You're a what?

Usually thinking about missionaries leads a person's mind to wander down a path that leads to a place located across at least one large body of water. Somewhere just outside Chicago, Illinois isn't exactly a traditional missionary destination. But it is a place in need of missionaries, and that's why we're here.

It seems that almost every week there is a new statistic released that trumpets massive changes in the way Americans view and practice Christianity. Whether you've seen these statistics or not, you may sense that things aren't quite the same as they used to be. You hear grim reports about youth leaving church once they go off to college. You can't put your finger on why, but it doesn't seem that Christianity has quite as much of an influence on our culture as it used to. You hang out with people who are as interested in showing up at church as they are in dusting. Your experiences and statistics indicate that we are increasingly a nation in need of missionaries.

There are many good churches in the United States making a great impact on the people and communities they serve, but there are also an increasingly large number of people who won't ever step through the door of one of these churches. To reach these people, there have to be those who will approach our culture as missionaries--going to people where they are and being the presence of Christ with them.

This kind of missionary takes time and patience, which is a bit of stretch for me because I tend to have a solid impatient streak.
You can ask anyone in the group I pastored in Denver--if something didn't work in three months (or sometimes one) I wanted to change it. This constant change made it difficult for people to discern what that group was about and didn't give any of our strategies time to succeed.

Now God has taken us from that ministry to one that requires even more patience (do you think he's trying to tell me something?). When a missionary goes into another country, they don't expect to see converts and have a thriving church in a few months. They know that their work, if it is done right, will take a long time. It takes them years to develop relationships, see people put faith in Christ, and teach them what it means to be missionaries as well. Though the context is different, our work is really no different. If we want to reach people who have no interest in going to church, we need to take a long time to listen, be with them, and understand how the gospel is best communicated to them.

When we came here I hoped to see massive impact in the first few months, but I'm learning that's not a missionary pace. The work is intense, and being missionaries has required a huge adjustment in how we live, but if we really want to reach people we have to have a wider lens. I am training myself to think in terms of three years rather than three months. And Michelle gives me a gentle reminder of that every time I talk about changing something.

Go Read Some Other Blogs

A couple of the board members have posted about some aspect of the board meeting on their blogs.

For a nice, long (but worth it) video of a talk by Michael Frost see Cory's blog.

For a more laid back, picture tour of the time with the board go to Mariam's blog.

The First of the Board Meetings

On Monday and Tuesday of this week we had our first annual meeting of the Board of Directors. The Board of Directors plays an important part in setting the direction of Infuse and provides accountability for our direction. It's amazing the cross-section of people God has blessed us with in this group.

Mark is a youth pastor at South Suburban Church in Littleton, Colorado.
Mariam is a doctoral student at St. Andrews in Scotland.
James works with Kingdom Advisors in Atlanta, a Christian financial organization.
Cory works at Christianity Today and is a part of Infuse here in Aurora.

I am really excited about what the next year holds for us and the vision God has given. These people all played an important role and we're thankful for their commitment!

Michelle's Thoughts on the First Three Months in Aurora

Moving to Aurora was one of the hardest steps of faith I have taken in my life. We are in a place where we hardly know anyone and we do not have the community of faith we have had virtually our whole lives. It has been a hard move for our family both relationally and financially. It is hard to meet people when you are a stay at home mom with two small children and you are not attending a traditional church. This has been a struggle in a lot of ways, but also a blessing as we are realizing what it takes to be misssional. If we had stayed in Denver our established friendships might have hindered us since we wouldn't feel the same urgency to meet people. I am desperate to meet other moms so I have created two moms groups in order to develop some life-long friendships as well as minister to people.

My first group is a playgroup on Wednesday mornings, we have around 5 moms that attend and we let our children play and we talk. Isaiah and Ayla love it because they have friends to come over again, and I love to be able to be with other moms. The women are each unique and a gift. This past meeting I felt so encouraged as there were some beginning discussions about church and life. I am already learning tons about the women and look forward to serving them. I also recently started a moms' night out group that is purely to really converse with other moms. Our first meeting is this week and I am very excited to see how God uses this as well! Thinking about my groups, it is a real eye opener how people are yearning for
relationships. People truly need people, that is how God has created us. These two groups are not "it" in terms of being missional. We are missionaries. We are trying to meet people wherever we go (Starbucks, scrapbooking, grocery stores, etc.) and changing our mindset to be open to how God might use us. It is a challenge in many ways to be here, especially being away from the deep relationships we had in Denver, but also good since it forces us to be our in our world, loving people as He does.