Our motto which encompasses God’s design for His people is “God’s family together on God’s mission.” We are to be a missionary family! Both before and after Jesus rose from the dead He reveals this in our commission to be sent into the world (Joh 17:18, Joh 20:21).
Missions and evangelism isn’t a program or area of emphasis, it is the essence of our calling. It is to be our everyday way of life. It isn’t just for a few “missionaries” or “evangelists” but it is all of God’s people everywhere, all the time. It isn’t just overseas but also across the street.
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Jesus showed us this pattern when He sent His disciples out on mission (Luke 9-10, Mt 9-11). In each of those sendings He tells them (and us) to both “lift up our eyes and look on the fields” as well as “pray the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into the harvest.”
The early church advanced in the first century not primarily by preachers, professional missionaries, teachers, debaters, or evangelists. It was the nameless thousands of people who brought Jesus into their everyday life and reached out as His ambassadors. It was ordinary men, women, boys, and girls who shared the gospel with their friends, co workers, customers, and others in their everyday life.
Here is a great testimony about how God used His people in ordinary everyday life (Gena Hernandez) to see someone (Angela Howard) become a follower of Jesus.