By Marc Wagner
As a believer in Jesus, you have most likely heard that we should be on mission or that we are to be missional. As a reflection this week, I would like to focus on what I think that should mean. I like to practice replacing common phrases that get thrown around, so that a new way of talking about the same thing is made fresh to my mind. This helps to think about the same ideas again, but from a different angle; being missional is one of those phrases.
Being missional speaks to an attitude that we ought to have towards the opportunities that are before us and the time that God has given us. It speaks of how we view and carry out the purpose of our lives, remembering that our lives have actually changed because of Jesus.
The word mission would mean something totally different, if we had not been drawn to Jesus by God. Ephesians 5:8 says, “for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.” Remembering that we once were slaves to sinful passions being aroused in our bodies, the good news now carries with it a new identity in Jesus. As a person who has been given a new lease on life, there also comes a shift in how we should think about our lives now. In speaking to the Corinthian believers and by extension speaking to us, Paul sees himself as an ambassador for Jesus, someone who acts as a representative or promoter on behalf of another.
If we quickly go to the foundation of human existence and purpose in Genesis, we see God has made all humans his royal representatives to exercise authority over created things and to steward these things for the expansion and flourishment of life. In Jesus, God is reconciling things in heaven and earth back to himself, and he wants to do it through us, his church, his called-out ones.
Being missional is just another way to encapsulate these ideas and speak of them to others. To be missional, then, is to see and believe that through the good news of Jesus, our lives have been transformed with an aim toward life and peace. This has all taken place through the offering of the body of Jesus on the cross. And now that we have a fear of God, our aim in life is to try and persuade others, through love, of these truths. We aim to help others escape from the corruption of the world because of sinful desire, and to see that God exists and wants them to participate in his life, love and truth.