November 9, 2007

About six weeks ago I blogged about dreams, being called, and prayer. In between then and now, I spent a lot of time thinking about prayer and mission - and Africa too. It's not exactly clear how things will work out, but persistence in prayer is really helping. I feel more confident about studying mission. The church needs to know why we do mission work and how that impacts our spiritual life. We do a pretty good job of the logistics of mission work, but for our short term mission teams and our local missions folks - do we think about the spirituality of that much?

The United Methodist Church in several states is measuring effective congregations on several measures, one of which is how many people are participating in hands-on mission - not just giving money, but giving of yourself in mission. Local work such as food pantries, Habitat for Humanity projects, shelters, or working on homes around the church. Regional work such as work projects for hurricane recovery or in places like Red Bird Missionary Conference or Four Corners. And global missions by participating in mission teams to other countries.

I believe that if we want our church members to grow in their discipleship by participating in mission, we must attend to the spirituality aspect of missions just as much (if not more) than the logistics of mission. Simply asking someone to attend a mission team isn't enough. Leaving their spiritual development to work and worship at the work site is not enough. There must be prayer, theological reflection, and discussion about the disparities we discover when we step outside our life and our routines, our comfort zone. As a pastor, I believe it is irresponsible to ignore these issues. And as a pastor, I know that the average pastor simply does not have the time to address this issue in the depth that it deserves.

Perhaps that's the answer to my prayer and the path that I'm to walk on in my studies. I pray that the church will use me for God's glory and to help others grow closer to God through their mission service.