Gathering Community
Together as believers we make up the Body of Christ and operate as a picture of gospel transformation to the world in which we exist. Foundationally, everyday missionaries understand their biblical calling to be anchored to a group of believers, to whom they confess, with whom they repent, celebrate, live in faith, and are daily sent out on mission.
Growing Maturity
As we consider what it means to be an Everyday Missionary and the values that drive our mission, we can not and must not ignore our own spiritual maturity. It is from our own growth as a disciple of Christ that we become able and committed disciple makers. Out of the overflow of what God is doing in our lives comes the ministry and mission He wants to use us for. And if we are stagnant in our spiritual growth, it’s pretty certain we will be ineffective at living missionally as well.
Generosity Hospitality
For most of its history, Calvary Baptist Church has had a culture of generosity. We support missionaries like few other churches in our convention. We are exceedingly generous to our own people in need. Every year for the past 10, we have increased the amount of money that we spend on missions and missionaries. There is no doubt that we are a generous people.
But our fear is this: If all of our generosity is exhibited and expressed by dollars and cents and not by generosity of self, then we are missing out on so much of what God wants us to do.
“… being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us.” – 1 Thessalonians 2:8
We hope and pray we will continue to be financially generous to support ministries and missions around the globe. We hope our giving will continue to increase until the day Jesus returns. We hope we will be a church that plants multiple churches. We hope we’ll be a church that sends out multiple missionaries. We hope and pray that there will be none among us who are suffering needlessly because we share what we have with each other.
Engaging Intentionality
Our role as everyday missionaries is to introduce people to Christ, actively be part of their journey to become like Christ, and teach them to repeat the process with others. The simple calling is to make disciples. A disciple is one who responds to the call to follow Christ, is taking on the character of Christ, and obeys the commission of Christ (A disciple who makes disciples).
But this great calling will not happening incidentally or accidentally. It requires missional intentionality. If we don’t pray for it, plan for it, and participate in it, we will not see it come to pass.
Obeying Fidelity
Proverbs 20:6 says, “Many will proclaim their own goodness, but a faithful man, who can find? Hebrews 11:1 tells us that without faith it is impossible to please God.
Our problem today is this: We’ve lost much of the sense and the weight of the word faith, I’m afraid. It is so used and overused that we don’t really understand what Jesus demands from us.
In Greek, the word faith is pistis. We can also translate it as faithfulness or fidelity. I prefer the word fidelity. The reason is simple. In the Gospel of Mark, we see Jesus coming onto the scene. As he does, he declares that the Kingdom of God is here. In order to enter that Kingdom, Jesus says we must do these three things:
Repent. Believe the gospel. Follow me.
Jesus is commanding us to turn from our sins and to trust in him. Jesus is commanding us to believe the good news of God’s great salvation made possible through him alone. And as the king, Jesus is commanding our absolute surrender. We are to do whatever he says. We are to go wherever he sends. Our lives are to be lived fully under his authority and in full submission to his will. That is “fidelity”.
As the king, he has every right to demand of us, his subjects, whatever he wishes. He is the one that delivers us from darkness and death into a Kingdom of perfect joy and light. The rewards of following him faithfully are infinite. There is no comparison to what we give up in order to follow him.
