I spent last night and today speaking at Santa Cruz Bible Church at their Saturday night gathering and two Sunday morning ones. Santa Cruz Bible Church is the church I was on staff with for many years as high school pastor, and then as young adult pastor. Santa Cruz Bible Church planted Vintage Faith Church in 2004. So it was quite fun being back. They are our mother church, so to speak.
It was the first week of their three week "Missions Conference" which happens every year there (thus all the world flags hanging as the stage backdrop in the photo here). I was asked to come back and speak on the "local" aspect of missions and the next two weeks will be globally focused.
My main thrust was showing from the Scriptures that the very first thing Jesus said to His disciples in Matthew 4:18-19 was "Come, follow Me and I will send you out to fish for people." He didn't say "Come follow Me, and I will keep you huddled with other Christians singing songs feeling safe together" or "Come follow Me, so you can hang out with primarily Christians and complain about how terrible the world is getting. or "Come follow Me so you can have nice theological discussion with other Christians and deconstruct the church".
The very first time we see Jesus talking to and calling His disciples, it was all about being be sent out (not inward) to make new disciples. So the first impression He gave His disciples was emphasizing that following Him meant being focused on other people who didn't know Him yet.
I also shared that the very last words of Jesus to His disciples was focused on the same exact thing - being in the world making new disciples. I walked through His last words in Matthew 28:18-20 and Acts 1:8-9 and showed how He said the same thing again.
So His first words to his disciples were about being others focused on mission and His last words to them were about being others focused on mission.
I then made an argument for how in the USA it is easy to develop a Christian sub-culture. Even when you have a "missions" or "evangelism" department or program of the church, doesn't mean you are a missional church. We can slip into the unintentional state of living in a Christian sub-culture and then we send missionaries to other countries, but n
ot think of ourselves as missionaries here in our own local community.
I ended each message by holding up the Missionary Booklet they make each year for his Missions Festival, which is a directory of missionaries they support. I then tore the part off the cover which says "Our Missionaries". I had a copy of their normal church directory which has everyone in it, and I then taped the "Our Missionaries" on the cover of their directory. I was trying to stress that the whole church should see themselves as missionaries. 
It is even weird that we label "missionaries" as the ones who leave the country, but never really see ourselves here as missionaries in our own town or city. To me, it is bizarre that living here in the USA we don't view ourselves as missionaries, unless you go somewhere else and often do the same thing (especially when they are tentmakers in other jobs).
I shared that not everyone has evangelistic gifts, but that everyone can view themselves as missionaries. Just like when people get excited to take overseas missions trips, they don't all have evangelism gifts. But they participate in mission there as missionaries and it gets them excited, they pray more, they take advantage of every opportunity with people etc. When we see ourselves as missionaries and it then changes how we intentionally live our day to day lives. If we truly view ourselves as missionaries, then it changes how we pray, how we spend our time, almost everything really.
In the back of the worship center they has set up a prayer area with photos and missionary support letters on the wall of people the church supports. Then they added a large mirror with the words "You" next to it, reinforcing that the church supports missionaries all over the word, but we also are missionaries here in our local town. 
Santa Cruz Bible Church is very mission-focused, so it was refreshing being there and contagious about how much they already have missions, both locally and globally in their values. They planted us, so they definitely care about local mission. 
It was fascinating being back at Santa Cruz Bible Church. Having been on staff there for many years when it was 3,000 to 4,000 people and all that goes with a megachurch culture and then planting a new church - there is quite a difference. So I was a bit envious of equipment, lighting and all the things that a large church has. But we are a 4 year old church plant and very thankful for what God is doing so I cannot compare. And then felt silly for even thinking about that stuff. I may one day post about the differences of megachurch vs. church plant.
So.... it was a fun weekend. Glad to be back at our mother-church and especially seeing the wonderful people there again... Paul, Bonnie, Dave and Michelle, Joe... lots of others. Then I went home and went out bowling with Katie and Claire. And tomorrow prepare for the Outreach Convention and head to San Diego.
