Missionary or Volunteer

Mike and I are helping to plant a church - something new to both of us.  It is an interesting challenge.  It is the goal of this new church to really be effective to the community.  To really meet the community where they are and take the gospel of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ to them. As you might imagine there is a lot of work to do.  

Last week we were reminded that we want to be a church that raises missionaries not just volunteers.  This was such a great challenge for me.  As I defined in my mind the difference between a missionary and a volunteer, this was the main conclusion I came to: a volunteer serves for a time, but a missionary serves a purpose for life.   A volunteer says " I will commit to this".  A missionary says "This is my life's passion".  

I don't think I have been living a missionary life, but I want to.  I want my mission in life to be to share the life changing love of Jesus to all I come in contact with.  But I am encouraged.  The more I open up and allow His love to flood my soul, the more free I become to be a catalyst to give His love instead of just a vessel that keeps it.

Free to be passionate about, not just committed to. That's what we were created for. 

Some words of His love for your soul from Romans 8:

So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn't hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn't gladly and freely do for us? And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God's chosen? Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us—who was raised to life for us!—is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ's love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture: 

   They kill us in cold blood because they hate you. 
   We're sitting ducks; they pick us off one by one.
None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I'm absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God's love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us. - The Message

May your soul have a drink worth sharing passionately today, not just taking in and committing to.