For everyone who was able to participate last Sunday for our end of summer BBQ, we’re glad you could join us! If you brought along a dish, thank you for sharing your delicious food and making our meal special. It was a great time of connecting with friends old and new, to do one of the things that we do best as a Kingdom family–eat together!
Over the past season, the leadership team at LifeSpring has been revisiting our vision for missions. We spent some time in listening prayer and discussion about how God may be leading us in missions over the next season.
Through the process, we landed on this statement: Our Kingdom vision for missions is to model Kingdom family, seek God, and point others to Jesus, for His Name’s Sake.
As I was reflecting on this idea this week, a verse from 1 Peter 4:10 came to mind.
Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.
I think this verse speaks volumes about missions. Missions is about using whatever gifts we have received from God to serve others.
So what gifts do we have that can serve others? What lessons has God taught us that He wants us to apply in the mission field? Our vision above has four parts, and each is a lesson that we’ve learned that I believe God wants us to use to serve others.
First is the lesson of seeking God. At LifeSpring, we’re blessed to have so many talented, skilled, and brilliant people. The danger however in being so capable is the tendency to rely on ourselves. One of the first lessons we’ve learned as a church is the importance of seeking God first. In a phrase – we seek God first, and think second. In missions, we will always seek God first, rather than rely on our own wisdom and strength.
Second is modelling kingdom family. One of the most common comments we hear about our church is that it is like a family. While this is a blessing, we realize that it is also a gift that God wants us to use to serve others. We realized this on the mission field especially. For example, on our trip to Greece last year, we had a chance to spend some time with a young lady who was a refugee. After a few days with her, she said, “I like these people. I want to go back to Canada with them.” Being a kingdom family is a gift that God wants to use to serve others.
Third is pointing others to Jesus. In 2022, we had an opportunity to invest in building seven wells in Benin, Africa. From the beginning however, we knew that we were not doing this for praise or to do a good deed. Rather, we hoped that the wells would point others to Jesus. We hoped that people would benefit from the well, and it would be a reminder of how much Jesus loves them. In missions, we never point to ourselves, but to Jesus.
Lastly, the reason for missions is for His Name’s Sake. Last year we worked with our partners in Uganda to support a mother’s survival program in Rubongi. I was recently on a call and heard from one of the moms in the program. In thanking LifeSpring she said, “I can’t express it because it is what God has done to me, not by my will, not by anyone’s will, but I just thank God for that.” God has brought her out of poverty and into a better life, but not because of our will or even her own, but because God did it for her.
LifeSpring, we are truly blessed to be a blessing. With every lesson that we’ve learned and gift that God has given us, let us use what we’ve received to serve others like in 1 Peter 4:10.
Testimony from mother’s survival program: https://youtu.be/I4KzKhm6Rxk