As I asked last week, in response to ministry: Close to God for what? Close to each other for what? Growing in character for what? Functioning well as the Body of Christ, ministering to each other, for what? For God's purposes. For God agenda. For God's mission. God wants us close to him, close to each other, growing in him, serving each other, so that a growing and increasingly functional people can carry out God's mission on earth.

What is God's mission on earth? Phrased in dozens of different ways with a hundred different scriptures - God wants to love this world, prove His love for this world, and compel people to come home to a relationship with the Father who conceived them. He wants to help and heal and welcome and embrace a whole world of people and call them into everlasting life with Him.

Here's the weird part. God chooses to use us instead of a more direct or obvious approach. God wants partners; better yet God want wants children in His family to understand and emulate His heart, His values, His agenda, His mission.

This means each of us and this means all of us. The Bible is as clear as day. Each of us is called to a mission. Again, there are many words and images that define our mission, and here are a few.

1. Reconciler. John 15 makes it clear that he loves the found sheep, but cannot sleep until the lost one is home safe. God loves the responsible and resident brother, but will be agitated and mournful until the wondering brother makes his way home to the embrace of his father's love. You and I will never understand ourselves, as children of God until we understand God's heart on this - He loves you and He loves me, but He is forever distracted by His love for those not yet home in our midst.

Matthew 24:14 "And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come."

2 Corinthians 5:18 "All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation." We are spiritual matchmakers; we are divinely appointed brokers; we are counselors and helpers and healers, urging and resourcing people to go home to the God who loves them and made them. We cannot do this if our lives are lived in a Christian bubble. It is not only ineffectual, it is antichrist.

2. Ambassador. An ambassador represents the authority and the agenda of a sovereign power to a foreign land. That's you. That's me. God's representative to this foreign land. Your house is a consulate. So is mine. We are citizens of heaven and aliens in this place. We represent God - His authority. His agenda.

3. Messenger (Evangelist). You and I are people who tell the good news about God's loving intentions. We talk, write, preach, teach, live with a message in mind. God loves you. There's more than just this life. Please, can I tell you more?

1 Thessalonians 1:8 Paul congratulates the Thessalonian church, "The Lord's message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia - your faith in God has become known everywhere."

2 Thessalonians "Finally brothers, pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored, just as it was with you."

Matthew 24:14 "And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come."

Note the word testimony. Most of what we're really called to do is witness.

4. Witness. This is a useful word. It reminds us that we're only responsible to telling the truth, the best we can, about what we've seen or heard or found to be true. Sometimes, a witness is an expert witness, but most aren't. Witnesses are everyday people who have something to add to the picture. We give testimony. In other words, we tell about our experiences and discoveries. No more. No less. Jesus said, "You shall be my witnesses…"

Why are new Christians often the best witnesses? The story is still fresh.

5. . Sent one ("missionary" comes from mission = sent). We are all missionaries, in the sense that we're sent.

You are being placed intentionally and sent as part of a grand scheme into a certain realm of influence. All of us believe this about vocational pastors and missionaries. But do you believe that each of us, actually, is subject to the same choreographed heavenly scheme. You aren't an accident. You aren't here today by accident. You aren't situated in your unique realm of influence by accident. You've been sent. Why? To be a reconciler, an ambassador, a messenger, a witness. What else?

6. An advocate. I could have picked hundreds of scriptures, but here's a few:

Isaiah 1:17 "Stop doing wrong. Learn to do right. Seek justice. Encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow." Matthew 25:35-36 "For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me."

God asks you and me to be advocates for people who need extra help. This is not optional. While some will be more applied to this than others, all of us and each of us miss part of our reason for being if we don't see our role as advocates.

7. Model. You and I are told by Jesus to be models of love ("by this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one for another." John 13:35). Jesus literally prays that we'll be models of unity ("I pray that they may be one so the world will know that you are in me and I am in them." John 17:23). Peter teaches us to be ready always to give "a reason for the hope that is in us," which means that we're so hopeful, the people around us sit up and take notice. (If we aren't hopeful, then just what gospel have we been sniffing?). And we're supposed to live model lifestyles, so that, Peter writes, they really can't accuse us even thought they want to; even though we bug people because we choose to do the right thing and keep our standards high and behave differently than the world. "But I'm not a model," says Charles Barkley. Yes, you are. People are watching. People are mimicking. The question is what kind of model are you?

Walt. Jesus wants us to be salt. Spicy. Flavorful. Interesting. Different. Standing out in this tasteless, bland, gorpy world. He wants us to be a preservative, pointing to eternal values in the temporary river called denial. We're all going to die. He wants us to bring life, and to point the way to eternal life

Light. And light. Jesus wants us to be like lights on a dark hillside, giving illumination to people who keep rapping their shins on the furniture of life. He wants us to bring warmth to a chilly world of frigid, proud independence. He wants us to bring life.

This is you. This is me. Reconciler. Ambassador. Messenger. Witness. Sent one. Advocate. Model. Salt. Life. This is your mission.

So what is our mission? Rather our commission? If mission means sent then co-mission means sent together, or sent as fellows. This is what we, together, the church in all her glory and frailty, are called to do.

1. Make disciples. Again, we exist not to make more of us, but to make more of us. We exist for those not yet here. Saratoga Federated Church exists for people who aren't here yet. I fear that that's not how we're thinking. I fear that our behaviors don't always reveal our reason for existence. I fear that we have a club mentality and a club reputation, even after years of evolving away from it. I want to be known for what the Thessalonians were known for - a lively faith and a commitment to spreading the message, not hording and guarding and stuffing ourselves with the benefits of community without opening up to others. We (the collective of disciples) exist to make more disciples. It's our commission from Jesus.

2. Baptize them. It's important. Baptism is our ceremonial moment of covenanting with God and committing to God' people. As I've said before, being a Christian without being baptized is like being married without having a wedding. Maybe, technically, you can pull it off, but why?

3. Teach them. A wedding isn't the whole of a marriage. It's a meaningful statement of intent and a celebration of a mystical union. But marriage is a lifelong learning experience. Quite learning and the marriage starts dying. Baptism is a meaningful statement of intent and a celebration of a mystical union. But Christian living is a lifelong learning experience.

So how do you find your particular mission?

Where has God already placed you? It's likely that you've been sent there on purpose. Perhaps a few are living in rebellion against God's sending influences (like Jonah…). But most of us are right where God wants us. Some of us have not yet wondered why. Today, please wonder why.

Who do you have a passion for? Children? Business people? Developmentally challenged? Ill or dying people? Teens? Homeless? Addicted? People in another land or culture?

Who do you tend to connect with? Sometimes God calls us into unfamiliar places with people who are wholly different from us. The shock has value. Most of the time, God will call us into the midst of people whom we naturally connect with.

What do you have to offer? What talents or spiritual gifts? What resources or insights? What experiences or stories? You have something in your backpack that someone can use.

Where can this gift best be applied? After taking inventory of my assets, are they being well-applied? Is there some field or niche of need where my bag of assets will make a difference?

What's stopping you? Entanglements? Fears? A certain relationship (not advocating that spouses walk away, but walk together into this conversation)? The cost?

What changes in your life would accentuate or facilitate your mission?