Four Steps for Discerning Your Call to Missions

So the question is, when you feel a call to missions... what do you do with it?

A call to missions can be confusing and intimidating. Our first thought is, “Okay God, I hear you... but, what does this mean? Do I need to sell everything, buy some sandals and a water-bottle and move to a remote place?” No. Maybe? Who are we to say?

But, while suddenly throwing everything out the door and heading to another country is a somewhat noble thought, it could be needless and disorienting. For many of us, the real challenge and first step is making sense of what our specific call to missions looks like. For some people, it may look like a radical life-change like we described above, but for most of us, it comes about in smaller changes to our normal life.

So you’ve come home from a short-term mission trip on fire for God and declaring the Gospel among the nations. Your passion is boiling over. Your heart is screaming, “More! More!” You believe you are ready to follow God anywhere. But then what happens? Life happens. And you find yourself facing the question of giving up everything you’ve ever known to move across the country, or the world - in pursuit of what exactly? A spark in your chest? The passion in your soul? A calling from God?

And then suddenly your passion comes face-to-face with the tension of losing everything you love and everything you’ve worked for, to pursue God. This tends to be where you may lose the spiritual inertia you picked up on the mission field.

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It’s no lie, we gravitate towards extremes. We tend to try and live our faith in extremes as well. The problem with extremes is they evoke extreme emotions. But with all that said, we know emotions are vastly important. God gave us emotions to help guide us, connect us to others, to problem solve, to cope and to amplify the power of moments. And generally, moments that are directly connected to an emotion tend to stick in our brains better than others - they move us more deeply. However, emotions aren’t the most reliable when discerning complex decisions that can affect the whole course of your life! When we are operating in the extremes, we rarely respond well to practicality. Coming home from a mission trip and trying to discern your life’s calling is an impossible task. Don’t feel like you have to make a decision today. So, we want to encourage you to stop what you are doing - take a breath - and do these 4 things:

1. Tell Someone

Find someone who is a mentor in your life, who has a solid relationship with Christ and can help you through this next season of questioning and discernment. Ask them to meet with you each week, ask you hard questions, and hold you accountable to a prayer schedule.

2. Commit to a daily prayer schedule

Don’t take this step lightly or overlook its importance. Prayer is the KEY and is VITAL to discernment. Communicating with the One who is placing the calling on your heart and life is the most important aspect of this journey. Spend time pouring your heart out to God and then patiently waiting in silence, as He reveals His desire to you.

3. Remember, we are all called to missions

We are all gifted in unique ways. Remember that following Jesus to the mission field is a calling each of us have, but “missionary” is not always an occupation that we may hold. In fact, we hope and pray that the Kingdom of God is made up of workers from all walks of life! Why? So the Gospel can spread far and wide. Even within a mission trip, the confluence of skills make for incredibly impactful work. For example, while on a trip your team recognizes the bathroom is broken and your team so happens to include a plumber. This is a man or woman who is a plumber by occupation, but a missionary for God, by calling. In that moment, God is using that person’s gifts to impact a community in a very tangible way. Missions is about being ready to serve with your gifts, no matter what they may be!

4. You still feel the need to go? Then GO.

After evaluating and taking time to process all your post-mission trip thoughts, if you still feel the distinct pull to go and serve on mission trips or as a missionary in a full-time capacity, GO. Jump on your church’s next mission trip, research different internship and employment opportunities, and needs within the missions world! You never know what God has planned!

Ultimately, we pray that God blesses your missions journey, whatever it may look like, and we cannot wait to celebrate with all the Kingdom of God in Heaven!