Mission re: Jesus

So if Jesus is building His church and we are to be His church rather than merely doing church, then I am sure we will need 'the mind of Christ' or a 'Jesus mindset' if we are to know and understand His Mission for His church.
A typical 'church mindset' would see Mission as something we do 'over there'.
Growing up in the church, mission for me always revolved around boring talks from little old ladies in dimly lit rooms with more slides than you could poke a stick at coupled with the embarrassing sounds of grunt and snort as nodding heads jerked ever so briefly back into upright.
Not until I read the book 'For this Cross I'll kill you' as a teenager did I begin to appreciate what Mission was all about, and being challenged by the sacrifice of five young missionaries in 1956 who lost their lives amongst the Auca Indians of Ecuador I began dreaming of one day going 'over there' to experience another culture and share Jesus with people I don't know.
After training for ministry and spending a number of years serving the local church I eventually got my first taste of 'over there' when I travelled with a team to the southern Phillipines island of Mindanau. Since then I have also visited a number of African nations and have developed a much broader world view than I ever thought possible. However, as I returned home each time I somehow felt that I should put on a shawl, dim the lights and bake a few scones while presenting the 'over there' slide show for the majority who have stayed at home. What frustrated me the most was that the those who would turn up for the 'over there' slide show would also sit back and watch as a small handful took on the task of reaching out within our local community.
I discovered that having a 'church mindset' could be quite destructive allowing people to escape to the safety of their 'church club' viewing outreach as a task for specialists.
Since then I have noticed that as we begin to see the World as Jesus sees it and gain a 'Jesus mindset' then 'over there' takes on a much broader meaning and we begin to see 'over the back fence' and 'over a coffee' and 'over a desk at work' or school with the same fluency as 'over in Africa' or the Phillipines.
But so long as the church continues to see mission and evangelism as a task for specialists to be done 'over there' we will will continue to fail in our attempts to fulfil the great commission.
From about 16 onwards personal evangelism was quite high on my agenda. In 1983 I attended a week long conference called 'Here's life Tasmania' culminating in a group of newly equipped young saints of God heading out two by two into our local community (much like the Mormons - but without the ties and name tags) to find as many people as possible to engage in spiritual conversation and hopefully lead a few to Christ. The results varied, and I found that I wasn't really cut out for that kind of door to door engagement. The greatest challenge we found was that the local churches in Launceston had done very little over the years to truly engage the community and there wasn't too much respect for church within our city. Who was I to share my faith with complete strangers in my own town.
Fortunately that didn't stop me completely.
I merely learned how to build bridges with people and developed a fervent prayer life, interceding for everyone I felt led to share a witness. Over a period of five or six years I was privileged to lead dozens of people to Christ.
I went off to Bible college and spent four years training to become a pastor during which time I was constantly challenged in my theology and simplistic approach to life and ministry. I Learned a lot.
But at the same time I was gradually gaining a 'church mindset' and after several years in ministry my focus had shifted significantly from trying to change the world to trying to manage the church and deal with my own life issues.
Somewhere in the midst of all that I had lost the momentum of my earlier life.
I became very good at preaching about evangelism and encouraging people to believe in the ideal of reaching a lost world, but I myself was so entrenched in 'doing church' that I was rarely able to connect with those outside the church.
It wasn't until I took on a ministry role within a very small church which couldn't afford a full wage that I began to reconnect with the world. Working in secular employment while ministering in a local church meant I had a foot in both worlds like when I was a lay leader in my youth. But I had lost the passion and momentum of my youth and found that although I was connecting well with many people I was doing very little that might help lead them to Christ.
Mostly it was those who actually turned up at church or signed up for an Alpha Course who I had the courage to engage in real conversations with around faith.
Now I'm leading of a small ministry team where we go around and encourage churches, especially those planting new churches or pastors leading churches in third world nations.
We have learned that each pastor and each church member must first become missionaries in their own land, and must reflect upon their own 'church mindset' to break out and discover new and innovative ways of connecting with their local communities.
Rather than merely 'doing church', working hard to create a good show for a crowd of comfortable saints, we are challenged to engage in meaningful relationships with real people in community, getting back on our knees in prayer while attempting to bring the Kingdom of God into peoples lives through love, acceptance, a listening ear, a shared meal, a word of knowledge in season, a word of encouragement and whatever else the lord might lead us to do or say in the community we find our selves in.
To lead a church that is focussed on fulfilling 'Jesus mission' on earth we must have 'the mind of Christ'!... a 'Jesus mindset'.
We (the church) must begin to see the world through Jesus eyes.
We must view individuals in our community as Jesus views them and learn to respond to the felt needs in that community as Jesus leads us to.
We must have 'Jesus mission' at the centre of all that we do. And we must ask ourselves a few very important questions along the way:
1. What Community or people group are we called to reach? The answer to this question will give us an anchor point for when we are tempted to run away to a new project when things get a bit tough.
2. What felt needs within that community does Jesus want us to attend to? Again, answering this question will help us to remain focussed and not allow potential disappointment to put us off task.
3. How can we place ourselves within that community to build relationship that might lead to respect and trust? It is vital to believe we have a message worth sharing, and that we place ourselves in such a way within peoples lives that they can see Jesus in us, and trust us to the point of hearing the message we carry.
4. What kind of church culture will best honour God and draw us together in community while engaging the lost and growing those already on the journey? The answer to this question will be fashioned in part by the answers to the earlier questions. but is possibly more vital as it will ultimately define what and who we are, as well as fashioning that which we are inviting those in our community to join.

As we endeavour to fulfil Jesus mission on earth and we answer these basic questions I am sure we will see a church emerge that has a different look and feel to any we have been a part of before. I'm excited about the future of His church if we allow Him to lead and grow His church His way.