Hard truth #4. All of our churches must be 'missional' churches, led by and populated with missionaries.

Lance Tremlett was a missionary in the North of Australia for 46 years.

About two months into my Connect09 role - time enough for my head to be spinning - I had the great privilege of hearing Lance speak at his final CMS Summer School as he "retired" from a lifetime of missionary service. 

He reflected on how he had had to start from scratch. In the early years his time was mostly spent building wells, helping get power and basic services in place. Loving the community.

Over time, the elders came to accept and then respect him because he was a man of integrity who clearly cared for the people. It was then that he was able to share his God and his Saviour in a context of genuine fellowship.

In one sense, there is nothing terribly surprising in this. It is what we expect "mission" to be like. It is something that we have a great wealth of expertise and experience in thanks to agencies like CMS, the mission department at Moore College and so on. All of our ministers study mission, as have many of our church members. We know about mission.

And yet, Lance's experiences are surprising aren't they? We say we do mission locally, but it doesn't look much like that does it?

I couldn't help but be struck by the fact that there seems to be a dis-connect (if I may use that term) between our belief in, and knowledge of, mission and our practice in the local church. 

Mission - in the terms that we hear of from Lance and other CMS missionaries every January - seems to be something that you go overseas (or to the Georges River region?) to do. 

Perhaps there was a time/place when the world was like that? The community gathered at the local church to confess their sins, sing hymns and hear the Word taught faithfully by the minister. Missionaries were those who went to heathen lands to learn new languages and forge bridges for the gospel. 

But surely this is no longer so - certainly not here - if it ever really was. And it will be increasingly less so with each passing year. For one thing, the "heathen nations" have come to us!

Of course there is recognition of the reality of this on many levels. Great strides have been made in some parts of Sydney (and within some cultural groups) where traditional approaches to church and evangelism have so completely and obviously failed us. We praise God for this and thank him for those taking up the challenge.

But I am not talking about some of us being missionaries in some areas. Hard truth # 4 is about all of us. Every church a mission headquarters. Every minister a mission leader. Every member a missionary.

What would that look like?