The music swells. All eyes are fixed on the front. The moment has arrived. Now you hear these words: “If anyone is sensing a call to the mission field, would you please stand up so we can pray for you?” Then comes the internal struggle. Am I called? Maybe. What will happen if I stand up? What if God sends me to some place I don’t want to go? What if I miss this moment? Should I stand?

Many who have spent years in the church or who have attended missions conferences (perhaps especially at the college level) have experienced moments similar to this one. They are relatively common, especially throughout North America, and God has powerfully used them to send thousands of missionaries into his harvest fields.

Wonderful as the effects of such moments can be, however, they can also dull our ears. We may come to expect a call to service only in certain settings. Perhaps without realizing it, the Master’s voice, his charge to his people, becomes a distant echo. Our zeal fades, and we settle down again into the established routines of our busy lives — that is, until the church calendar cycles back around to missions week, or we attend another conference.

Such rhythms can characterize much of our lives. To break free generally requires some voice to break in, rousing us from our routines, reminding us that everyone in Christ — from the greatest to the least, whether we’ve learned to think this way or not — is a participant in his mission.

From Garden to Glory

But what is his mission? True participation in any mission requires understanding what the mission actually is. Failure to understand the nature of the work can lead well-intended Christians to focus on labors or projects that are good but ancillary to God’s highest purposes for his people. Thankfully, he has not left us to stumble about in the dark. The whole story of redemption reverberates with God’s design to fill the earth with a people who joyfully reflect the rays of his glory.

God’s mission begins in the garden, when God commissions his newly formed creature — one who bears his own image — to fill and subdue the earth (Genesis 1:28), to reign over God’s created realm as his vice-regents. God tells the man and his wife to multiply so that the whole created realm, filled with image-bearers who know and worship their Maker, would redound with praise.

Of course, mankind spurns that gift and task, seeking to usurp the heavenly throne. But the purpose of God is not thwarted. It continues through his promise to Abra(ha)m, that he would become “the father of a multitude of nations” (Genesis 17:5) and that in him “all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:3). A filled earth, a blessed people — these are God’s intent. The long and plodding path through Israel’s checkered history until the birth of the Messiah only sheds further light on God’s gracious resolve to fulfill his divine purposes, even through characters we might deem ill-suited to the task.

God’s ways don’t change in the era of the new covenant. Jesus chooses a crew of fisherman, tax collectors, zealots, and others — none of whom were part of Israel’s social elite in the first century — to follow and learn from him throughout his earthly ministry. And then, after the resurrection, having received all authority as the new Adam, the perfect image of God, he sends his redeemed and remade followers into the world to “make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19).

‘Am I Called?’

Jesus’s commission brings us back to that special moment during missions week or at the conference. Am I called? The answer is a resounding yes. If you belong to the redeemed people of God, then you have received marching orders. God has given you a glorious purpose: to “proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9).

In the new Adam, you have received royal authority to declare the rule of Christ over all. Like Abraham, you sojourn in a land not your own but to which you bring great blessing. Like Israel, your life is meant to reflect the goodness and wisdom of God. He does not select just a few from among his holy nation to send out — we all share in his work.

Now, does that make you a missionary? Probably not — at least, not in the way we typically use the word today, to describe someone who has been sent by a church to cross cultures for the sake of gospel proclamation. While God sends all his people into the world, we may still be wise to reserve such a term for those whom the church commissions to go out in response to a particular calling by the Spirit (see, for example, Acts 13:2–3).

But that does not mean that those who remain have no part to play. The common call to proclaim the excellencies of God requires all of us to devote our lives to his work in the world. For the majority of believers, that work will take place in the busy routines of daily life among the homes, neighborhoods, and cities where God has currently placed us. And when it comes to the unique missionary task, those who remain have the essential role of supporting the missionaries sent by their local churches, a role that includes financial, practical, emotional, and spiritual service.

Never Not Called

The daily demands and regular routines of life often make it difficult to keep the big mission in view. We have families to feed, deadlines to meet, and relationships to maintain. It is entirely natural for the excitement of inspiring moments to fade quickly.

“Jesus teaches us to start our prayers with an immediate focus on the Father and his purposes in the world.”

And that waning zeal can make it feel as though life’s natural rhythms do not belong to the mission we’ve received. They seem secondary, and hopelessly pedantic, while those who have really been commissioned have the glorious task of serving God abroad. But if we are to remain faithful, we must not forget that we belong to God and that he has given us purpose both here and there — work to do in his world and for the sake of his kingdom. Countless opportunities to participate in his mission await in daily life.

Remembering takes effort. Joining the church for worship with the whole mission in mind — even on the Sundays when cross-cultural missions doesn’t receive any special emphasis — requires that we attend daily to God’s word and seek to understand what he calls us to. What does that effort look like? Consider three practical steps Christians can take daily to bend our lives in further service to our King.

PRAY

Regularly begin your prayers — individually, with your family, and with the church — the way our Lord Jesus taught: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come” (Matthew 6:9–10). Jesus teaches us to start our prayers not with an immediate focus on ourselves but on the Father and his purposes in the world.

Learning to pray like this trains us to “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness” (Matthew 6:33). It prepares our hearts for his service. As we pray for him to bring his kingdom in its fullness, the glory of earthly kingdoms and the luster of temporary riches fade. We recognize their fleeting nature, and our longing to pour out our lives for the sake of eternal good — both in our homes and around the world — grows.

STUDY

The best place to start is with the word of God. Allow the bookends of Genesis 1–2 and Revelation 21–22 to frame everything in between. Learning to read the whole in light of the beginning and the end can help you see how the whole story fits together, why Jesus is at the center of it all, and to what labors God calls his people.

Seek help in your reading, too. Join a Bible study, pick up a good study Bible, find a commentary or two, read (or listen to) works of theology from theologians who are committed to upholding the inerrancy of Scripture and shining a spotlight on the person and work of Christ. You won’t get a good biblical understanding of God’s mission and the work to which he calls you by reading without help.

And don’t study alone. Talk about what you’re learning with fellow believers who will sharpen your thinking. Consider taking that Sunday school class you’ve never thought you had time for. The better you understand God’s purposes and the place he has given you within them, the more prepared you will be to devote your life to his glorious cause.

SERVE

Start serving now. The work is not only out there, but within the home and community in which the Lord has placed you according to his good and sovereign purpose. Teach your children to understand and love God’s great purposes as you learn about them through your own study.

Look for ways to serve your neighbors, remembering that an opportunity to share the gospel might come through something as small as helping them rake their leaves. Seek out opportunities to use your Spirit-given gifts in the local church, no matter how big or small those opportunities may be, recognizing that the triune God has equipped you so that you might build up his church (1 Corinthians 12:4–7). As you serve according to the grace you’ve received, you may discover that opportunities increase and that your joy in serving grows.

And more than likely, as you prepare for this service through study and prayer, you will come to see how even such acts as the gift of a cup of water to the least of these plays a role in the advance of the heavenly kingdom.

‘Follow Me’

Committing your life to the service of the King is dangerous. You may find yourself swept away on an adventure you never expected. Such has been my own experience and that of many others.

If you seek in all things to devote your life to God’s mission, you might find yourself standing up on one of those mission Sundays, getting sent out by the church to proclaim his gospel in a place and among a people you only recently heard of.

But even if not, you will realize that even those not sent to the nations are called to the mission. The words we must learn to hear daily — oh, I pray that you hear them! — are not “Are you sensing a call?” but the far simpler, and much more demanding, words of our Master: “Follow me.”