My first exposure to cross-cultural work was when my father was stationed in a NATO country.

When I came to Christ through a Young Life meeting when I was a teenager, I immediately understood that I needed to give my life to making disciples in it, but it wasn’t clear where that should be.

I didn’t really have a a like a deep inner voice telling me you know, go here, go there but I had a voice if you get to call it that a conviction I needed to make disciples, and that would be the purpose of my life

There was a tide of people starting to move towards Muslim people as we increasingly understood how much God loves Muslim people and how negligent followers of Jesus had been.

The general thinking at the time was if the door is closed, then you go through the window. But when you go through the window, people who go through the window are mostly thieves.

We talk about ministry, and we talk about work, and ministry is just another word for service. We distinguish this is a ministry, and this isn’t. And so we think of leading a Sunday school or giving a sermon at church, that’s ministry or doing evangelism in the streets as ministry. And we don’t think of bricklaying as ministry. And I think that’s a fundamental mistake.

We are not saved by our good works, but we are saved to do good works.

The good works of the New Testament just means high quality, morally correct work. It includes everything.

It’s not the work we do that makes it sacred; it’s our mindset. Do we see it as doing it unto God or not?

You never get everyone in the game. You need to get everyone in the stadium in the game. Discipleship and seeing the kingdom of God come to earth as it is in heaven requires everyone to get in the game. It’s not a spectator sport.

It’s not the pastor who’s the point of the spear. It’s the congregation.

The main thing that’s asked of them is to show up on Sunday morning and give a tithe. For most people, that not asking much. And most of us intuitively know there is something more. But the church doesn’t ask that of you. They just say, “Show up on Sunday and give, and that’s enough.” How do we change that?

One of the great parts of being in a missions organization is that you’re in a purpose-driven community that constantly reminds you that we are about making disciples and following Jesus.

We keep our eye out for people of peace by being generous with our invitations: invitations to come join us for coffee, invitations to our friendship, and invitations to discovery Bible studies. We need to tailor our invitations to where they are and not just have one invitation that fits all needs.

By design we are made to work. And we can get hints and get informed about what work he has prepared us for by understanding how he created us.

Wherever you are it’s a frontline. And you have to be careful because Satan is a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. And if you think, oh, I can relax because it’s not dangerous here. Everywhere is dangerous and everywhere is safe at the same time.

What do we actually mean when we say God called me?

Certainly God called them, because I believe everyone is called into making disciples of all nations and that will have many different expressions.

The average missionary who plans to spend his life on the field ends up leaving after seven years.

There are universal callings. We are called to holiness. We are called to bear fruit. We are called to suffer. We are called to peace. We are called to make disciples. There are enough of these universal callings to keep us busy.

I like the term full-on better than full-time. To be full-on for Jesus over a life time is hard to sustain and it’s impossible to do it alone.

His main message was, “Give up your job and do something significant with your life.” He’s basically, unknowingly insulting everybody, saying whatever you are doing is insignificant, but if you join this mission you will somehow find significance. Well, that’s just a lie. 

It’s like, ok, you can choose one of these things and you’ll be part of the great commission. You can either go, or give or pray. While I could contend that if you want to be involved in the great commotion you’ve got to do all three.

Something like 85% of all jobs in North America and Europe are international in scope. Even if you are working for your local municipality, you are likely to meet people from other countries in the course of your work. That wasn’t true 60 years ago but it is today. 

The word missionary is not found in the Bible.

We need to show everyone in the congregation the same honor that we show a visiting missionary. We need to show the local school teacher that they are important to the kingdom of God. And if the local church doesn’t do it, who’s going to do it?