Simple Discipleship: Go

This blog is a continuation of the Simple Discipleship blog series on the four guidelines that help the church make mature disciples of Jesus. You can read the other blogs here and stream the sermons here.

“Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” –John 20:21

I Didn’t Know I Was Sent

I was neck-deep in the stresses and strains of my first real job as a high school English teacher, and I wasn’t excited about any of its demands. I just finished leading worship as a volunteer at our church and walked out of the church auditorium. I had hundreds of papers to grade and dozens of lessons to prepare, and I didn’t want to do any of it.

My Monday demands felt very disconnected from my Sunday spirituality, and I had no idea how—or even if—the two were supposed to overlap or collide. My plan was to sit in the foyer and grade papers during the sermon, but as I mentioned, I really didn’t feel like grading the 9th-grade creative writing slop that sat before me. And so, in order to avoid that, I snuck into the back row and sat down. It was a visiting preacher from the UK, and his text was simply: "As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you." 

It changed everything about my Monday.

After service, an older lady in the congregation offered to pray for me. I told her my frustrations with my vocation. I petulantly declared that I thought I was called to something more significant than trying to get 16-year-olds to care about Shakespeare. 

She was so kind, but so direct. She told me I wasn’t allowed to enter my classroom the next day until I had prayed, thanking God for the opportunity to be an ambassador for His kingdom to those kids and their families, asking God that I would represent Him well in that classroom, and then commissioning myself for the task by saying … As the Father has sent Jesus, even so Jesus is sending you.

That changed the vibe quite a lot. 

Following Jesus Means Living Sent

God is a sending God. He sent His Son on mission to seek and to save the lost. That mystery is so profound and is part of what sets Christianity apart from almost every other religious idea or worldview.

God isn’t waiting for us to figure out how to go on a quest to find Him. He sent His Son to come and get us, and sends His Spirit to awaken our souls to our need of rescue. But that mystery isn’t even where the goodness ends in the Christian story. That same God then gives our lives meaning and purpose by allowing us to represent Him in this continuation of that saving mission. He sent His Son, and now He sends us to tell others this great news and live out its reality in the places He has called us into.

The church isn’t a place where the clergy have a calling, and everyone else observes it. The church is a place from which all of God’s people are sent. And those clergy members exist to equip, empower, and commission others in the church body for the sacred vocations God has sent them into.

Whether you’re sent to an AI startup, to a full and busy classroom, to working with your hands, to the small stage of a dive bar with your guitar, to endless diapers and meal prep, or to an unreached people group on the other side of the world—as the Father sent Him, even so He is sending you!

Living Sent Changes Everything

Once I realized that I had a calling and that my teaching job was a sacred vocation, a number of implications began to take shape in my life. Our GO-ing is a key part of how we are formed into disciples. It isn’t a separate compartment from the rest of our lives or a simple duty to perform occasionally; rather, it is an all-encompassing direction and posture that impacts every area of our lives. 

Here are a few implications of living sent:

1. Life has meaning, purpose, and adventure, even in the mundane, routine, or stressful.
2. The distinction between sacred and secular vocation comes crashing down. We are all doing sacred work together.
3. You don’t have to escape the context and culture; rather, you can see yourself as an ambassador of another kingdom who can inhabit a place without becoming like it. 
4. Our money becomes mission ammunition to push back the gates of hell by resourcing the sending of others.
5. The places we live become embassies where we get to live out the values and hospitality of the kingdom we represent.
6. The Christian community becomes a place not only for comfort and fellowship, but also commissioning and sending, where we can remind one another of our divine assignments.

Don’t just white-knuckle your way through life; choose this better way that has been set before you. You are sent by God on divine assignment, and you get to participate meaningfully in sending others.

How to Start

• Pray – Ask God to show you His sending heart and wisdom. His desire is for all people to know and receive the saving love of Christ. Ask God to help you have compassion for the lost, as He once had on you. 
• Reflect – Reflect on your own story, how God found you, and where you would be if you didn’t know Him. How He has prepared your story and given you what you need for your current assignment!
• Learn – Read the following scriptures and let them resonate in your heart. Write some of them down, and put them where you will see them and be commissioned by them as you step into what God has sent you into:
  
  • John 20:21
  • Matthew 28:18–20
  • Romans 10:13–15
  • 2 Corinthians 5:19–20
• Be honest – Tell your community what really scares you about being sent as an ambassador for Him and specifically share what is stopping you. Help identify ways to remove those barriers and create a pathway toward obedience. Ask for accountability and commissioning!
• Consider – Make a list of natural spaces you are already in where you can be a light for Jesus. Think of both daily and weekly instances. Reflect on where you can start going.
• Get Equipped - Connect with your congregation’s Missions Lead to join one of our Go Collectives, an online community where we share resources and stories about how people are sent and sending in spheres of influence like the workplace, city, and nations.
• Start small – Start by doing small things… talking to people at the grocery store, asking your family how you can pray for them, chatting with your coworkers casually about what you did this weekend at church, etc. You don’t need to hop on a plane to go overseas immediately; just start where you are and where He has called you.
• Expect big things – Jesus said the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. This is a promise that there are people out there who want to hear the good news of Jesus; they just don’t know it yet. Be faithful in obedience, and expect God to do the rest.

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