was telling people, all the years that I worked in this organization, I had to raise support and I worked in this organization for 14 years and nine of those years, I didn't have any support. It was really difficult, but working for God, loving people, going to places made me so happy. I wasn't trying to be happy. I was trying to share His love, but at the same time, it made my heart full.

Geoff:

Here's Andrew, again, speaking to the broader transformation of society that comes with an invitation of Christ's love.

Andrew:

So when we think of the world today, we recognize there is so much hurt. There's so much pain. There's parts of the world that have never experienced what it means to follow Jesus and the transformation that, that brings. And again we're not just talking about people in the world, who haven't heard a message that will get them into an alternative destination when they die. They are not experiencing the goodness of God in their daily life or what it looks like when things start to work more like what the kingdom of God should work like. That we have gotten to experience where the gospel has been present in our communities, where education is available to all, medical care, where businesses run with hopefully less corruption and things like that, where Godly principles are at work.

Belén:

Sometimes we worry too much about like jobs or finances or finding the right person or having kids and those are like very important things in life. But the more you seek Him, His kingdom on earth, her purposes, the more He provides what He needs, because He knows you and He knows what you need, not what you want, what you need. And He will provide it in His right time. And this is not a cliche phrase, His right time that it means that it's never going to happen or it's going to happen when you're 80 years old. No, it's not that way. God is good. God is good. So I think that if our hearts are in the right place, we're going to find God's purpose. He's going to guide us. We're going to have a beautiful relationship with Him, we're going to be restored and He's going to take care of the rest.

Geoff:

And finally, I thought I'd let Andrew finish out this series of the Made For Podcast.

Andrew:

I think it is to be who God has made us to be wherever He has placed us, but also to consider going somewhere in the world where God is not known so that they too can see God in us and through our lives. I think that it is very basic sense that a follower of Jesus understands that God has placed them in a community to be present and through their presence to reflect Him. That He's given them work to do all of us were created to work.

Andrew:

So through our work to reflect God and through our words to reflect God. So our presence in the community, our work in that community and our words, all are part of the way we get to represent God and reflect God. And here's the cool thing, Geoff, I believe is that anyone can do that. You don't need a seminary degree to do this. You just need to understand why you were created, who you were created to be, and then go live it out for that purpose.

Geoff:

If you've been listening to this and have found yourself, reconsidering your purpose, and perhaps want to dive deeper into these topics, let me recommend the Live the Life You Were Made For e-learning course that we co-designed with Fuller Seminary. You can find out more about this course at missiongap.org/fuller, or if you feel you'd like to talk with someone about tangible next steps, please connect with your local OM office by visiting OM.org.