For Missions Wednesday this week, I want to look at the other side of missions. To help explain this concept, let's compare missions to sports.
The objective of most sports is to have more points than the other team at the end of the game--even sports like wrestling, boxing, and martial arts include scores to determine a winner if one person didn't clearly win the fight. To score points, there is usually offense and defense--offense's objective is to score points and defense's is to prevent points to be scored.
Even with missionaries on the front lines, the American church still needs defense!
Do you know what countries/regions missionaries get sent to? Places like China, India, the former Soviet Union, and the nations of Africa are some of the first places we think of when we think of where missionaries are needed. However, did you know that many of our missionaries go to Europe? Did you know that other countries appoint missionaries to minister to the United States?
Europe was once the center of global Christianity, but now less than 3 percent of the population are Evangelical Christians. The United States sends more missionaries than any other country, but now is receiving missionaries.
How to play defense in the American church
There are countless ways for the American church to step up and play defense, but I'd like to offer three:
Lose the checklist mentality. It's easy to let your faith become a checklist. Go to church--check. Read my Bible--check. Smile at a homeless person--check. With a checklist mentality, our faith becomes about meeting minimum requirements, not about becoming growing and vibrant.
Focus on your heart. The Book of Proverbs is a guide to Christian living--its words contain so much wisdom that it would take several lifetimes to try to apply all of the lessons. One of the key verses (in my opinion) in the book of Proverbs is 4:23, "Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it." When you focus on your heart, you allow yourself to be someone who can be completely used by God.
Make partnerships. The opposing offense will try to succeed by using teamwork, so you'll lose if you try to do defense alone. Partner with your church and other Christians, allow yourself to be discipled and take time to disciple others, and evangelize to those who need to hear the Truth.
I've only listed three of the many ways to play defense. What are three other defensive plays do you think will work?
