Commissioned

This past week was a big one here in Elkhart. Not only was it Missions Conference at my home church, First Baptist Church of Elkhart, IN, but I got commissioned by them to hit my field, the South Side of Chicago!

As I grew up the picture of a missionary that was painted to me was of a person in the jungle, sharing the word with an unreached tribe. It was the couple that moved to Africa to work with orphans. It was maybe even the single woman in Italy. Never did I know that a missionary could be a person within the States. I didn't know that someone could work in a school with unreached kids and be considered a missionary, let a alone be only two hours away in Chicago. I even butted heads with a missions professor at a certain college I graduated from, who persistently discredited my work within the United States and told me that I could never be a "MISSIONARY" in Chicago. I think she looked in the wrong dictionary when she researched that definition which excluded the work of God in inner-city Chicago. The Dictionary I used called it a COMMISSION to me to reach these kids on the South Side that don't know Christ (Mt 28:19-20).

The point here is not for me to vent, though much of that occurs when I see the narrow definitions for reaching people for Christ. This past week at the Missions Conference at First Baptist, I spoke to different groups of people of all different ages. Sunday night was my time with the elementary kids of the church. As I shared my heart, showed a video, and pointed them to God's heart for the city, one little girl seemed to be abnormally interested. She sat at the edge of her chair raising her hands with numerous questions. One of the last questions she asked was, "How long have you been a missionary?" I hesitated for a minute. What many would say is that I am just started. I just got commissioned so I have technically only been a missionary for a few days. However thats not the answer I gave that 9 year old.

See Christ isn't someone we can only share when we're commissioned by a body. I've been a missionary since I first started telling my friends about Christ when I was little. I was a missionary to my public junior high and high school as I led friends to Christ at the lunch table. I was a missionary in college when I would stop and share lunch with a homeless woman. If only we as Christians could grasp this concept. I sit here in Starbucks typing up this blog and I am a missionary to these workers that see me here with my open Bible by my side. We are missionaries wherever we go! We must throw aside the hindering definitions that say we are only a missionary if we raise support and fly to another country. NO! We are all missionaries as we spread the Hope to those around us in this lost world.

One of my favorite Christian rappers puts it best, "There ain't nothin' wrong with you goin' over seas, but there's people on your own street that need to be freed. If you wanna do a mission you don't gotta look hard cuz theres people who need to hear the Truth in your backyard." -Thi'sl

I pray God, may you grant us all hearts and eyes to see the mission field all around us.