Missional. It's one of those "Christian Buzz Words" like "Jesus Follower" and "Community." They all evolved out of a need to recapture the meaning of another word that was being over/misused. Unfortunately though what happens sometimes is that they become a kind of sign. "Cool church ahead!"
To be fair I like the word "missional". It simply means our every action is should further God's great mission in His Kingdom. And it was built on a solid Biblical foundation--Jesus' words in Matthew 6:33 "But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you."
Yet like the other buzz words I fear that much of its impact has been lost in our hashtag culture. The grand visions-defeating addiction, stopping hereditary poverty, saving orphans and solving the refugee crisis-are too big for one ordinary person to tackle. We live in a world that seems to imagine that a FB like, a retweet, a pin, or hashtag promotion is the answer. I like awareness as much as the next blogger (IE a lot), but I am not fooling myself. When in the parable the Lord was asked, "Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink?" He did not reply ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you included my hashtag, you did it to Me" (Matthew 25:37-40).
Why is this on my mind? Let me share some pictures with you.
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In Kenya, in the Maasi region, there is a terrible drought. Simply put the rains did not come in their season and as a result animals, crops, and people are dying.
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| The church in Leboo
In this same part of Kenya there's a church. In the picture above they have a couple of guys from the Commerce church of Christ in Texas stopping by to visit with them. They've been providing funding for buildings etc. for the last few years.
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| The children at school |
That church answered God's call to take care of the fatherless, and late last year opened its doors to 42 orphan children. They built a Christian school for them and for the local children to attend.
A school, a church, an orphanage and a drought. What does that add up to? Well in the words of their evangelist, Nathan Oloumu...
"The great challenge that we face here as a community is the lack of water. There are no wells in several villages. People will walk for over 7 Kilometers to get to the nearest water source. As for the orphanage will need help to get a well and also get tanks to harvest the rain water." (Read his full statement here)
A well is expensive business. The one Mr. Oloumu is working on to provide care for these children and his village will cost 18,000 dollars (see detailed invoice here). It is not meant to only alleviate the current drought but provide a convenient and safe source of water for years to come.
Which brings us full circle back to grand visions and "missional" life.
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My local congregation is partnering with Mr. Oloumu and the Commerce church in Texas to raise money towards that 18,000. Our local church is small and not wealthy, but we raised more than a 10th of the price in a single Sunday of giving. And with an active GoFundMe we are hoping to give others an opportunity to participate.
How could you help?
You can give a little money. There is no overhead here, no sense of paying for administrators or offices. You are buying water for orphan children. And not bottled water that will run out next week but the supply of water they will need to grow up strong and healthy. Find our GoFundMe here.
You can also get the word out. I know that social media will not change the world. But we aren't raising awareness here, we are trying to find enough Christians to solve a real problem. I have reached out on all my outlets (including this one now!) to the Christians I know. Can you do the same?
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