We Live Missions
By William LeRoy in Cross-Cultural Missions and Student
Following the fourth World Missions Summit in Houston, Texas, Cross-Cultural Missions Director Crystal Martin and I were overcome with gratitude and vision as we thanked God for the 2,000+ students that had committed to give a year and pray about a lifetime. At the same time, we also pondered what it might look like to invite students into a lifestyle of missions that went beyond a summer trip or a one-year commitment. The overflow of these initial conversations has led into a cross-cultural missions movement in Chi Alpha that is now the theme of our fifth World Missions Summit: We Live Missions.
Multiple years of study have shown that Chi Alpha is not healthy or complete without a strategic cross-cultural missions emphasis to go, give, pray, and welcome. Although we thank God for the intentionality of XAi, we also recognize that there is much room for growth. Following TWMS4, we realized that only 55% of our groups had noted intentional outreach to international students on campus. Although we had hundreds of teams going annually on cross-cultural trips, less than half of our groups were going internationally.
We Live Missions was birthed to close this gap and invite our movement to strategically, sacrificially, and spontaneously go, give, pray, and welcome every day. We no longer must wait until spring break or when we graduate to participate in the great commission. In short, missions is no longer optional. Missions is not something we do, but it is who we are. We make disciples of all nations as we go through every season of our lives.
We have launched a We Live Missions podcast that exists to inspire and equip students to go, give, pray, and welcome everyday (in 30 minutes or less!). In our first five episodes, we talked about the heart of this movement and why every student should go, give, pray, and welcome. In episodes five through nine, we interview students as we talk more practically about the how of living missions every day.
To articulate this vision and invite students to prepare their hearts for The World Missions Summit 5, we have written a manifesto that we invite every student and staff person to sign.
All views expressed on this blog are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect the view of Chi Alpha Campus Ministries, U.S.A., U.S. Missions, and The General Council of the Assemblies of God.