Missions Misunderstood

A key part of our ministry is building relationships with the people God brings to us. God has often used us in ways similar to His use of Joseph in the Old Testament. Not so much in the "Pharaoh-naming-us-Vice-Pharaoh" sort of way; more in the sense of "I had a dream, what do you suppose it means?"

Our friends often confide in us concerning their struggles, fears, and dreams. This confidence gives us the opportunity to speak into their lives from (what we hope is) God's perspective. Like Joseph, we try to give God the credit for any insight we might have to share.

One thing that strikes me about Joseph's story, and about ours here in Western Europe, is that God doesn't always communicate by speaking truth to His people and sending them to tell other people that truth. Sure, that is a common occurrence throughout history (God told Moses to tell another Pharaoh..., God told Jonah to tell the people of Nineveh, all the prophets, etc.) But here, God reveals truth to Pharaoh, who in turn seeks out God's man for some help in interpreting that truth.

Joseph had built a reputation (at least in the cupbearer and baker communities) as someone who could interpret dreams. God used that to put him in a position to speak to Pharaoh. Many of the conversations we're having now are not resulting in individual salvations or churches being planted. Instead, they are being used to build our reputation as God's people in this culture.

"You want to know who has some insight into that sort of thing?" I imagine them saying behind our backs, "you need to talk to those believers."

God is revealing truth to them. Within the culture there is a great conversation about these truths- life, death, guilt, love, peace, justice. These are deeply spiritual issues that aren't being forced on them by outsiders. Unfortunately, like Pharaoh, the people of Western Europe do not recognize that the truths they struggle with have been revealed to them by the Most High God, the Author of all truth. That's where we see God using us; people are asking us for our opinions about life-changing truths.

Research and immersion put us in a position to recognize and call attention to truths in the culture. Relationships put us in a position to participate in the conversation. I like to think of it as "Prophecy by Proxy."