This is the first in a series of three blogs on preparing for mission. 

I always find this time of year quite strange, when we are going in and out of churches and schools, and you hear people speaking of looking forward to summer holidays. Things are beginning to slow down for them and come to an end. They are ready for a couple of months break from their regular ministries. I tend to laugh to myself, as I think how for many of us involved in CEF and other mission organisations, it is the complete opposite. Now is maybe our busiest time. This is our opportunity to reach more kids through Holiday Bible Clubs and camps and 5 Day Clubs while the kids are off.

Maybe you have arranged a packed summer. You’re coming home from a camp one day, to head off on another team the next. For you, summer time is an opportunity to serve God in mission.

But are you prepared? Maybe you’ve been out to the shops and bought a new wardrobe of clothes to wear. You’ve stocked up on all the bits and pieces you need to bring. You have your lessons prepared and all your crafts and games sorted. But what about you yourself? Have you thought about the real reason why you’re doing what you’re doing? What does mission mean to you?

In these next few blogs, we are going to think how we can prepare for mission using our head, our heart and our hands.

Head

For our heads, we want to know why we do what we do. What does the Bible say about mission? What is it all about?

Jesus commanded His disciples in Matthew 28:19–20 (ESV), ‘Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’ As followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, we too are called to fulfil this Great Commission. We are to go and to tell the good news of the Gospel to the nations around us.

If our desire is for people to be saved, then we must go and tell them how. Romans 10:13–14 explains this. For people to be saved, they need to call on the name of Jesus. For them to call on Him, they need to believe He is the One who died for them. For them to believe on Him, they need to have heard of Him. For them to hear of Him, we need to go and tell them about Him.

We explain to children, that if there was a great disease in a town that everyone was dying from, and you were the only person who knew the cure, what would you do? Of course, you would tell them. But yet, many Christians today seem to want to keep the ‘cure for sin’ to themselves. They are guilty of not going out and sharing it with those who need it. Yet, that is the responsibility of Christians, to go and tell those who don’t know about Jesus about how He is the One who can save them.

At some stage in our lives, someone took the time to tell us about Jesus. It may have been our parents, or a Sunday School teacher or a camp leader, or all of the above. We heard the need of a Saviour, and called on Him to be saved. Now, is it not our turn to go and tell the next generation? We must go and tell the unreached the good news of Jesus.