I’ve just completed a three week sermon series entitled “Being a Missional Christian”. The ‘big idea” for the series was simple:

Jesus came, in the likeness of men, on a mission to reconcile the world to God. (2 Corinthians 5:16-21 [+/-]2 Corinthians 5:16-21 [16]From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. [17]Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. [18]All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; [19]that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. [20]Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. [21]For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (ESV)) That mission was entrusted to us by Jesus just prior to His ascension. (John 20:21 [+/-]John 20:21 [21]Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you." (ESV)) The question for us is whether or not we will enroll ourselves in His mission.

So much emphasis is given these days to “finding your destiny in God” that I fear we have forgotten the starting point. We take spiritual gift tests, read books, hire Christian life-coaches/pastors, and attend conferences to figure out how to live a happy and fulfilled life. And rarely do we ask the question, “What’s Jesus’ mission?”

How are we to discover where we fit and who we are if we don’t begin with Jesus?


Ed Stetzer gives three characteristics of a missional church. I think you can also translate these into characteristics of a missional christian (after all, the church is people right?).

1. Incarnational - Jesus came as God in the flesh to live with and befriend sinful humanity. He did it without being a jerk or being tainted by sin. We are to be the same for Jesus in our communities.
2. Indigenous - The world should look at us and see people that look just like them, but live very differently. This is a hard one because most churches have their own self-perpetuating culture that looks nothing like the community surrounding it. In fact, statistics have shown over and over that most Christians actually live just like the world. So the Church is doing the exact opposite of Jesus’ teaching: Look totally different from the world, but live the same.
3. Intentional - Who have you been sent to? What group of lost people most easily relate to you? What lost people are you around the most? What can you do to use that God-given influence to introduce that group to Jesus naturally?

When we fail in one or more of these areas, we lose our credibility and we compromise our ability to fulfill our mission. In short, we stop representing Jesus and begin representing something else. If we aren’t impacting the world around us, it’s because we are not representing Jesus. Maybe we are representing our church. Maybe we are representing our opinions and traditions. Maybe we aren’t representing anything but ourselves.

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