February 3, 2003

Individuals can be on mission wherever they go, speaker says
___By Marv Knox
___Editor
___ARLINGTON--Christians need to discipline their lives to be effective missionaries wherever they go, Milfred Minatrea told participants in a workshop on "missional Christians in a missional church" during the Texas Evangelism Conference.
___Missional Christians are "authentic disciples being equipped as missionaries sent by God to live and proclaim his kingdom in their world," said Minatrea, director of missional church strategy for the Baptist General Convention of Texas.
___"In most of our churches, there are people who really want to be shaped by God's heart," he said. "They want to be on mission, e

___Consider perceptions of unchurched, Seay says ___World is ripe for spiritual revival; harvesters needed ___Individuals can be on mission wherever they go, speaker says ___Tell Muslims about assurance of salvation in Christ, missionary says ___Recover priority of prayer for renewal, Elmore urges ___ Prospects found with online help ___To evangelize in a small church, ensure ownership, pastor advises ___Temple church models Jesus' admonition to go here, there & everywhere ___Serve up joy of Jesus to go rather than in churches only

ven when their church might not be able to be missional, at least in the short term.
___"So, we've got to invite God's people to become missional Christians."
___They can shape themselves as missional Christians by practicing four disciplines, he noted. They are:
___ Going glocal. "As Christians, we must really be 'glocal,'" he sai

Milfred Minatrea

d, using a word coined from "global" and "local."
___Christians can practice missions locally by serving people in their own communities, but they must not forget the spiritual needs of the whole world, he stressed.
___"We're the Father's 'sent ones,' and the Father desires that all nations worship him," he said of God's missions mandate. "So, our burden is to take the gospel message to all nations."
___Obviously, not all Christians can travel overseas to spread the Christian message, but they can impact world missions through intelligent prayer, he said.
___"Every time a missional Christian hears the news or reads the newspaper, that person learns something that can inform his prayer for people around the world," he said.
___To illustrate, he urged participants to find a story about an event in another country in a recent newspaper. The group selected one of those countries on a map, gathered information on that country in a Christian world atlas and decided how they could pray specifically for the spiritual needs of the people there.
___"I'm asking missional churches to take some time each Sunday to pray for one country of the world," he said.
___ Going simple. "Many members of our churches are hungry to have lives that are simplified," Minatrea said, acknowledging the world seems to be getting increasingly complex.
___Christians' lives grow more complicated as they strive for material possessions and acclaim, he said, noting people's two primary resources are time and money.
___He advocated progressively simplifying Christians' lives by trimming their financial needs and by reducing their time demands, so that they can spend more time and money on God's work.
___"The goal is year after year to invest more and more in kingdom initiatives and less and less on myself," he said, calling for church strategies such as consumer-credit and time-management courses.
___u Going focused. Each person should have a primary mission field, Minatrea insisted.
___"For some people, their primary mission field--where they invest most of their hours--is family," he explained. "For others, it's work. For still others, it's the neighborhood or street. Until a person identifies their primary mission field, they will wallow around. The task of a missional Christian is to identify this missionary field and then be an authentic Christian in that environment."
___That doesn't mean being obnoxious or overbearing, but living an open, caring, compelling Christian life among family, co-workers or neighbors, he said.
___ Going deeper. "We're not going to be missional Christians unless we're authentic disciples," Minatrea said. "For many churches, church membership and authenticity as disciples is not one and the same."
___To develop authenticity in Christian discipleship, he advocated group Bible study as well as daily personal Bible reading and meditation.
___ Missional Christians also need to utilize an "application web" that helps them apply what their Bible study means for how they live their lives, he said. "It's a way of letting the word of God 'stick' to our lives."

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