Monday, October 27, 2014

Where Do I Go From Here?

Over the past several years, I have had many people ask my opinion on how they should proceed, now that they are sensing a call to missions or ministry.  So I have condensed & compiled lots of email responses into this blog to hopefully bless someone who is asking that same question of where to go from here. There are many different suggestions, depending on a person's context & a lot of other details, but here are the basic 10 things I would tell to anyone.

1.  Press deeper into your walk with the Lord & intimacy with Jesus.  
It sounds cliche, but a lot of times we only give lip service to this and don't actually carve out time to make it a priority.  No matter what culture you serve in, what role you play in ministry, how many lives you touch, your number 1 job in life is to know God & seek Him first.  As you begin to walk down the road in discernment towards ministry & missions, satan is going to try to distract you, lie to you, frustrate you, and the only source to overcome that and stay in step with the Spirit is to pursue the Lord.  Don't wait until you are in ministry or on the mission field to start these habits - make them a priority now! 
"Spiritual disciplines are not obligations, they are delightful responses to the grace of God."  
(Loritts)

2.  Pray 
Yes, this is different than number 1.  Be intentional about praying individually & corporately for people who don't know Jesus yet in your city & around the world.  There are many prayer guides for praying for your city & the nations, so find one and commit to praying for people intentionally & regularly.  This also is a muscle that needs conditioning as many times I have felt on the mission field that my main job is to pray.  Sometimes outloud, sometimes over someone, sometimes as I am hearing someone teach, sometimes as I enter a homestead, sometimes in the middle of the night. The battle in ministry & missions begins with our prayer life - establish patterns for praying for your community, your ministry, your team before you actually are in the full time setting.  Find people in your life that you can pray with, you can pray for (right there with them while they are there), and that can pray for you. 

3.  Serve
Again, don't wait until you get to the mission field or in a ministry position to start serving.  If you see a need, meet it!  This grows our humility & dependence on the Lord while reminding us that there is no task too menial for us.  Read Philippians 2 and get out there & serve.  As you serve within various ministries, learn from your leader & ask questions because many times there are a ton of things you can learn and then apply once you are in a different context or leading yourself.  Evaluate your motives for serving.  One of the ways that God prepared me for moving to the mission field was by having me be a church janitor while saving up extra money to move to Swaziland.  My pride was broken as I realized that I would be willing to clean a toilet for free in Swaziland, but I felt like I was too good to work cleaning a toilet for my job in Colorado. 

4.  Read
Some of the best training I received for being in full time ministry & missions came not from seminary lectures, but from books & biographies that I read.  Here are a few books to start with: Humility by CJ Mahaney; Serving With Eyes Wide Open by David Livermore; God's Smuggler by Brother Andrew; Heavenly Man; The Insanity of God; The Insanity of Obedience;  anything about Hudson Taylor, David Brainerd, George Mueller, John Patton, Amy Carmichael and other missionaries; anything by Helen Roseveare; The Missionary Call; Reaching and Teaching; anything by Duane Elmer; What Is The Mission Of The Church; When Helping Hurts; anything by Sherwood Lingenfelter; You Lift Me Up; Your First Two Years In Youth Ministry.

5.  Build up a prayer team
 Start to build a prayer team that you can email or text prayer requests to once you are serving full time.  It's difficult to describe, but as you enter into different parts of Christian ministry & missions, the spiritual battle intensifies.  It's important to build this team before you enter into full time ministry or missions because you don't want to wait until a crisis or big battle to summon prayer.  For me, this has helped me to process things, verbalize needs, confess struggles, and recognize what is spiritual battle verses what is burnout, etc.  Don't make this team your overall support team, but keep this a small enough and close enough team of people that you can trust them to ask you difficult questions for accountability and so you aren't hesitant to ask for prayers even when struggling with mundane or seemingly crazy stuff.  Let them know what to expect from you and help them to understand what you expect from them.

6. Practice sacrifice & submission
In any setting that you step into to serve, you will spend tons of time learning - from the culture, from your co-workers, from other leaders.  Cultivate a heart that is ready to submit and follow.  Many mistakes in ministry & missions are made because people come in too quickly and make too many changes without taking time to learn from people and understand the context.  Also seek to cultivate a sacrificial heart, to recognize any idols, and to be ready to give up anything the Lord asks of you.  Maybe it's through fasting from meals, buying things or different habits.  From Africa to Asia to the US, I have seen people in ministry indulge in their lifestyles because they feel like they have already made a hard enough decision to serve God's people & sacrificed enough.  My concern is for their heart though.  If we expect people in our churches & ministries to be living a sacrificial lifestyle (financially, with time, etc), then we must also be ready & willing to have the Lord call us to sacrifice anything we have or desire.  2 Timothy 2:10 must become the prayer of our heart..."Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory."

7. Interact with people of other cultures
No matter if we live in the US or another country, God has called us to have a heart for all nations.  It's obviously different to live around people from a different culture, but you can start getting used to it a little while you are in the US.  Go to different restaurants to try different types of food, go to cultural festivals, pay attention to people around you and get to know where different people are from.  Find a ministry that reaches out to immigrants, refugees or other populations and get to know people there.  Get used to understanding people with different accents & habits.  Go as a learner so that you can begin to see some of the key characteristics of your own culture as well.  Remember that every culture is a bit different and all generalizations are just that, generalizations.  Walk humbly & gently as you cross cultural boundaries! 

8.  Deal with your junk
Many times we have issues in our hearts that the Lord has prompted us to deal with that we just keep pushing to the side.  Sometimes we think it will go away on its own and other times we plan on dealing with it later.  You can't run away from yourself, so it's best to take time to examine your heart & let the Lord search your heart (Psalm 51) while you are still in the midst of a church family, close friends, prayer partners, accountability partners and people who know you.  As we walk through sanctification, there will always be issues we need to deal with in our lives, but it only gets harder as you are in ministry and living in a different country to find time & places where you can take time to deal with these heart things.  

9.  Work hard
If you are getting ready to move to another country or culture to serve, make sure you do take time to spend intentionally with friends and family, but guard yourself against becoming lazy.  I have known people who have been saying they are raising support, only to find that they are only actively working on that a few hours a week.  Make sure that you are working just as hard as you expect your supporters to work for you.  Ministry is not a 9-5 job or a job that you ease into - usually you hit the ground running and can't plan some of your schedule, so keep up your work ethic now to prepare yourself to give ministry your all.  And remember that no matter where you are or what you are doing, you are working for the Lord (Colossians 3:23).

10.  Prepare (Spiritually, financially, physically)
This should go without saying, but don't enter into ministry or missions lightly.  Remember that it takes doctors many years of school to best care for peoples' bodies, so how much more diligent should we be in our preparation to care for peoples' souls?  Don't focus your preparation solely on one area, but try to think through & make time for all areas.  Have a measurable plan in place to see if you are making progress in your preparations and take advantage of those who have gone before you.  (Check out sites like askamissionary.com or missionarycare.com)

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