One thing that I hear too often are marketplace workers from North America who live and work abroad but their home church does not see this as an mission endeavor. They believe somehow that unless they are sent by an agency then they are not true missionaries. What an incredible opportunity for the church to extend it’s mission reach through their marketplace people.

We need more marketplace people living intentional abroad.  How can you as a church mobilize, equip and commission your members?

Look beyond people who sense a calling to vocational missionary service. We need these people as well.

But, look at the possibilities of your college study abroad students, artists, teachers, second career people to live abroad in a strategic way. These people need to be seen as missionaries without using that title. They may not be able to be put on the church’s website or on the church’s wall of fame but they can be prayed for, supported in a variety of ways. They can be involved in your church’s mission strategy. They can partner with on the ground workers as opportunities present themselves. I believe it is going to take a shift in thinking of many pastors to see this pathway develop. It is going to take a shift in mission agencies and their leadership to make clear avenues for marketplace ventures to develop.

Just last week I had a great phone conversation with a young man who works for a global company. He and his wife are talking with their church about overseas service. They are praying about where that could be. Their church is walking with them in this process of sending. They are not looking towards the traditional mission sending route. He is asking for a transfer. Awesome!

If your church has marketplace people living and working overseas and being the salt and light then please remember them also!

In 2008, Pastor Nathan and his family felt a calling from God to plant a church in a metropolitan area to reach young adults and families with the Gospel message.  In 2010, a team of 28 other people caught the vision to “Spark a Revolution of Life Change through Jesus”.  They left their jobs, graduated college, and moved from all over the Southeast and even as far as Naples, Italy to all land in Winston-Salem, NC.  The official launch happened in Feb. of 2011 and the church was called REVO.

Members of REVO church involved in a community project

REVO church wanted to be missional from day one.  Ingraining the missional heart of God into His sent community of believers.  One of the ways we gauge our sentness, or missional DNA, is to measure how much time we spend in the community.  In 2011, REVO church accumulated over 6,500 volunteer hours! Adopting a scorecard that focused on how we as a church spent our time in the community was crucial for developing a foundation for local missions and a compassionate heart for our city.

At just over a year old, REVO church is also committed to bringing the Gospel to the Nations.  The commandment and responsibility to take the Gospel to the Nations in the Great Commission was given to the local church, as the sent missionary, with the understanding that the timeline was “both…and”.  Not, “first local…then 5 years later International”.  That’s why in June of 2012, REVO church will be taking its first vision trip to a closed communist country to partner with a team of national church planters with the intention of a long-term partnership.

Another way we hope to accomplish the task of getting the Gospel to the Nations is by being a sending church.  Meaning that we will continually be devoted to sending out our best people to go and live cross-culturally in order to share the Gospel with those who lack access to the Gospel.  Just this past Sunday, (April 15^th) one of our small group leaders sat down with me to tell us that she’s praying through moving to Africa.  God is answering our prayers to use his local church as a launching pad and training ground for the Nations.

It’s my prayer that God would continue to use the local church to live intentional, incarnational lives, realizing that we have inherited the same sentness of Jesus (John 20:21) for His kingdom purpose of getting the Gospel to all nations.

By Paul Davidson

You can check out their church here: www.discoverrevo.com

One day for lunch we ate at a Moroccan restaurant. Another day we at a Thai place.  We had Spanish tapas one evening. We ate at a Somali restaurant for lunch on Saturday. One group ate at a Chinese restaurant for lunch.  We even found a Pakistan restaurant.

Great food. Great experiences. Great conversations.

I was amazed at how many different types of restaurants were in this relatively small area. Many of these very people groups live in and around this part of Dallas. I have been thinking about the implications of Acts 1:8. Is it “Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the ends of the earth” all at the same time?

The world has moved next door!

How do we respond?

Once I felt God leading me to pursue a teaching job, I learned I needed a masters in education in order to qualify for the job and I had my eye on one specific school. I began working on my masters online before my term ended and knew I would have to go back to the states for 6 months for classes. I had the idea of asking if I could do my required student teaching in the targeted school in Milan. This would be a benefit to both them and me and would also allow me to get my foot in the door for a position next year. Three days before my term ended and I got on a plane to go back to the states the school accepted me as a student teacher and prepared everything for my visa to come back. During my 6 months in the states I took intensive classes and raised support for the first year as an unpaid student teacher. I came back to Milan in August of 2011 absolutely stunned by the faithfulness of the Lord and the ways he provided for my every need. After a very difficult first year of teaching, I found myself not only facing the challenges of the first year and learning a completely different system but also being thrown into an entirely Italian environment in which I had to operate all day long as a professional in another language. I can say I have seen yet another depth of the Lord’s sustaining faithfulness. I was told several months ago that they are happy with my work and want me to stay. They are giving me a work contract with a sustaining salary and are taking care of all of the requirements for the work visa!

