The following post is an excerpt from a book “God’s Relentless Pursuit: Discovering His Heart for Humanity” written by Phil Strout, the Senior Pastor of the Vineyard in Lewiston, Maine. Phil will be at the Vineyard gathering in Bali later (Nov) this year and is slated to speak at the conference on the topic, “Servanthood, Humility and Relationships of a Leader”.

In scripture, God issued an invitation to the entire nation of Israel, an invitation to not only become missional people but to walk with a missional God.

He says, “It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also make You a light of the nations so that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” Isaiah 49:6

The people of Israel are God’s people, and his mission becomes their mission. Israel was chosen out of the sovereign purposes of God, not because they were better than others, but to fulfill his purposes. It was for the benefit of people everywhere. God chose them not because there was something already special about them, but so they could draw others to him.

When talking about what God is doing in our lives and what the purpose of our life is, we have to remember that we are on a mission with God. He’s on a mission; therefore, as his people, we are on his mission.

The Missional Life of Jesus
When Jesus says in John 5, “My father is at work” and “The Son can do nothing of himself”, he didn’t mean that he was immobile or inactive. He meant that he, just like you and me, couldn’t do anything on his own power that would have eternal consequences. We can be extremely active. In fact, activism could be one of the biggest problems we have in the mission world. Without discovering what the Father is doing, we have no power behind our actions. Jesus modeled this concept and taught it. He said, “We can only do what we see the Father is doing.” When we do that, our actions have divine authority with them.

After attending one of my first Vineyard conferences and listening to many stories by the speakers about how they experienced the in-breaking of God into everyday life, I was flying back to the East Coast and thought, “I’ve read this in a book and heard people talking about this, so I might as well give it a crack.”

As I put my luggage up and began buckling up, I realized the woman on the plane next to me was clearly communicating that she wasn’t interested in talking. As I attempted to engage her in a conversation, she strongly resisted. I remember praying a little prayer and asking the Lord to show me the secrets of her heart. Almost immediately the name “Mark” popped into my mind and I was curious to see if this was something God was telling me. I asked her if the name “Mark” meant anything to her. She looked at me stunned and began to tear up. Within a few seconds, the tears were popping out and gushing down her face. Then she began quizzing me how I knew about Mark. I told her that the Lord told me and that he wanted her to know that he cares about her. As it turned out, Mark was her nephew and his parents were getting a divorce. And this woman was broken-hearted over the way it was affecting Mark. Needless to say, from then on, we had some great conversation for the rest of the plane ride.

We need to understand this fact: God really likes showing us what he is doing. There is a peace in knowing what he is doing and participating with him. We’re on his mission, not our mission looking for his blessing. As a missional people, we are not commissioned to go out and do what we think God wants done, but we are to do what he is doing.

Discovering God at Work
Once while I was speaking at a missions seminar in Boise, Idaho, a woman bubbling with joy came bounding up to me between sessions. She could hardly wait to tell the story of her friend Jane that explicitly demonstrated what was just taught during the previous session.

Standing in line at the supermarket, Jane was waiting for her turn until it was time to check out. She had no idea that she was about to enter a life-altering situation for an unsuspecting woman. While Jane stood patiently in line, the young woman in front of her emptied her basket and waited for the total from the cashier, which came to a total of $45.10. Immediately, the young woman began rifling through her purse and quickly became flustered: she couldn’t find her debit card and her wallet had no cash.

Jane observed the situation and offered assistance. She told the clerk, “Put those groceries on my check!” The young woman turned to Jane and said, “Why are you doing that? People don’t do things like that!”

“Well, I go to a really cool church and we do that. We try to change the world and make a difference by doing simple acts of kindness. And I want to do this for you,” Jane said.

Stunned by this kindness, the young woman turned around and loudly began announcing to the rest of people in the checkout area what Jane had done, much to Jane’s embarrassment. Once Jane finished buying her groceries, the young woman walked her out to her car. She asked Jane where she went to church because she wanted to attend. The young woman said she didn’t know anyone who would have done such a thing — and she wanted to visit a church made up of people who would.

