Choice
The time is now
The Way of Mission calls us to make a conscious choice about following Jesus’ way of living. It is about choosing to point our lives and energies beyond ourselves.
Choice is Power
We live in a society with laws, customs and expectations. Yet, even these boundaries are choices. We choose to follow them or not. The ability to choose is one of the things that makes us human, and is the source of our greatest power. The power to choose.
Choices Define our Lives
As the years roll by, one realizes the ways choices affect our lives. Where we grow up, where we go to school, who we choose to spend time with, where we choose to work… all of these choices affect our lives in deep ways. In many ways, our choices define our lives.
We also make smaller choices that matter. We decide how to treat the checkout person at the grocery, the irate customer, the neighbor, or the person we disagree with. Each day, through a hundred smaller choices, we decide what is important in our lives.
Branches of the Vine
God Gets In
Mission Shapes Choices
Our mission has a major effect on our choices. If you are on a mission to be a great cook, then you will choose to spend time learning about cooking, about ingredients, about culinary techniques. You’ll choose to spend lots of time in the kitchen, to learn from others who are experts, to perhaps take courses to grow in skill. Mission shapes our choices.
The Way of Mission, focused on serving God and other persons, also shapes our choices. Where we choose to spend time, how we treat others, and the places we choose to make a difference — all are affected by mission.
Choose Now
Each of us has the freedom to start following the Way of Mission right now. To begin a journey of growth, of action, of giving, of changing ourselves and the world. Sure, we will sometimes fail, make mistakes or fumble our steps. But faith calls us forward toward mission, grace, hope, and choice.
Watch for more about why the time to decide is now
Practices
The Way of Mission is something we practice each day — never perfecting, but always at work shaping our lives. Check out the practices section of this website to find ideas for how to practice mission today, tomorrow, and across the rest of your life.
The Elder Brother
The context of the story is the Prodigal’s return. But the story ends with the Elder Brother, because it’s directed at the Elder Brother in us all.
Time to Choose
Jesus is the judge of our directions, confirmed for us all to see by returning in resurrection. We can choose our resurrection, too.
The Way, Not The Belief
Given the choice, believing is all right, but following is everything.