Because of all of this, I have loved my life as a “normal person.” It has changed everything both for me personally and in my ministry. For me personally, being legitimately and authentically on the same “rhythm” as everyone else has completely changed my view of “contextualization.” Contextualization is no longer something that I have to be intentional in doing I AM part of the context. I feel their pain and joy. I am one of them — not just pretending to be or trying to be.

I feel like it has been an answer to prayer for me spiritually as well. Though I do see a place for vocational ministry and know that God calls us to different things, I noticed in my personal walk with Christ as a missionary that the gospel became my job. It tragically became something I “sold.” If I were a banana salesmen who focused all day on selling bananas, the last thing I would want to do at night would be to sit down and eat a plate of bananas. Though I knew it should not be like this for a missionary — and with many I know it is not — I found that the lines between my categories of work and the truth that changed everything in me often got blurred. Now I live in Milan, Italy as a person who has been radically changed and transformed by the gospel of Christ, placed in community with others, and has the privilege of being part of God’s mission to glorify himself on the earth. I cannot help but testify, NOT because it is my job, but because it is my life.

My work is a means in which I can pursue excellence and glorify my creator who does all things well. It is a place where I have both influence and connection with many people on a daily basis. I cannot express how much easier building relationships has been. The first question someone asks you after “what is your name” is almost always “where do you work.” When I say I teach high school history and philosophy at a Collegio they immediately understand, identify, and connect with me. My relationships have easily doubled both in number and in depth since becoming a tentmaker. God is also moving inside my school as I have two colleagues specifically that I am having intense conversations with on a daily basis and in whom I see a deep hunger. One of them is very close to coming to the Lord!

With my free summer this year I will be taking a group of 5 young people from my Church back to the states to do an internship in my Church. We are going to use the time to glean, be encouraged, and grow both individually and as a group. We will also be discussing how we want to implement what we learn for the project of a daughter plant that will come out of our Church here in Milan.

By his grace and not my own merit, abilities, or strength, God has given me the blessing of living a transformed life that is daily dependent on the cross amongst the Milanese.

If you are like Amber and want to be in community with people in the global marketplace, consider joining the Skybridge Community. It’s a great place to talk about common issues one faces as they work abroad and live for the Kingdom.

I really like what I read about  Aquila and Priscila in scripture. God used these marketplace workers in some special ways.  They were tentmakers. Paul writes about them several times. Luke also mentions them in the book of Acts.  The key for me in how these marketplace workers lived their lives was that they lived with intentionality.

As marketplace workers, their intentionality was crucial. No matter where they lived, they were engaged in the work of the gospel.
They were coworkers with Paul in Christ Jesus. (Romans 16:3)
They risked their lives for Paul. (Romans 16:4)
The church was extremely grateful for  them. (Romans 16:3)
They assisted Paul in Ephesus.  (Acts 18:18-28)
They hosted a church in their own home.(1 Cor. 16:19, Romans 16:3-5)
They instructed Apollos privately to help him to learn more about Jesus. (Acts 18:26)

John Polhill writes in the The American Commentary of Acts “Here is a perfect example before us – by Christians like Aquila and Priscilla traveling the routes of trade and commerce and carrying their faith wherever they went,” (p. 283, The New American Commentary, Acts)

When you get a chance today say a prayer for these men and women who work internationally. They have awesome opportunities to share their faith as where they work, live and play.

Thinking of going into missions? Why not pray that God will open the doors for a transfer with your company to live abroad.

Recently I was having a conversation with a Skybridge Community member (www.skybridgecommunity.net) who served effectively with a mission organization in Europe. This person transitioned from being a full time Christian ministry worker to a marketplace worker. Here is what they said that really stuck with me.

“I  am part of Skybridge because I  am completely sold on encouraging and empowering this kind of “non-missionary missionary.” Marketplace professionals who are fulfilling their call to missions through their careers and choose to live in Europe, on purpose.”

I believe there are thousands of marketplace workers like this. People whom God has strategically placed in this world.

In her book, Tentmakers, author Ruth Siemens writes this about life on the mission field:

”The secular job is not an inconvenience, but the God-given context in which tentmakers live out the gospel in a winsome, wholesome, nonjudgmental way, demonstrating personal integrity, doing quality work and developing caring relationships.” (Siemens, Tentmakers, D-247)

Turks moving to Germany
Algerians to France
Moroccans to Spain
Chinese students to the USA
Iranians to Sweden

The list could go on and on and on.

This year one of my blog themes will be to discover people like this and tell their story. I hope my readers will do a few things with these post.

