The first missionary was a crazy man and Jesus has been recruiting crazy people ever since to be missionaries.
What does Jesus do after he cast the demons out of the guy and into the herd of pigs? He tells him, “Go home and tell everything God did in you.” So the guy goes back and preaches all over town. (
Luke 8:39)
That’s how the missions movement works. We’re a mess, God cleans us up, and then asks us to tell everyone about it.
So the only qualifications for being a missionary in my book are that you’re a crazy mess who’s been healed. You’re don’t go with someone else’s story, you go with your own. In John’s book about his experiences with Jesus, after being introduced to the crazy guy, we see two other missionaries, a lame guy and a blind guy. He touches them and the lame guy walks and the blind guy sees. Both of them go away and start telling everyone their story.
The blind guy gets in an argument with the Pharisees. But they can’t argue with his reality: “One thing I know, I was blind but now I see.”
As missionaries we’re going to get in trouble telling somebody else’s story. People will debate someone else’s story. But when you tell your own, their arguments are toothless.
Once our needs have been met, once we’re in our right mind and can see again, we can begin telling our own story. It’s the most natural thing in the world. Some people say, “I don’t have the gift of evangelism.” They don’t need a gift, they just need a story to tell that sounds something like, “One thing I know, I was blind but now I see.”
Perhaps a reason the number of missionaries is declining in America is not that Jesus is no longer healing as some suggest, but that people don’t have their own story of being healed. If you haven’t been a crazy mess, you probably won’t be a good missionary.
Love this!!
You are a crazy dad Seth and getting crazier…
The next time someone calls me a mad man, I’ll smile and say, “You need to meet my father before you conclude.” Love you Sir!!
Well Seth that explains my son Frank to me very well. As I reflect on this blog I realized that we are all a “mess” and Jesus takes us as we are and cleanse us of all our sins. How cool it is to be crazy!! Thanks Frank III
Awesome! I qualify!!!!
Wow! Great post. This one hits home with me as I ponder a totally new direction in my life. I also shared this with a good friend who I know has a great story to share about her life.
Many of us have a great story of what and how God has changed our lives. You are right. We need to share it and help make a difference in our world. I started sharing my story about 19 months ago after 1st returning from Swaziland. He has changed me forever and I am hooked for life to the struggling orphans and widows of Swaziland.
Thanks for sharing and I am going to share this post with many others who I know have a great story to tell.
Seth – I just found your blog recently, and I’m really thankful for it. It seems that the powerful healing we should expect, experience, and attest often gets watered down in America to some form of prosperity theology.
Thanks for your constant encouragement and exhortations here. They’ve been good for me.
If this is true… I should be a great missionary, because I’m a great mess. Thanks for the reminder.
I’m glad to see a few other crazy messes out there. Some days it feels like I’m the only one.
The good news is, I’m at World Race training camp with 200 crazy messes. It’s one of two criteria we have for going on the race. The other is that you’ve got a story about what Jesus did with the mess…
Good morning Seth,
I sent this blog to my dear friend, who is soon to join the family of missionaries in the field. However, her response is so good I thought I’d share it with you.
I sent the link with this note: “ARE YOU?”
Her answer:
Yes I am!!!! I do have a story to tell an can’t wait to go share it. As a starting point, I will start at the office today !!
As I read this I thought, that perhaps your readers might want to be reminded that we are all in this place of mission. We all have a story and we don’t have to go any further than the next person to tell our story. Missions is all around you.
I’m excited for my friend to be released to a life of sharing that story in another country, but she brings up a wonderful truth. We can start today, no matter where we are or what our circumstance. We should all be a little “crazy” about Him.
I must be the greatest missionary ever
Great story bro! Now go die.
“That’s how the missions movement works. We’re a mess, God cleans us up, and then asks us to tell everyone about it.”
Your missing part of the gospel. God did not just clean us up. Our sin was imputed upon Christ and his perfection is imputed on on us through His death on the cross.
To say God just cleans us up is not what the Bible teaches. If He just cleans up there is work for us to do in order to get to heaven.
That is not the case.
Ephesians 2:8
Count me in…..
I love this…so true – the power of telling stories, and living them out, it’s remarkable, and leaves people “toothless” as you said, in the debate of things.
Such a beautiful thing – to be a crazy mess. Yes!
Now I want to be a missionary. The previous picture I had in mind was too nice.
Awesome! true, we jus got to be honest and tell what HE did!
I should rephrase my comment,if being crazy is criteria for being a missionary I feel like Im the craziest
Very true insight! I know I’ve spoken the gospel around the world but it was my story that opened their eyes to who Christ is!! The only way they will ever understand is if they know a tangible God who loves them inspire of failure and sin.