Everyday Mission

Pray that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ,
on account of which I am in prison—that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak.
Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.

- Colossians 4:3-6

How do I share the gospel without killing the relationship?
Does that sound hard? 

For many Christians, it’s easier to display the good news of Jesus through our actions, than to declare it with our words. In fact, many modern evangelistic methods – from the cold-call knock on a door, to a forced conversation, to a specific pattern of verses or empirical truths – have led many Christians NOT to share the gospel. It’s even easy to make excuses: we don’t want to misrepresent God; we’re scared of being asked a question we can’t answer; we don’t want to offend people – so we stay silent. 

In doing a research for A Field Guide for Everyday Mission, my co-author and I asked non-Christians what they see when people they know are Christians remain silent about their faith: the primary answer was not “politeness” or “humility”... it was “shame”: to non-Christians, Christians who don’t talk about Christ look ashamed of Christ. Wow. In reality, the gospel is offensive (1 Pet. 2:8). We will surely be asked something we don’t know the answer to – because who can know the mind of God (1 Cor. 2:16)!? And we all misrepresent God in some ways, every day – because no one is perfect!

So, while some of us are gifted as evangelists (Eph. 4:11), everyone who follows Jesus is called to “make disciples” (Matt. 28:20). We all have a role to play in God’s everyday mission. Thus, there’s got to be a better way than what’s commonly seen, to share the gospel as if it’s actually good news! Paul helps us discover this better way at the end of the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Colossians. In the verses above he offers us two keys for everyday mission: 1. watch and pray for “open doors”; 2. Speak the good news to “each person.”

Watch and Pray

From prison for declaring his faith, Paul asks his friends in Colossae to pray for him—specifically, and this is informative for us as we pursue God’s mission—“that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison—that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak.” Leading by example, Paul, arguably the most “successful” missionary in history, reminds us that God’s mission completely depended on God. (So, if we’re not the most successful missionary in history, how much more are we completely dependent on God!?)

If we’re watching and praying, there are numerous open doors around us, for everyday mission. Here are just a few examples:

• Everyday conversations: we all talk about what’s important to us – if followers of Jesus talk about our favorite sports club, restaurant, or hobby, but never talk about Jesus, there’s a disconnect in what we say and how we act! We don’t need to force Jesus into every conversation (unless the Spirit prompts us to do so); but we can’t hide the person we’d privately claim is the most important relationship in our lives, from entering public discussions! Let’s simply talk about Jesus as if he’s a real, impactful, important part of our everyday lives.
  

• Questions and answers: throughout the Bible, God consistently calls his people to live lives that look, frankly, weird to the people around us. Jesus’s apostle Peter encourages us to “be prepared to give a defense for the hope within us” (1 Pet. 3:16). As we live strange lives, and make choices that are illogical if not outright crazy, eventually someone will ask about it. The question can come a hundred different ways: “I don’t get it . . .” or, “What’s wrong with you?”
  
  Peter’s recommendation is to be ready; to put in the work before we have to explain why we’re willing to suffer, forgive so easily, and don’t sob when the economy takes a downturn. We prepare in advance to tell people what drives us to that choice, leads us to serve on the PTA of a downtrodden school, or a million other things. A “ready defense” is the way to explain your personal hope in Christ, in a way that others understand. (As an aside, Peter gives a few parameters for crafting a defense: it’s hopeful, personal, succinct, gentle, and respectful.)
  

• Pray for and with people: in nearly every culture, even if people are hostile, they will still accept someone’s offer to pray for/with them. If nothing else, they receive it as a kind gesture. And maybe simply following up on the thing you prayed for will mean the world to them – we live in a culture where people are desperate to be seen and cared for: so simply remembering the conversation and prayer might matter deeply! And, even if the person you’re praying for doesn’t believe in God or prayer, we do! Prayer reminds us of God’s power to work in our lives!

These are three potential open doors – there are dozens of others, but these are common. The first key to everyday mission is to pray and keep our eyes open: to ask for the Spirit’s help in seeing opportunities and open doors, and for God to give you the words and boldness to share the good news. In watching and praying, we beg God to do what only God can do: work in people’s lives and save them. So the first key is watching and praying “for open doors, to declare the mystery of the faith.” 

But the second step is to walk through those doors when God opens them. And that’s the second key to everyday mission: to speak the good news to “each person.”

