Is everyone a missionary?

Hi, from the Salvation Army, you're listening to Words of Life. Thank you so much for joining Words of Life again. We're in a series about missions and just talking about what missions look like today, the Salvation Army specifically's passion for missions, and we want to start off by just asking the question, is everyone called to be a missionary?

I'll just kind of throw that to the group. It depends what you mean by that. Is everyone called to minister to the nations? Like, is everyone called to go into the nations and minister in those places?

I don't know. I think that everyone is called to spread the word of God and to let people know about Jesus 100%. I think everybody is called to do the mission of Jesus wherever they are. I think that is true, but I'm not sure if everyone is called to go out into the world, to the nations. Yeah. There are certain gifts that God gives folks who are specifically meant to leave their homeland and travel to the other side of the world and share His gospel.

Right? God equips those who He calls to be missionaries. And then there are some where God will give them different skills and abilities and ask them to stay closer to home. So, I think that it is definitely a calling that you hear from the Lord, but we are all called to share His gospel in some way or shape or form.

Yeah. I think it all comes down to just how you're defining the terms really. Because if I say, I'm a missionary and I'm just going out to my own community, like, sure, why not?

Like, no one's going to argue with me. But yeah, what does that mission look like to you and your calling to God? And so, it's really kind of really between you and God and figuring out what your skills are and what He's gifted you with or what skills He wants to gift you with and figuring out where to best use those in the kingdom. And if that's overseas, great. If that's right here, great.

Like, just listening and figuring out where that is, is the best. I also think that there are seasons of life in ministry, right? There are times when you are called, like, for instance, when I was younger, I was out in the world as a missionary. But now that I'm a mom, I'm a missionary in my home.

So, I also think that it's not an all or nothing. It's not God has called me for my entire life to be out in the world. It's God is calling me in this season to be a missionary in my home or to be a missionary here at home, or God is calling me to step out.

So, I also think it's important to understand that there are seasons. That absolutely resonates with me. So many of us believe in something far beyond ourselves, and now there's a special place for us. FoxFaith on Fox Nation, with exclusive original premium content that lifts us up, sustains our spirit, and fills us up with hope. Now you can stream hours and hours of commercial-free, faith-based content anytime, anywhere, with exciting series like God Family Football about a coach, a team, and their faith. And streaming November 17th, Martin Scorsese presents The Saints, one of America's greatest storytellers, recreates the lives of Joan of Arc, Maximilian Kobe, Sebastian, and John the Baptist. Before they were saints, they were people.

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The Carpenter, now in theaters. My probing question in that, to set you guys up, was to really just kind of encourage you maybe someone that you feel like, that is just not me. I'm a homebody, but that doesn't mean that your impact in your local community is any lesser than.

Yes. And so that's just to, what does a congregation look like that is mission-minded? How do we preach mission-mindedness, like from the pulpit, from leadership? I think that you do need to have a church that is mission-minded in the sense that you are focused on mission in your own neighborhood. But I also think that you need to have a church that is mission-minded about the world.

You need to have both. Because the church that I'm at, we have people who are from different countries, and so they're very aware of what is happening in the world, but not necessarily concerned so much about what is happening in their own backyard. But then I've been at a church where they are very concerned about what is happening in their own backyard, but don't want us to talk about what is happening in the world.

And so I think your church has to have a balance of both, because those are concerns of God's heart, and we need to have the same heart as God. Without throwing anyone under the bus, I was a part of a church before who had this mindset, at least temporarily, where they were so excited to be investing in building this school overseas – we didn't really have the budget to be able to do that and anything local. And I remember someone knocked on our door, and she literally just needed gas money.

And I was scolded for giving her my own money, because we didn't have the budget for that anymore, because we were so invested elsewhere. And I think that's a little bit like not seeing the forest through the trees kind of look, that if you're not able to help your literal neighbor in need, because maybe you feel like an obligation or something, that it's more meaningful to do something overseas than at home, I think a little mind shift needs to happen there. To go back kind of, I think, to your question, too, about like what that congregation should look like, I think, practically speaking, I think it should look like the community around the church. Like if you are a mission-minded church and you're going to reach your community outside your doors, it makes sense that that community is reflected within the doors, because I've seen this so many times, too, where churches have people driving for hours to get to the church, which is great. Like I think that in itself is a testament to something within the church. But if there's no one coming from just down the street, there's some sort of disconnect there, especially when it comes to this mission and reaching others and what does your ministries look like and how are you loving the people of your neighborhood?

Like these are the people in your backyard. Like what are you doing to love them and share Jesus with them? I've seen this firsthand with church plants who have planted the church that they want and not what the community needs. And even to get granular to your point of that church should look like the community around them, I think you just need to be baked into your community. And if you aren't kind of seeing the world from like the same perspective, it's a little harder to minister to those people. And if you're not, maybe you're not actually called to be in that community and you're called to be somewhere else and that's fine.

