Connecting life with mission

Christmas is a great opportunity to share the gospel.  But Christmas is also sometimes the most frustrating time to do mission because there is so much else going on; nativity plays, concerts, social engagements, family commitments and so on.  This is all exacerbated by the disconnected way in which we live life.  We often live at a distance to family, meaning time with them is more difficult to crave out because of travel and also less possible to do spontaneously.  If you live three hours drive away from family you can't just drop in, or come over for dinner.

Many of us also work at a distance from where we live.  Increasingly people work in different towns or cities from where they live commuting for 30-90 minutes is not abnormal.  That is often hailed as a good thing enabling professionals, especially in caring professions, to keep their distance from those they are involved with.

Because travel is so easy many people now commute not just to work and to see family but to church.      A 20 minutes plus drive to church is not unusual.  And tragically for many, especially in the North, they have no other option.

But here's my concern.  If we don't live and work and do church in an area will we really see it as our mission field?  My experience would lead me to believe that people don't really engage in mission unless they live in the area you are trying to reach.  Instead they see it as the mission field of those who do live in that area.  I wonder too if people disengage from mission at work if they commute any distance because realistically any friend they get into conversation with is unlikely to travel to come to church with them.  (Though recently we've had a work colleague drive 40 minutes to church twice because of how positive someone from church has been about his church family).

And honestly the distances people live from the church do make it more difficult to be involved.  If you add an hours commute to church then doing church twice on Sunday is a bigger commitment than someone who walks 5 minutes each way.  If you commute to church, attending prayer meeting or Bible study also becomes more of a commitment midweek.  Yet many people are choosing to commute to church.  And evangelistically that makes mission more difficult, are your neighbours and friends going to do the hour round trip to come to church that you do?  Unlikely, so again by living at a distance are you subconsciously opting out of mission or out of church?

Imagine instead if everyone in your church family lived in the community you were trying to reach.  If everyone lived on the mission field.  It's funny how we expect missionaries to move but we rarely consider it.  Imagine the multiple opportunities for discipleship, for involvement, for evangelism, for shared friendships that display the gospel.