This Sunday’s theme is ‘heart based mission’ as we look at the sending out of the twelve disciples in Matthew chapter 10. I think all of us as Christians need to stop imagining mission to be such a programmatic and a highly organised affair; so built up to be this enormous program or initiative that you need lots of meetings, committees and presentations to get started. Mission is as simple as Jesus enabling you to go and do some home visiting of new people, befriending a new neighbour, spend time chatting, earning trust and building the relationship and then praying for God to show you their pain and struggles. And once you know that pain, and you have compassion for it, pray into it, and share with them that Jesus cares and can do something about it.
This is real heart based mission. It’s about relieving the suffering of others through Jesus’ love, and sharing the Gospel not to artificially try and convert them according to our own ideas, but making mission match the needs of the person we are trying to reach. Friends, the harvest field does not consist of a bunch of people who haven’t heard about Jesus, its also has people who have heard about him but are still hurting and struggling. So don’t wait until COVID-19 is over to start the mission in the church, you can start now exactly where Jesus has placed you!
Pastor Matt
