Would you go on a mission trip if it were free and you could sleep in your own bed at night and not miss a day of work? Most people would say yes, and these opportunities are all around us. Though I wish everyone could go with us to Zimbabwe, or Chiapas, or New York City, and I hope you will get uncomfortable and sacrificial in your going at some point in your Christian life, a mission trip doesn’t have to be hours away. The Great Commission command to “GO” is not cushioned with any specifications as to what Great Commission living looks like. Find a need, make a friend, and GO meet that need, invest in that person and you are on mission.

This weekend, our church will be taking a Local Mission Trip. We’ll be GOING into New Orleans and serving the hundreds of homeless men and women that live around New Orleans Mission. Working with Brown Bags and Jesus, we’ll serve a hot meal, seek to build relationships and pray with some of the neediest in our region.

Last week, myself and a group of church leaders met with Volunteers of America in our area and learned of hundreds of needs from wheelchair ramp building to cleaning house for someone who is elderly and alone. There are lots of opportunities to GO, through building partnership with local agencies.

I’m proud of those in my church who are ON MISSION through serving at our local Crisis Pregnancy Centers, leading Boy Scout packs, visiting at area nursing homes, teaching at our local jail, and being available for needs in their neighborhoods and spheres of influence.

A mission trip should not be a once a year experience. For the disciple of Christ, life is a mission trip.

A value we’ve communicated at Bridge Church is Intentional Ministry. To act upon that we’ve began quarterly Faith in Action Sunday’s. That is, one Sunday per quarter, we have breakfast together, an abbreviated worship gathering and we head out to serve our community in practical ways. Why? Here’s a few reasons:

• To be intentional about the sending nature of the church.
• To make disciples who understand that the Christian life is about more than just attending worship services.
• To engage the real needs that we often never notice on our way to church.
• To build group cohesiveness as we accomplish big things together.
• Ministry and mission trips are proven ways to transform our worldviews.
• To demonstrate radical generosity that Jesus modeled for us in his life and death.
• To share the gospel outside the walls of the church.
• To bring about community transformation.
• To join God in fighting for the rights of the poor and down trodden.
• To create a culture of intentionality, going and sending, compassion and engagement, radical generosity, and sharing the Gospel.

Here are a few of our projects for this Sunday:

A porch/ramp for the residents of this mobile home. Two of the three people living here have suffered multiple strokes. It’s a struggle to get in and out of their home. A porch and ramp are needed to improve their quality of life.

Clean up for the elderly resident of a local trailer park. His mode of transportation is a bike, so he is unable to haulaway debris. We’ll also be weatherizing this and other trailers.

Serving at an area Nursing Home. Our kids ministry will be bringing some joy to one of our largest Nursing Homes in the region by helping decorate for Valentine’s Day, serving lunch, and calling out Bingo numbers for the residents.

Practical, simple, inexpensive ways to make a difference in our community and in our vision for our community and world. Looking forward to the after affect of Intentional Ministry.

John the Baptists ate bugs!

If you find yourself pointing at your weaknesses and or your past mistakes as an excuse for not serving God or allowing him to shape your life, then think about some of the folks in the Bible that God used:

• Moses Stuttered
• David’s armor didn’t fit
• Timothy had ulcers
• Hosea’s wife was a prostitute
• Jacob was a liar
• David had an affair
• Solomon was too rich
• Jesus was too poor
• Abraham was too old
• David was too young
• Peter was a loud mouth
• Lazarus was dead
• Naomi was a widow
• Paul was a murderer
• So was Moses
• Jonah ran from God
• Miriam was a gossip
• Gideon doubted
• Jeremiah was depressed
• Elijah was burned out
• John the Baptist ate bugs
• Martha was a worry wart
• Mary was lazy
• Samson had long hair
• Noah got drunk

No one is out of God’s reach. Nothing you have done is too much for God’s grace. Jesus took all your sin on the cross. Get over your past and allow him to make you what you are not.

When thinking about the nature of the church, should we think of it as a destination or a connection point? Stated a little clearer: Is the church a resort or an airport? A resort is a destination or a place you go to relax, be refreshed, and be waited on. An airport is a place of connection or somewhere you are while waiting to GO. Reggie McNeal asked this question in his helpful book Missional Renaissance: Changing the Scorecard for the Church. Jason Dukes in his book Live Sent: You Are A Letter, likens the church to a Post Office, sending out letters written by God into the world. And of course an unsent letter is no good to anyone.

As I think about the New Testament church and the images of going and sending found there, I have to suggest that the church is not the destination for the believer. It’s a connection point to life in Christ, to the mission of Christ in the world, and to a life given away for the sake of others inside and outside the fellowship of believers.

Semantics? OK. But the implication for leaders and disciplers who devise strategy and plan ministry can be huge. Do you have a plan to send and release people into the community regularly and consistently? Do you reward people for their work done in Jesus’ name off campus or in unsponsored church activities? Is your discipling process producing Christians who are looking outward, engaging the unchurched, and actively giving themselves away as a way of life? The answer to these questions may suggest a mindset that makes the church either a connection point or the destination.

Jason Dukes says in Live Sent, “church culture has made discipleship about retention more than release.” While we must plan for assimilation and discipleship and life in the body, lets remember that God’s destination for His church is out there – see Matthew 28:18-20, Acts 1:8, 2 Corinthians 5:17-21.