Six Mission Fields/Arenas: Each of us has at least six mission fields -- our homes, our work (school for students and volunteer work for retirees), our local community, the wider world, our leisure, and our church. In each one, we are already at work to make things better as best we can. However, we need to take time to put into words just what it is we are trying to do in each place at the moment. Here is a way to do just that in each of our mission fields.
Select the mission field you want to start with. Think through the six questions for that field. Making notes helps. Each field can take a half hour. Or take up to 5 minutes a day for each question and do a field a week.
The questions assume that God's characteristic work is reconciliation, justice, and love. Identifying what blocks reconciliation, justice and love provides clues to the mission to which God might be calling one in that arena of life. The first three center on finding what mission God might be calling one to there. Since one needs allies in working for change, the fourth question points one to a vision that might entice another to join with you to work for this change. The fifth question, when the circumstances are favorable, helps one to talk so that others can recognize the faith commitment from which one works. The sixth question gives one ways to invite others to share in the same feeding and empowerment by which one lives.
You are building a "missionary spirituality." Missionary spirituality is being empowered by God to bring good news in deed and word to any of the arenas of daily life. The first four questions concern bringing good news in deeds. The last two concern bringing good news in words.
Once each of the six arenas is worked through, Bible study, of the type shown in Appendix B, will become the focus for each small group session.
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