What is Missional Living?

Perhaps some of you have heard us use the word "missional". We know that it may have some meaning to a few of you and to others of you it may be completely foreign (even our computer doesn't recognize it, as it is currently underlined with the infamous dotted red line).

This is how one person explains it:

Missional Living at its core is living as a missionary in whatever context God has placed you. It is adopting the posture, thinking, behaviors, and practices of a missionary in order to engage others with the gospel. This involves understanding the culture, language, and background of the people you are trying to reach and meeting them where they are with the gospel of Jesus.

Another person stated it like this:

There is no better advice I can give for missional living than this: stay close to Jesus and draw close to people far from Him.

OK, so that sounds not that revolutionary. And, in many ways it is not. However, as we have attempted to actually live this out, we realize that it requires that we rearrange our lives and move beyond our comfort zone.

When we first started thinking about serving overseas someday, we realized that if we could not learn to live as missionaries here and now, and learn how to serve the people in our lives in Spokane, then we surely wouldn't suddenly be able to do so in Africa.

So what does missional living look like?

• It means letting other people (even people we don't necessarily like!) interrupt our schedule.


• It means letting our identity in Christ be public, not something private and hidden away.


• It means learning how to listen to people's stories and walk the journey of life with them.
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• It means viewing our time, energy and money as not ours, but as resources God has given us to bless and serve others.


• It means recognizing that where we live, work, and play is no accident. God is calling us to love the people around us by knowing them, serving them and blessing them.


• It means getting to know our friends and neighbors intimately enough that we can see how the gospel would be good news to them. (Where are they trying to find purpose, satisfaction, identity, redemption?

We have been reflecting on this a lot over the past year, and it has been humbling to realize how unnatural this is for us. However, we are confident that whether we are living on the cobblestone streets of the lower South Hill in Spokane or the bustling African Melting Pot of Nairobi, missional living is something that God is calling us to embrace.

Burning Heart

John recently took a little break from teaching maintenance at Moody to get some more training himself. Here are his reflections.

The Kodiak is an airplane designed by missionary aviators with missions aviation in mind

I have come to believe that a jet engine is a brilliant example of the gospel.

It is possible that I will bore you. You may find that what I have to say is of little interest to you. After all, my topic is that of jet engines. Some of you have already stopped reading. For those that have braved your way through my preamble, I promise that these engines have much to do with the gospel.

A few weeks ago I attended specialized training for the Quest Kodiak, an aircraft recently designed specifically to fulfill the very demanding needs of mission aviation operators. The ideal missionary aircraft must be able to take off and land in short distances; it must be able to carry a lot of fuel, cargo and passengers, and it has to do it cheaply. The Kodiak has been engineered with all this in mind, and since this aircraft is in many ways the future of missionary aviation, it is essential that pilots and mechanics become proficient with this aircraft. Thankfully, Spokane Turbine Center is providing this necessary training!

This Kodiak is currently being used to do relief work in Haiti

We spent a good portion of the training looking at the heart of the aircraft: the engine. We went through it system by system to understand all the pieces that make the engine turn. Lives depend on our comprehension of how the fuel control unit works (among other things), regardless of how interesting it first appears.

John removing the accessory gearbox

Titanium compressor blades spin at 38000 RPM in order to push enough air into the combustion chamber to feed the ignited fuel that has turned into a ring of fire driving a turbine that drives the propeller.

It is that simple.

A controlled inferno that brings life to those in need. It pulls an aircraft through the air carrying the sick and dying. It carries translators and Bibles, men and women who have devoted their lives to the gospel.

Similarly, the gospel is the fire fed by the Spirit that propels us as believers. It drives us desperately toward Christ and we find Him serving the lost, speaking, and being good news to them. And so we are compelled to do the same.

After 3 weeks of class, John and the rest of the "students" are now ready to work on the Kodiak.