The experience of missionaries of biblical time, those men and women sent by God, teaches us that mission always comes as a second step ~ following a first and fundamental encounter with God. Only those who met God and have become passionate about Him do mission!
Mission, as we know, is God's initiative. God himself is the one who gives rise to mission: He is the one who calls, who opens the eyes of his messengers to see a human history that needs to be reshaped and passionately embraced ~ the history of any missionary is, in one way or another ~ the story of a life encounter. Mission, therefore, means to proclaim the Christ we have met, we love and we live for.
The message of mission does not begin when we have learned what to say or what to do, but when we can present as credible, the God we have met. Until God becomes a personal "you" who enters our lives taking up space, time and priority, it will be difficult to be passionate about true mission.
You cannot give what you have not received, nor share a fire that has not first ignited your own heart. The most compelling witness is not a rehearsed speech but a transformed life and transformation begins not in the mission field, but in the quiet place where we first meet the One who sends us.