Speak with Grace and Salt

Salt makes things tasteful. Peter gives a similar warning as he exhorts followers of Jesus to share the gospel. After encouraging readers to “always [be] prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you” he encourages this posture: “Yet do it with gentleness and respect” (1 Peter 3:15). Grace, gentleness, well-seasoned and respectful. If we asked many of our not-yet-believing neighbors and friends, I’d imagine those are not the words they’d typically use to describe their experience with Christians’ presentation of the gospel. 

In my work with The Equipping Group, we often help pastors see that Christians are more typically viewed as arrogant, uncaring, heady, and presumptuous. These postures miss God’s heart, and miss opportunities to walk in wisdom, even as we speak the good news! There’s a way to display the heart of the gospel, even as we proclaim the content of the gospel. 

Our posture as we share the gospel—from our stages and classrooms, and even more so in our streets and living rooms—is to consider how our audience (whether one or 1000) is hearing it, and to ask ourselves if it’s palatable to them. How can we fulfill this first principle of gospel proclamation? The second principle is the key.

Speak to “Each Person”

In Colossians 4:6, Paul exhorts us to “know how you ought to answer each person” (italics added). Paul doesn’t encourage a one-size-fits-all approach to sharing the gospel. Instead, there are literally dozens of ways to share the gospel, and that “each person” might need to hear it uniquely, to sound real to them. For me, the gospel was “good” in that it displayed Jesus as satisfying, in my dissatisfied life. But if I now only know how to proclaim the gospel through the lens of satisfaction, it might be wasted on you if dissatisfaction isn’t your struggle. Instead, as I often tell our church family, we must learn to speak the one objective gospel, into hundreds of subjective situations around us.

For example, I used to think God redeemed me at age eight. Now I think I was actually 20—and ashamedly, two years into student ministry!—when the good news of Jesus became real to me. The realization hit me like a ton of bricks: “If Jesus is real, He should matter to everything!” It sounds embarrassingly simple now, but seemed revolutionary at the time. What truth made the gospel real to me? For years I had sought satisfaction in leadership roles, music, “success”, women, and ironically, doing the right thing in the eyes of others. All that had left me empty and dissatisfied. When I was 20, the truth I’d even taught others finally sunk into my own thick, self-gratifying skull: “God. Alone. Satisfies.” That truth changed everything.

Every time we see a diamond commercial, the stone sits on a black background, rotating. Every slight turn picks up the light in a unique way, reflecting it in more beauty. It’s one diamond, but each angle shows its sparkle differently. In this way, Jesus is like a diamond. There is one gospel, but there are many angles from which people through history find the gospel to be truly good news.

What’s the Good News to Each Person?

We might miss this as we read the New Testament, but Paul speaks differently about Jesus to Jews than he does Gentiles. Jesus himself spoke about himself in different ways to different audiences. I explore some ways the gospel is good news in Reading the Bible, Missing the Gospel. But there are many! Even in Paul’s elder qualifications (1 Tim. 3), he says leaders must be well-thought-of enough to earn an audience; we must have strong relationships and have “respectable” lives. Based on Colossians 4, we must learn peoples’ stories, enter into their brokenness, and know their values, needs, and idols. In this way, we can speak the good news in a way that “answers each person.” But isn’t that difficult? Yes. Doesn’t it take time, effort, and sacrifice? You bet. Is there a high potential I might fail, misrepresent God, or speak foolishly at times? Absolutely. 

But on one hand, grace exists to us, because “salvation is [only!] of the Lord”—it’s the Father who opens doors; it’s the Spirit who gives us words. On the other hand, it’s worth it. Because everyone on earth—both inside and outside our ministries—proclaims the glory of something. And there is only One Thing worth proclaiming, that won’t let them down. Jesus alone is, among a hundred thousand other things, Satisfaction to the dissatisfied, Joy to the joyless, Hope to the hopeless, Forgiveness to the indebted, Freedom to the enslaved, Salvation to those facing judgment, and the Answer to every problem. And hear me, minister: that same gospel that can sound like good news to every facet of peoples’ lives, is also truly good news to every facet of your life too!

There is one objective gospel, and it applies to every subjective situation. As we consider our disciple-making processes and strategies, let’s also prioritize living lives that reflect that truth. And let’s slow down enough to know how to best proclaim it in a way that speaks to individual souls, answers unique questions, and “answers each person.” Let’s accept God’s invitation to do this, from our pulpits and on our couches. Let’s share the good news with those in our ministries, those who would never come near them, and in our own hearts as well!

(adapted from Connelly, A Field Guide for Everyday Mission)