But yeah, it should look like your neighborhood. I've seen a great example of a church that's very mission minded and that changed to match its community in Sydney, Australia. It's called Auburn, South Asian Army, and it was a very traditional core, very white core. And as the community around it changed to be kind of African, Asian, it began to change too because it started with food, giving out food to the people that came in, having meals with them. And now it is one of the most multicultural core in Sydney and one of the largest core in full of refugees, asylum seekers, immigrants, and it's thriving and it's lively. And when we were the core offices there, I felt like you hear the scripture verse that says the word is living and active.

And I felt like that was kind of the first time that I really saw that in a church, like where you're seeing Muslims becoming Christians and you're seeing Africans becoming godparents to Indian children. And it's like, it's so beautiful. And it's like this huge multicultural, just beautiful.

It's like heaven on earth. And I'm like, that is what a church that is mission minded look like, right? It is a reflection of not only the community outside, but of what heaven would look like.

So yeah. When you see a congregation buzzing like this, I think it's because we're very much so listening to the Holy Spirit and we're creating an environment that's just after God's own heart. And it's a reminder that He's who adds to the body and not us. And that goes back to something you said in the first episode was, yes, there's an immediacy behind missions. Yet at the same time, I'm not the one who saves. God's the one who saves. And we never know the impact of just knocking on someone's door, telling them the story about Jesus, telling them that they're loved and walking away.

We have no idea what's going to happen in three months. And it was never the offices that did anything at that core. It's Jesus. It's the people in the congregation that made that church grow. There's another aspect to it, I think, as well, too, of what that congregation looks like, not physically necessarily, but when you approach them, how are they reacting, that kind of thing. If you're walking into a new church that's mission-minded, they're going to be ready to welcome you in. Hey, you're in my seat.

Yeah, yeah. I've been to both churches where people are super excited and I'm instantly connecting with the pastor and everything. It's like, I don't know who you are, but sure, this is great.

I love this community here. But then I've also been to ones where I walk in and no one says hi and I find a seat and just mind my own business. And I think a mission-minded church is going to be seeking out those new people because they want that love to be shared with everyone. We're not just sitting in church on Sundays waiting for people to walk through the doors, but encouraging people to go out into the neighborhoods, whether that's through community events or, as we were talking, I think, in the last episode about just where are you and what does your ministry personally look like, invite people to your church, sharing that love and building that relationship. Because if you're able to build the relationship in your day-to-day life, how much more receptive are they going to be of the gospel and inviting them into your congregation, too? And a local church is, you know, some of their relationships should be partnerships with other organizations that are already doing powerful things. We don't have to reinvent the wheel for everything in our community. If there's a food bank across the street that's doing great stuff, let's just partner with them.

I mean, instead of being like, well, that's the Baptist Church's food bank or that's this, you know, being the church and making an impact is huge. Audiences are raving. The carpenter is stunning.

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Will you trust me? Listen to the Salvation Army's Words of Life wherever you get your podcasts or visit wordsoflifepodcast.org. It can sometimes be hard for certain churches that are filled with folks that have never experienced the world in terms of travel. People who have lived in the same town their whole life for them to really understand international missions as well. I mean, I've had experiences going into small core where literally everyone in the congregation has never been outside of the state lines. It can be challenging, I think, to encourage them to care about some of these larger world issues and some of the things that we're trying to raise money for overseas. So that is a struggle that I have seen firsthand. I don't know if anybody has anything to say about that.

For sure. I mean, at one of the cores when we first came back from overseas service, we would talk about, we would preach on, I don't know, trafficking or refugees or something like that and God's heart for that. We had a few people leave our core and they said to us, you know, you are too worldly for us. We were like, worldly? And they're like, yeah, you talk about the world too much.

Interesting. And I was like, but then I was like, oh, but I can't help but talk about the world now because I've experienced too much of the world now to not talk about it. And I've seen God's heart for the world. So I think once you've experienced it and you've experienced the things that we've seen and the people that we've met, it's hard not to talk about it. But I can understand now too when people have not. And like you've said, if they've just stayed in their own city, in their own place, maybe it's a little bit too much for people to handle. We're all in this room where we've all done international trips and seen things beyond what we could have ever imagined before kind of those trips. And so it's like, how can you not talk about those things?

How do we backpedal from that? So it's like, it is important to going back to what you first said too about being mission-minded in both aspects. Yes, your community. But I think it is just as important that people know what's happening around the world and what God is doing throughout the world. Not just the hurt, but the incredible stories of how He is loving those nations too. And I think that's something that's important to connect with people who are missionaries overseas, perhaps, and figure out how they can share their stories best with your congregation. The Salvation Army's mission, Doing the Most Good, means helping people with material and spiritual needs. You become a part of this mission every time you give to the Salvation Army. Visit salvationarmyusa.org to offer your support. You can subscribe to Words of Life on your favorite podcast store or visit salvationarmysoundcast.org. Join us next time for the Salvation Army's Words of Life. Thanks so much for listening to Words of Life. We want to thank the team at Life Audio for their partnership with us on the show. Visit lifeaudio.com where you'll find dozens of other faith-centered podcasts in their network.

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