• Facebook
• Twitter

*Missionaries to Burger King.

If the prayer I prayed the most growing up was the pre-rapture sex prayer...

then the second most requested plea I made to the Almighty as a youth was 'Please do NOT send me as a missionary to Africa'.

The punch line of course was I was born and raised in Africa.

"Don't send me to Africa." We've all been there, prayed that.

Sure there are some freaks who actually WANT to go and live Africa but most of us don't, which is a problem because we're convinced God is hurting for recruits.

We're afraid that the moment we 'surrender' to him, he'll send us packing to the most remote 'goat eating, fig leaf wearing, voodoo practicing, monkeys swinging everywhere, non English speaking' jungles of Africa.

I hate to break it to you but for some, that's true. God's not hurting for recruits but he is asking some of us to trade in your down comforters for some fig leafs.

Others of us are however called to be missionaries in other places.

See what I just did there? I just stuck a missionary name-tag on you when you weren't looking. I'm fast like that.

Every Christian is a missionary.

I'm sorry if you didn't get that memo when you signed up to follow Jesus but it's true. You are a missionary.

What you have to figure out is where God is sending you.

China? Africa? Wal-mart? Key bank? India? Your kids? Your street? Toledo hospital? Africa? Students? The fashion industry? Churches? Fortune 500 companies? Burger King?

Where is God sending you? 

This truth is wrecking me. When you see yourself as sent, it changes the rules.

A job is no longer just a job and...

a missionary to Burger King becomes as important as a missionary to Africa. 

I'm not saying the need or urgency in Africa is same as the need at your fast food joint. 

What I am saying though is, biblically, I believe God is just as concerned with your presence and impact at Burger King as he is with the college student who just moved to work in Liberia.  

I know that sounds weird. Honestly it's hard to type and I keep wanting to delete it. Why? 

Because we’ve built a Kingdom pyramid that puts lay people at the bottom [people with normal jobs], clergy right above them [people who left normal jobs for ministry] then ‘missionaries’ at the very top [super spiritual people who left normal lives for other countries].

Fortunately Jesus didn’t follow that paradigm. His great commission was for everyone. By asking all of us to ‘go’, he made us all missionaries.

The question is do we currently see ourselves as missionaries to wherever we currently are?

If you're like me, this is a completely radical new way of thinking. I hope the following questions will help us engage in fruitful dialogue which will hopefully challenge us to be more intentional missionaries.

Please think REALLY hard about these questions and share your thoughts out loud.

Where has God sent you? Where do you spend most of your day?

What would be different if you start viewing 'that place' as a missions field instead of just a job/pay check generator or obligation?

*Repost