Are You on a Mission Trip?

Midweek already. The weeks fly by. I thank God for each day.

A couple of Sundays ago, the three churches in this area with the same brandname as my church got together for a service to highlight missions. The service was enjoyable and gave praise to God as approximately nine people told of their week long or month long mission trips or service trips. Most applauded their experiences away; some had been in the states and others across the pond. Many testified that they felt they were more blessed than the people they had gone to serve. Most encouraged the rest of us to take the time to 'go on a mission trip'. While I agree with efforts to bring relief to the poor in regions of the world, I came away from that meeting more informed but feeling somewhat befuddled.

As I scanned the audience that evening, it struck me that there were people there that I knew something about. Some of them have never traveled away to do service or minister to others, but their service and ministry is something they do on a daily basis. There are those that reach out to unsaved neighbors; some minister to the needs of the poor; some teach English to immigrants, etc. etc. We don't spotlight the people that live a lifestyle of mission. I think it is time we recognize those quiet missionaries and encourage all Christians to bloom where they are planted. While traveling away somewhere gives opportunity to see and experience a different culture, the purpose of those travels is really no different than the person who travels across town to bring a pie to a sick person.

I propose that the church of today looks seriously at the message it is sending of its understanding of missions. While working in Mississipi or Africa or Haiti or the Dominican Republic is a wonderful work of love, working on a sick or poor person's house next door, having Bible study with inmates at the county jail or working at the local food pantry is also God's work of love.

The mandate of Christ to tell His story of redemption is equally fulfilled whether we do that in our own locale or abroad. I am concerned that we are teaching our children that spreading God's word or extending His love is something we do "away" one or two weeks a year.

Just some thoughts that won't go away.