Missionary to America

     In my previous entry I posted about the death of the House Church movement in New England. The last sentence pointed to a way forward. If someone accepts that Jesus came preaching the gospel of the  Kingdom of God, ( Mark 1:14-15), that living in that Kingdom requires someone to be a fully committed disciple of Jesus Christ rather than a church-goer, whether in traditional or house church, and that being a disciple means receiving direction and accountability from a disciplemaker (Matthew 28:18-20) then this is  foreign and rarely practiced in the U.S. If our responsibility is to make disciples, and Jesus to build the church ( Matt. 16:18) then those who are faithful to that command are more like missionaries than anything else.
     In normal usage a missionary is an individual or a family that is sent from one country to another, usually to start from scratch in preaching the gospel where no witness exists. If we are talking about the true gospel of Jesus Christ rather than a watered down version then the US is a mission field. As I witnessed the continuing dissolution of house churches in New England I became discouraged. Now i believe that this had to occur because we were not building with the proper materials. Instead of preaching the Kingdom and developing discipling relationships we were trying to comfort wounded people and work with rebels. Our need is to submit to other imperfect human beings, receive their wisdom, experience, and care so we can impart that to others.
    The advantage that we have in contrast to regular missionaries is that we do not need to learn a different language and culture, a process that takes years. May God open our eyes.