We are enjoying getting to know Nixa, MO and the surrounding areas. We’re learning some back roads (you might ask Alisha about her chance to learn these) and some good hangouts. In the process, we are working hard at becoming a part of the community here in Nixa by simply living our lives here and beginning to develop relationships. We do have some events where we are ‘scheduled’ to do missions in a variety of ways including Prayer Walking, Servant Evangelism, Community Involvement and more. But we’re also continuing to learn that missions is not just a ‘scheduled’ event, but it is what you do every day as you live your life and meet people in a variety of environments. The term that is most commonly used to describe this is ‘Missional Living’. Which simply means to intentionally live each day with the idea that God can use you to change someones life for eternity. There are a few things that we could share with you from our journey so far about Missional Living:
- It requires us to be Intentional! We can become distracted with day to day life including our sons school, daughter’s development, wife’s job, bills, health issues and other unexpected distractions. It can be easy to get into a routine and find a comfort zone. But we have decided to be intentional about how we live. This requires us to think about ways to be where people are daily. It includes things like playing in the front yard instead of the back yard, hanging out at a coffee shop or McDonald’s playground instead of staying in the comforts of our living room.
- It requires us to speak the first words! The fact is simply this, when we intentionally live our lives around people we still need to talk to them. This usually requires us to speak the first words. It means that we’re the ones who look for a way to start a conversation and begin to connect with the people we are around. It can be finding some common ground (i.e. kids, weather, job, sports, etc…) that could start things off. We also have the added line that we have used with some success, “We’re new in town and are trying to find …”. This usually leads to a conversation about many things including where we moved from, why we moved here, etc…
- It requires us to be consistent! This isn’t just a one day event but living life in a way that will make a difference to those around us. This requires us to not only be intentional and be bold enough or brave enough to speak the first words, but also consistently do this day after day, week after week. We have to continue the conversation, remember names, remember places and work at loving and valuing people as Christ does.