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20-somethings struggling with missions

Jimmy McCarty wrote this insightful post on missions and 20-somethings:   I just finished a session with the racers on “Culture and Evangelism.”  What I’ve learned in the past 9 camps is that we always come up against the same issues.   Frankly, my generation is TERRIFIED of the m…
By Seth Barnes
Jimmy McCarty wrote this insightful post on missions and 20-somethings:
 
I just finished a session with the racers on “Culture and Evangelism.”  What I’ve learned in the past 9 camps is that we always come up against the same issues.
 
Frankly, my generation is TERRIFIED of the message we believe. 
 
We’re afraid of being rejected, disliked, offensive, looking stupid, not having all the answers, feeling ignorant, misrepresenting God, saying something wrong, steering someone the wrong way, making a mistake, disappointing people, disappointing our leaders, missing an opportunity, having things be us instead of God and not knowing the difference, of trying something new, of not liking where we end up, of feeling trapped, of getting caught up in a mediocre encounter at the exact moment the “big opportunity” comes around, of being associated with an organization that teaches something we don’t completely understand and if we DID understand it, we would discover we don’t agree.
 
If fear wasn’t enough to keep us from sharing the hope we embrace or the relationship we have with the Father, pride, ego and insecurities round out this wonderful family of justifications for our inaction.  I define pride as “considering yourself before anything else.”  Arrogance is the promotion of our self in comparison to other things.  But insecurity is inaction due to a preservation of ourselves before considering the best for others. 
 
Either way, there’s no place for fear or pride in what God’s ultimately called us to do.
 
The way I put it: we are more than just friendly travelers.  The world is full of those.  We’re missionaries, we’re God’s chosen.  In fact, we’re plan A… and there is no plan B.  WE have been entrusted with the nations and message of truth.
 
A Cambodian monk once indignantly asked me why we were so lucky to have Christianity when the people of his country suffered for generations without it… and that it, quite frankly, wasn’t fair.
 
You know what?  He was right.  I had no answer other than… “well… I’m here now, can we talk?”
 
It’s not God’s fault the nations haven’t been reached…He entrusted them to us.

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