As a little girl, my wife Heidi always thought that one day she would be a missionary. She had visions of moving overseas, learning a new language – possibly living in the jungles of South America or among the unreached people of East Asia. A REAL missionary!

But here we are in 2015 – 4 young boys and a minivan, a home in Nolensville, and lots of laundry. She’s a wife, a mom, a communication coach, writer, college professor… But she’s not a missionary. Or, is she?

Consider this: God is a sending God. And each of us are His “sent ones.”

In Genesis 12, He called Abram and sent him to Canaan – the Promised Land for God’s people. From this land, and out of this people would come the Promised One, the Messiah, Jesus Christ.

Fast forward 2000 years – God sent His son into the world (John 3:16) to redeem His people and save them from their sins.

After His resurrection, Jesus appeared to His disciples in John 20:21 and said to them “As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” Jesus sent His disciples into the world to make more disciples and build His Church.

God’s Greater Story
This is where you and I enter God’s greater story. We, too, are sent into the world to make disciples in the same way God sent Jesus and Jesus sent His disciples (and sent His Holy Spirit to empower us).

God is a sending God. That has never changed.

Missionaries
Each of us are called in Matthew 28:18-20 – to be a missionary and embody the gospel wherever we are.  To “go into all the world and make disciples.” The word missionary actually means “sent one.” That’s you. That’s me. God’s mission is sending us – into our families, our neighborhoods, our communities, to the furthest reaches of the globe…

Sending us out to bring the message of eternal hope in Christ to a lost and dying world.

Misseo Dei
South African David Bosch says this about the church’s mission – based in the misseo Dei – “the mission of God:”

“Mission was understood as being derived from the very nature of God…Father, Son and Holy Spirit sending the church into the world…a movement from God to the world; the church is viewed as an instrument for that mission…There is a church because there is a mission, not vice versa.”

We are sent – in the power of the Holy Spirit – to bring His kingdom into the world. It’s not a church building or a program. It’s a people… sent. 

“Sentness”
I love what Howard Snyder says: “Church people think about how to get people into the church; kingdom people think about how to get the church into the world. Church people worry that the world might change the church; kingdom people work to see the church change the world.”

How do you embrace your “sentness?”

Sent ones. Missionaries. Not necessarily overseas (though God certainly uses overseas missionaries in profound ways!) – but each of us, right here. In our own neighborhood (see post).

How does this change how we live each day? How we interact with not-yet-believers? How we engage our neighbors?

Embracing our “sentness” means redirecting outward. With the gospel at the center of how we live, empowered by the Spirit. Toward others. Outside of our homes. Outside of our churches.

Heidi and I have talked a lot about this – and we’ve realized that though she’s not speaking Auca and living among a primitive tribe (although one might argue that a family with 4 boys is pretty close!) – we’re both missionaries. In Nolensville. In Greater Nashville. “Sent ones” who are called to love and serve those right around us – based in the hope of the gospel – especially in our neighborhood.

How do you embrace your “sentness?” 

Brian Petak
Pastor of Outreach & Missional Living

Brian can be reached at  or via phone at 615-277-9590