Now, here’s my question: Was Jane out doing grocery shopping evangelism? Or was Jane out among the “stop signs of life” and recognized God at work. Jane recognized that mission isn’t something you go and do as much as it is being opportunistic in sharing the Gospel. Jane was being missional without even trying.

Joe Fifth Pew
Over the last several years, a young man (we’ll call him Joe) from my church in Maine has taken part of his vacation every spring to go on a prayer tour to Spain. Joe was saved in the early 1990s and had what you might call a pretty radical salvation. But the interesting thing about this guy is that he’s very quiet. You would not consider him a public speaker or a man with a public persona. However, he was very much arrested by the Lord.

Hearing about a group of churches from New England that was going to Spain to pray for direction and vision on planting churches there, Joe volunteered to go. Upon his conversion, Joe had a pretty serious encounter with the Lord that helped him realize his own gifting. The Lord led him to be a part of this prayer tour and Joe obeyed without hesitation. Upon returning from his second trip, he came to my office and said, “We don’t pray for Maine and our home church like we do for Spain. We pray with passion and intercede for Spain, but we don’t do it for our own church.”

I was intrigued by his observations and aggressiveness in the conversation. Joe said the Lord laid it on his heart to pray for our church. He wanted to know if it would be all right if he started a Friday night gathering to pray for our area like we did for Spain. I said, “Of course! If that’s what the Lord has laid on your heart, then go ahead and do it.”

Then Joe dropped a bomb. He said, “I think we’re supposed to pray all night long.” I looked at him with the typical reaction of a pastor who was out five or six nights a week already. I said, “I have one question for you: do I have to come?” He assured me that I did not and said, “I’m going to start recruiting in the church.” I began to wonder to myself how Joe was going to do this when he’s not very outgoing and finds it difficult to strike up conversations with strangers. Joe continued to assure me this was something the Lord laid on his heart. It didn’t take long before I realized God had indeed laid something on Joe’s heart. He quickly gathered some people together; they began an all-night prayer vigil once a week, praying for our church, our city, and our state, as well as the nation of Spain.

Joe has never been to seminary or Bible school. He was a fairly new Christian when he began going to Spain and came back with the burden for an all-night prayer vigil and he knew the Father was doing this with him. He became very committed to praying and interceding for our church. In the past several years, Joe has attended almost every spring prayer trip to Spain, paying his own way and taking his vacation to pray for that country. He’s not what we would consider a professional missionary. He’s who I would call “Joe Fifth Pew.”

Joe represents men and women around the world who work hard for their money and hold down a good job, yet see themselves very much involved with the advancement of the Kingdom of God. In Genesis, we saw God set out on a mission to redeem mankind. But throughout the Word of God and over the expanse of time, God has always used ordinary people.

As you look at people who God has used through the ages, the further we get from them in history, the greater heroes we make of them. We look at them with reverence and awe; we write books about them; we quote their words. But in their own eyes and the eyes of their contemporaries, they probably thought they were common people.

I don’t believe St. Patrick had any idea we would be talking about him today in the 21st century. He knew that he was just a young man from England who had been taken captive and carried to Ireland, but eventually became the patron saint of Ireland. I don’t think he thought, “Someday I’ll be famous because of what I’ve done.” He was actually referred to as the “green martyr” because he never returned to England once he left. During his day, he surely didn’t think of himself as a big person in the history of Christianity.

We need to understand that Joe Fifth Pew or Mary Tenth Row in ABC Church around the world is a missional person. Whether they have a call to go to another country and speak another language, or whether they have a seminary graduate degree or do not have a seminary graduate degree, the fact of the matter is this: if someone is walking with God, he is missional and purposeful in his intent to reach out and touch the heart of all mankind. Therefore, if anyone has a relationship with God, he is a missional person without having to take that on in a professional manner.

Whether your hand grips a hammer, grips a stethoscope, grips a wrench, or pushes a pencil, you may see yourself as a common man or a common woman who wants to grow in your relationship with God; but you’re more than likely one of those hidden heroes of the faith. As the Vineyard’s genetic code says, “Everybody gets to play.”