Elders and mission

4. How do we understand the kind of mission God has for us?

Mission starts with prayer.  Actively seek God’s direction in your prayers. Listen, reflect, talk with others around you on what they believe God is calling them to do and what they believe God is calling you to do.  

And, remember, God may be calling you to be part of a wide variety of groups in order to discern God’s will.  It may be through secular groups as well as church.  Look at the example of food banks!

That being said, if our mission is to be more than simply social action, there needs to be a willingness to acknowledge God’s leading.  As the above quote from the manual that we looked in section 3 says, mission and witness go hand-in-hand or, as expressed in 1 Peter 3:15, 

And we might extend this to explaining to others, whenever they ask us, why we serve them in the ways we do.