Soma Austin Community Church

When I first became a Christian, I was taught that living a missional life consisted of people serving as missionaries overseas in a third world country sharing the gospel. Sure, I was taught to share the gospel and be a light to my friends and co-workers, but the real people who live on a mission were those missionaries overseas sharing the gospel and dying for Christ, not me. I was not taught the foundational truth that my entire life was to be lived on a mission in whatever context I lived; My life is to be lived for the glory of God both by demonstrating and declaring His gospel to all people in hopes that God will renew them in His Son. I was taught to be mission-minded, not missional. Ed Stetzer in his book “Planting Missional Churches” puts it this way,

“Mission-minded refers more to an attitude of caring about missions, particularly overseas. Missional means actually doing missions right where you are. Missional means adopting the posture of a missionary, learning and adapting to the culture around you while remaining biblically sound. Missional means being a missionary without ever leaving your zip code”.

Every Christian is to be on a mission engaging the culture with the truth of the gospel. This can and should take place in two different forms: individually and collectively.

Individually

The apostle Paul states in Acts 17:26-27 that “He (God) made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him”. Everyone, individually, has been placed by God to work and live in a specific place for a specific time and reason, and that reason is to bring others to Him. We are to be building relationships with our co-workers, neighbors, roommates and friends with intentions of helping renew them in the gospel. This can take place over meals, recreation, mentoring a student or conversations about rhythms and practices of life. We should be taking advantage of our opportunities and the spheres of influence that God has provided by intentionally finding ways to engage others with the gospel.

Collectively

Everyone should also be on mission collectively with believers in a local church community. For instance, at Soma, we have what we call missional communities, which are our primary places of community, and where we live and share life together. We seek to serve and help renew the city of Austin by living on a mission with one another. For instance, one of our missional communities is focusing on renewing homeless men and women in the downtown area, while another missional community is focusing on renewal of children through Smart Kids, which is an after school program for children in South Austin connected with CIS (Community In Schools) and HACA (Housing Authority of City of Austin). In conclusion, the next time someone asks you or you think to yourself what is missions really about, remember that living a missional life is being intentional with the relationships, places and opportunities that God gives us to help renew others in Christ through the gospel.