The Apostle Paul wrote to Titus, "For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in this present age" (Titus 2.11-12)
One of the ways we cooperate with God's mission to save people is to live "sensibly, righteously and godly in this present age." That means we take a look at "our present age" and live as missionaries. Missionaries are not just people who travel to far away places and wear foreign clothes and try to learn a foreign language. If you're a Christian, you're a missionary. And if you're a missionary then you are constantly looking at "this present age" in order to effectively contextualize and communicate the gospel of Jesus Christ. But what does that look like?
In their book, "Total Church", Steve Timmis and Tim Chester ask people to imagine that they are part of a church planting team in a foreign country and then to answer the following questions:
-What criteria would you use to decide where to live?
-How would you approach secular employment?
-What standard of living would you expect as a pioneer missionary?
-What would you spend your time doing?
-What opportunities to share the gospel would you be looking for?
-What would your prayers be like?
-What activities would you engage in with your new friends?
-What kind of team would you want around you?
-How would you conduct your meetings together?
We would all do well to ask and answer these questions for ourselves and even with our home groups. But we would do even better to act on those answers. God has brought salvation to all men. You and I are called to live it out "in this present age."
If you want to read some other tips on missional living made simple, check out this blog post by Jonathon Dodson. Good stuff.
In the meantime, read 1 John 2 and I'll see you this Sunday.
Grace and peace,

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