Mustard Seed Mission

By Brian Turner

Our rural faith community is small. Over the past six months we have averaged around 76 in attendance. Though our fellowship is small compared to some, in the span of about two months, we built two wheelchair ramps for two families. For a family that desperately needed the space, we built an addition to their home. In the month of December, we raised money for the Taunton Children’s Home, the United Methodist Children’s Home, and Living Water International. We also purchased needed Christmas gifts for several local children.

As small as we are, this ministry is what being missional is for us. We are a missional, incarnational, authentic, Christian community, nudging others closer to Christ.

So often those of us in ministry strive to be something other than ourselves. We are not comfortable in our own skins. We look at “successful” ministries, and we begin to think we are not good enough. The only way to do ministry is to be like the big dogs. We feel inadequate. We think, “God cannot use us like we are.”

Well, this is just wrong, wrong, wrong. We are who we are, so we are to be the church as we are. Jesus calls us to ministry wherever we find ourselves. Believing that simple sentence is key to being missional; actually, it is key to being the church.

We are using the gifts and graces of our own faith community, small and rural is it is, to touch the lives of people in our surrounding community. We are becoming known in our community as people who serve others. We are learning to follow Jesus as ourselves.

How can your faith community do the same?

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Brian Turner is a follower of Jesus, a husband, and a father of three kids, three dogs, and a cat. He blogs at www.thewayofthenudge.com.