Steve and Diane Mossman
(Full time missionaries since 1964)
August 2015
Prolog: The following steps toward a missional life style are a typical progression of a person’s desire to serve the Lord in some level of mission outreach, local or cross-cultural.
1. The first step is when you accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior, which leads to a very personal relationship with Jesus Christ and a new understanding of the world as God sees it. God responds by giving you His Holy Spirit, leading to peace, joy, hope and by a progressive renewing of the mind, a new understanding of what God’s call requires of your life. That call is to make disciples – to be a missionary for Jesus.
2. The next step toward a missional lifestyle is the unconditional commitment of one’s life’s work, whatever it is, to the Lord, in purpose and practice.
3. God will prepare you for His service by taking you through His “Boot Camp” that will include experiences, jobs and failures that will mature you and strengthen you for service.
4. God will call and guide you into many service (mission) experiences that may seem irrelevant to your calling. It seems that every experience that I had over the years that I thought was a random job or a fill-in till I got on with my ministry, was a waste of time. BUT, those many experiences were needed when I was asked to develop a school in Northern Kenya. God does prepare us for works for Him if we let Him lead us and guide us as we serve Him in unexpected ways.
5. When God calls you, you will know it in your heart and mind, with no hesitation. At that point you must personally decide to make the great change from your goals to God’s calling for you.
6. God will call you to assignments that are “impossible” for you, but will provide the wisdom, the means, the people and the funds to accomplish the task for Him. And, in the process, will protect and take care of you and your family’s needs.
7. None of the education, training or experience will cause you to be successful if you do not have a strong personal prayer life with daily Bible study.
8. Finally, you will not be able to serve God long term successfully without a strong team of praying friends who know and follow your ministry and can pray for your individual needs over the years. My family could never have done what we did and survived physically and spiritually healthy without the protection of the Lord, and that was because we had our Church’s couples club praying for us continually. Without that prayer cover, our ministry would surely have been diminished or cut short.
