Can you eat? You can be a missionary!

I was reading, ironically enough, Tim Chester's A Meal With Jesus while grilling burgers and in this section he was recounting a number of ways different groups he is familiar with use meals to build bridges and relationships in order to the share the Gospel. What was interesting was that all of them occurred outside of the normal church settings:

These are all forms of mission Jesus would recognize. They are the kinds of events he might have attended. The Son of Man came eating and drinking.


But these are also ways of doing mission that you could do. In one sense none of these meals is anything special. They don't require any special training or a course in apologetics or a grasp of the latest missiological jargon. When you combine a passion for Jesus with shared meals, you create potent gospel opportunities.

(A Meal With Jesus, pg 77)

I love that. Mission is not necessarily or even typically found in the "big" events. We think of Billy Graham revivals or the Lottie Moon offering but often it seems that missionary opportunities are best found all around us and not on Sunday morning. They don't require special training, just a passion for Jesus, an understanding of the Gospel and a willingness to open your life to others. The same is true of fellowship and discipleship in the church. These are perhaps best accomplished outside of church meetings and formal sessions, over a meal or a cup of coffee.

However we meet as the church, we need to get away from the "Sunday morning mindset" and start seeing opportunities for mission, fellowship and community in the glorious mundane that is all around us.