By Shane Bennett
I tend to be optimistic—one of many gifts from my mom. But sometimes these days the world at large assails a positive outlook. It’s as if the universe is saying, “Not today, buddy!” We’ve got growing Covid-19 concern. Markets are melting down. And a couple of nights ago, the gold fish I got for Persian New Year jumped out of his bowl to an inauspicious death on the kitchen counter.
But gloom and doom will not win the day. My glass is still half full. Spring is near, Jesus loves me, and I got married last week!
In February, I soberly warned of the seven sins of mobilizers. This month, with great pleasure, I dive into the seven joys of mobilizers: the particular charms, privileges, and delights of doing the crazy stuff we do.
1. The Weight of Glory
Lewis’s seminal sermon celebrates the honor, the staggering weight of glory, that we can be part of the divine pleasure. Could I bring joy to God? Even thinking that pings all of my “not worthy,” “not me,” “not likely” buttons! But it’s true! And as mobilizers, our privilege is to work hard, long, and well to see God glorified, to see God’s pleasure increase as his kingdom springs up all around the planet.
This is a pleasure—a gift for which I’m too rarely grateful, too seldom cognizant.
2. Life Beginning Among a New People
Many of us in the Missions Catalyst tribe mobilize people toward the ends of the earth, the unreached or unengaged peoples. We could pick easier things to do, right? Ah, but when it works, when the gospel begins to take hold in a new place, what a joy!
I remember sharing a story from the life of Jesus with a young Gambian guy who’d had no real previous interaction with the Bible. His wide-eyed, “There’s something about Isa” comment will probably stay with me to my death.
3. Joining Friends on Their Journey
Sometimes in Perspectives classes I’ll challenge students to tell me what they’re good at and I’ll tell them where they might contribute to reaching unreached peoples. I do that to pull the veil off their imaginations, to enable people to see in new ways the way God loves them and plans to employ them in his kingdom work.
I love to help people take their next step. Can you relate?
Occasionally we’ll really connect with someone or some family and get to watch, even participate, as their journey unfolds. That’s like drugs to me. I have friends who’ve served in North Africa, Turkey, and Italy at my direct invitation. They’ve filled my heart with hope and joy.
4. Love Beyond Boundaries
One of the many lessons embedded in the masterful story of the good Samaritan is God’s desire for us to love beyond those near us and like us. For mission mobilizers, this is part and parcel of our calling and our work. God’s glory and compassion for those beyond the established church motivate us in ways far superior to targeted triumphalism.
If we’re lucky, as we learn to love people far different from us and advocate for their best in God, we’ll realize in fresh ways how thoroughly God loves us.
Of course, this “loving those unlike me” can be hard work, frustrating, demoralizing, and sometimes apparently without fruit. But it’s a good work, both in the effect on the loved and the growth of the lover. It’s good for our souls, a gift really, to practice obeying the second greatest command. (Tweet this.)
5. Fresh Perspective
Whenever we learn about another people or culture in our efforts to advocate for them, our own hearts and minds are shaped and developed.
My work in recent years to mobilize church-planting efforts among Muslim migrants in Sicily has given me a chance to see in the smallest way how Sicilians view their island’s immigration situation. This, in turn, helps me understand how people in my own country, even my own church, view immigration.
My time mobilizing in Holland helped me see how differently Dutch people see the world than I do. This has challenged my thinking in areas of tolerance, cooperation, and frugality.
I’m particularly grateful for the many Arab, Indian, and Southeast Asian cultures that have impressed on me biblical truth regarding community and hospitality.
My mind is a happier, more interesting playground for having enjoyed the gifts of many diverse cultures. Yours, too?
6. Fantastic Food
Of particular note are the culinary gifts mobilizers receive. I would happily take seconds of almost everything someone from a different culture has ever given me. From the mango drinks a kind Arab shop keeper in Illinois shared with my kids to the watermelon in a Palestinian refugee camp… from baklava in a Turkish village to the South Asian feast an international student made for my family after he’d returned to America with his new wife. Ah, but God’s kindness has come through the food shared by many.
There may be no better way to introduce someone to a people group than to buy them some of their food! This is the mobilizer’s secret weapon. And of course, it’s rude to expect someone to eat alone! (Tweet this.)
7. Freedom to Dream
Here’s one of my favorite dreams: What if we prayed the Lord’s Prayer, asking, “May your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven,” and God said, “Yes. I’m down for that! I say ‘Yes’ to that prayer!” What does it look like? How does it come about?
I sure don’t have all the answers, but I love that my job involves dreaming about them.
This is a gift, isn’t it? To give your mind and your time (at least some of it) to dreaming about how God will accomplish his purposes for our planet?
I’m currently wondering about what kingdom opportunities will open up in Syria. As I pray for peace, I look forward to days when the displaced will begin to return home, when reconstruction money will start to pour in, when thoughtful, loving Jesus-people from all over will give the best of their strength to come alongside and care for Syrians.
It’s going to happen, you know, this completing-the-Great-Commission thing. One day it will be done. Jesus would not have asked us to do it if that weren’t so. What a joy that we get to be a part.
Our feeds and inboxes are full of news about COVID-19. But how is the global Church responding? Read our roundup of stories. Find resources for church and ministry leaders. Pray on.
By Shane Bennett