Ireland - Mission Impossible?

 ‘Your mission should you choose to accept it…’is the well-known line from the ‘Mission Impossible’ series of films, starring the American actor Tom Cruise.  In the films, our hero, Ethan Hunt, takes on almost impossible odds to achieve his mission. With lots of twists and turns in the plot along the way, he eventually achieves what he set out to do and his short-term mission is accomplished. 

In real life, our mission as Christians may not be so death-defying and explosively spectacular as Ethan Hunt’s, but it does begin with the same challenge: ‘Your mission, should you choose to accept it…’  In fact, strictly speaking, it’s not our mission – it’s God’s.   Christians are challenged to take up God’s mission in the world.  Unlike the ‘Mission Impossible’ films, it’s no short-term challenge: it’s a life-time challenge of following the Lord Jesus Christ faithfully and bringing his message to the world.

 

 

 All Christians face that challenge, but some need to be challenged further, specifically into ministry, and especially ministry in Ireland.  Ireland is a mission waiting to happen.  Some Christians, given the history of Ireland, its sectarian divisions, its divided nature, the failure of the Reformation, ‘The Troubles’ in N. Ireland, and the bad-press given to the words ‘Protestant’ or ‘Evangelical’, feel that it is a ‘mission impossible.’  They don’t even consider it, not in terms of where they might personally be missionaries, nor even in terms of their financial support of mission.  The reality is that mission overseas is the darling of most Evangelical churches whereas home mission in Ireland is just ‘mission impossible.’ 

 

 But that’s got to change.  Scripture challenges us with these words: ‘…and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised’ (2 Corinthians 5:15).  If we are Christians, our life doesn’t belong to us, it belongs to Christ, who died to make us his own.  So, what are you doing with your life that Christ has given you?  How are you living it for him?  Are you living it whole-heartedly for him?  Are you willing to give it away in his service, working quietly, unspectacularly, patiently enduring set-back after set-back in faithfully sowing the seed of the Gospel in some little known Irish village or town? 

 

What would you lose should you take on mission in Ireland?  You would lose a lot – perhaps a good salary from a well-paying job; the comfort of being away from friends, family, and that good church which has nurtured you; and the understanding of others who just think you mad to go and ‘waste’ your life in this way.  All these are very real losses.  So, why would you bother?  Well, basically because your life doesn’t belong to you.   Jesus and serving him, matters more than your comfort, economic security and reputation.  The losses may be real, but living for him who for your sake died and rose again, far outweighs any amount of loss.  No life ever given to serving the Lord Jesus is regarded as a ‘waste’ by our heavenly Father.  He is no man’s debtor and he will supply our every need to live life serving him.

 

 In the work of the Gospel in Ireland, Irish Church Missions is seeking such Mission Partners for Ireland.  ICM wants to place Mission Partners around Ireland, in villages and towns, to pioneer or partner in Gospel work.  We want to place people who are willing to give at least three years of self-funded mission partnership in sowing the seed of the Gospel in Irish communities, by all and every means.  It is envisaged that Mission Partners will live in and be part of the communities they serve.  In serving and witnessing to Christ, they may take up part-time work; join community groups; teach evening classes; do door-to-door evangelism; run bookstalls in the market place; be good neighbours; use their life-expertise to run workshops; run Bible studies in local hotels; run ‘mercy ministries’ to the marginalized; do voluntary community work; hand out tea and coffee to weekend revellers coming out of pubs and bars;  perhaps even be seconded to a local church to work in partnership with a like-minded pastor; and many, many more ways of simply living godly lives for Christ Jesus in an Irish village or town as they hold out the Gospel of life. 

 

Could that be you?  Your mission should you choose to accept it is to undertake the work of the Gospel in an Irish village or town for at least three years.  Would you pray about this?  Will you think how you can raise support to do this over three years?  Irish Church Missions will support you in pastoral oversight and training before and during your time on mission in Ireland.  Irish Church Missions is committed to challenging churches in the Church of Ireland to see mission in Ireland not as impossible, but as urgent as mission anywhere in the world.  Irish Church Missions is committed to seeking financial help from its supporters for mission in Ireland.   Above all, Irish Church Missions is looking for Mission Partners to give themselves to serving Christ in Ireland.  By God’s grace, it’s not ‘mission impossible’ for with God all things are possible.