Missional Living

Understanding the Mission of God is essential. The mission of God is what gives meaning and adventure to your journey of faith.

This page will define Missional living. Missional living concentrates on the living the Mission of God in our everyday lives. Jesus is our example of Missional living. Jesus didn’t think of God’s mission as an option to choose. He didn't think in terms of a specific time frame or destination like "a summer mission trip" or a "1-week mission trip."

Every disciple is called to become involved in God’s mission. After His resurrection Jesus commissioned His disciples to accomplish God’s Mission.

• Jesus summed it up like this for his followers in John 20:21: “Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.”

• Acts 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

• For us Jesus would be saying, “You will be My witnesses in Bixby, Glenpool, Jenks Broken Arrow and Tulsa, in all Oklahoma and North America, and to the ends of the earth.” 


Through our going 
Jesus lived the "sent-life," like He was on mission from God everyday. He woke up every morning on-mission. He never knew another way to do life. For Jesus, life was only about missional living. 
It never occurred to Jesus to announce, "I'm beginning my mission work." God’s mission was his life.

• Every step.
• Every word.
• Every smile.
• Every kind act.
• Every prayer.
• Every thought.
• Every tear.

Missional Living to Jesus was to love God and to love people daily, perfectly, consistently, quietly, and tangibly.

So following Him, becoming his disciple, involves imitating Him. To follow Jesus means living the "sent-life," like you’re on mission from God everyday. Missional living is following Jesus is like breath - breathing in and breathing out. Continually. Every day. Every minute. It's going out everyday and intentionally staying on-mission.

You can get a pretty clear picture about Jesus’ thoughts on missional living in Matthew chapter 23. He spends a significant amount of time and emotion chastising the Pharisees for making faith in God about rules, laws, and judging others. The Pharisees had secluded themselves from God’s mission. Jesus sums up his frustration by saying, “You have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy, and faith. These things should have been done without neglecting the others.

I’m afraid that, like the Pharisees, a majority of us have compartmentalized our faith. That means that spiritual things like God, Jesus, goodness, justice, mercy, and faith only exist when we’re around church, around church people, and around church things. Our faith doesn’t seem to make a difference in our marriage, in our wallets, and in our day to day lives.

Our faith doesn’t seem to make a difference in how we see our neighborhoods, in how we treat our children, in how we act when we play or have fun, or how we spend our time and our money in general.

2 Corinthians 5:17-20 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away [compartmentalized, isolated faith], and look, new things have come [missional living]. 18 Everything is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ 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 He has committed the message of reconciliation to us. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, certain that God is appealing through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God.” 21 He made the One who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

We’ve been reconciled by Christ so we become Christ’s ambassadors of reconciliation. Living the mission of God brings meaning and adventure to faith. And that’s why I think so many of us are bored with our lives. There’s thrill that comes by being used by God.

When I compartmentalize my faith is not about who I am becoming, it’s not about how I am behaving, it’s not about where I am going, or what I’m doing.

When I compartmentalize or seclude my faith from my real life, I justify my behavior by comparing myself with others. I’m not as bad as that guy. I don’t cuss much. I’m not that bad of a person. In fact, I’m pretty good person when I’m around my church friends. This is not missional living. This is hypocrisy!

Here are a few examples:

Secluded Faith	Missional Faith
Secluded faith asks, “When can I go to the gym so people won’t bother me?”	Missional faith asks, “Who can I work out with today who needs a genuine gospel relationship? How can I live out the gospel at the gym?”
Secluded faith asks, “Where can I go to the grocery store where people won’t bother me?”	Missional faith asks, “How can I treat the cashier so the gospel is evident?”
Secluded faith says, “I love online banking because people don’t bother me?”	Missional faith asks, “Where can find a bank where I can remember the bank tellers name? How can I encourage the bank teller? How can I live out the gospel at the bank?”
Secluded faith asks, “Which restaurant gives me the tastiest food and the best service?”	Missional faith asks, “How can I demonstrate gospel grace and generosity at the restaurant? Will I ask the server how I can pray for them when we pray and thank God for my meal? Will I thank my server and tip them generously?” How can I live out the gospel at the restaurant?”
Secluded faith asks, “Which ball team will recognize my kid’s athletic talent and give us the best chance to win?” Secluded faith complains about the coaches and the referees and blames them for your kid’s lack of talent.	Missional faith asks, “Why has God place us on this team, how can we encourage the coaches and other players?” How can we live out the gospel on this ball team?”
Secluded faith asks, “Why do I hate my job and boss so much?” Or “Why do I work with such under-achievers?”	Missional faith asks, “Why has God place me in this career, how can I encourage my boss and other coworkers?” How can I live out the gospel in my workplace?” Do you beginning to get the concept of Missional living?

Missional living just bleeds into everything we do. If we are committed to living out the gospel and serving God’s mission, we can not keep having secluded faith. We must refuse to compartmentalize our faith. We have to quit seeing people as being there to serve our existence. Rather we must begin to see people through the lens of God’s mission. 


Ephesians 2:8-10 For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift— 9 not from works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are His creation, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time so that we should walk in them.

We are the good news!

All disciples of Jesus are “created in Christ Jesus for good works”

All good works are “prepared ahead of time, by God, so that we should walk in them.”

All people are eternal souls that God created, eternal souls that God loves and has invited in to be reconciled by the gospel.

We must budget our time and energy well and spend it wisely living on mission for God in our homes, in our schools, in our neighborhoods, in our workplaces, and in our churches. We must always be prioritizing our lives for God’s mission.