- Share these stories with their pastors. Pastors need to hear stories like this so they can empower and release their congregation to the marketplace here and abroad. They need to see how these marketplace workers are a strategic part of proclaiming the gospel to the nations.

- Most importantly I hope these will be an encouragement and challenge to you as the reader that as a follower of Christ you can be salt and light as this worker is, and you can do it in a any where in the world.  As we process a call to missions, we often think that we have to quit our day jobs. What if we first thought about how we can keep our jobs and get a transfer?

Due to the nature of my job I am traveling constantly. I feel like I actually live between two continents. So as I read the news and listen to people talk I am troubled by something. I know that illegal immigration is an issue. I am all for being legal. It is something that I highly value as I live overseas. We go to great lengths to stay current and legal. It is important for a lot of reasons.

Here is a thought though. I feel like I need to love our immigrant population just as much as I am concerned about their legal status here.

Silence fell in the room but I think the point was taken. If we let the media influence us we can become dangerously close to having hatred stir up in our hearts against foreigners who live among us. I do not think this is something that should happen. If we do then we miss opportunities to live out the Great Commission in our own neighborhood.

If you have ever lived overseas and you are trying to learn a new language then you know what I mean.

going to the bank

going to the doctor

going to government office building

not being able to read the labels at the store

when the phone rings and it is a local call

All of these can be stressors in a foreign setting.

They can create anxiety in the life of the foreigner.

I also have much more compassion with the person who is from another country that now lives in the states.  Have you ever offered your help to them in the store or in another situation?  This type of love for our neighbor can go a long way in gospel presence.

I want to try to do some posts on this topic but I need to start out with one that is just funny to me and really is not that profound. One of the first things we did when we returned  back to the states for this 12 month sentence was to join the cheapest gym around. The one we joined had a great deal so we joined. It also has a steam room, sauna and whirlpool. That for sure was a plus. My favorite part of the work out is rewarding myself with some steam room time and whirlpool time. So over these last three months I have made some interesting observations about the steam room.

Three of my list of five I would have never thought belonged in a steam bath but I see this all of the time. These things make me go “hmm”

1. One guy always wears his eyeglasses in the steam room. Should I be surprised when he tripped on the way out the door last time?

2. Another guy (this is not the same guy with the glasses) brings his paperback novel into the steam room. I guess it is a steamy novel (bad joke). It seems to me the life of that book will not be very long.  I sure would not want to buy that book used on Amazon. Do they have a special category for that? Used and in poor condition due to the steam bath? I keep wondering if it gets to be hard turning the pages after 10 minutes in the steam room but he keeps on reading. Speaking of, how can one read in a steam room? Is it not too steamy to read?

3. I see all kinds of people texting and listening to the iphones in the steam room. Are iPhones really made for that kind of use? Will       Applecare cover steam room use?

The next two are a bit more cultural.

4. Clothes seem to be required in the steam room here in the states. I must admit that is a little different than Europe.

5. People do not seem to say “hola”, “guten tag” or even “hello” or “hey” when they enter. They never say “goodbye” either.  It did take a little getting use to in Europe to always say hello and good bye in a sauna but they do it there.  “Hellos” and “goodbyes” are important culturally there even in a private space. I am learning here that maybe I do not need to talk to everyone who comes in.

More soon.

It is a good book especially for existing  churches exploring becoming more missional in their orientation. One of the conversations we have been having as a family this summer has to do with blessings.

How do you bless a person?

I have heard  various people talk about ways they do this. One church tries to get their members to bless three people a week. So they break it down:

1) Bless another person in the community,

2) Bless a person who is not yet a believer.

3) Bless someone you do not even know.

It might be a good way for a church to make that a normal behavior.  You need to figure out if that works for you or not. As we talked about this as a family we really tried to dive into how we can bless a person? What does that look like?

• Being generous
• Praying specifically for them
• Doing something meaningful for them

The list could go on but that was a good start for us. We decided it needed to be something that was as natural and normal as possible and that having a list would not be the best way to practice this for us. (I am the main list person in the family, grin)

But something happened along the way…

This summer we have been on home assignment. I am doing my job but doing it from Knoxville, Tennessee instead of Europe. While I miss Europe I am trying my best to get plugged into our community here. An interesting thing has happened to us while here this summer. We have been amazingly  blessed. We have been the recipients of some friends who have intentional decided to bless us in numerous ways.

It was  undeserved. It was a surprise. It felt amazingly good.

Sometimes I have  struggled in  receiving a blessing. I would prefer to give.  But my eyes have been opened at how God uses others to bless us.

Thank you friends.

How do you do at receiving a blessing?

How important is blessing to living a missional life?