Get Your Pretense On!

Chapter 6: The Oikos Factor • 149

He exhorted us to ask the Lord of the harvest to send forth more laborers into the harvest field (Matt. 9.37-38). Oikos evangelism emphasizes the concept of “every disciple a minister” (Eph. 4.11-13), albeit not a clergy person or full-time Christian worker. Actually, our language is terrible on this point. Every disciple of Jesus is a full-time ambassador and laborer in the harvest of their own unique, God-given oikos network ! Through the oikos emphasis, every believer who is growing in Christ can pray for the lost, share their testimony, win those who respond, and help establish new believers to share within their oikos (2 Tim. 2.2.). All of us can be mobilized to make a difference for Christ, right where we are, regardless of our age, vocation, place, station, or condition. “Your Mission, If You Decide to Accept It: Live as Christ’s Special Ambassador within Your Oikos ” In every episode of the hit TV series, Mission: Impossible , the IMF (Impossible Missions Force) were given details of an upcoming, possible mission, which always ended: “Your mission, if you decide to accept it, is to . . .(.)” They received the details and the facts, understood the stakes, and then had to accept the challenge of the mission. Once committed, he assembled the team, planned the operation, executed the mission, and completed the work – and each time with style, cleverness, and genius! Truly, each of us are called to play our role in the story of God, to become members of the Kingdom of God and of the Church, forged with a new identity as free representatives of Christ, called to penetrate our circles with the Good News of the Savior. God is not calling every Christian to serve as a clergyman, an evangelist, a church planter, or a missionary. He is calling each disciple to live out the meaning of the Gospel in the place where he has called them, with those whom they see, associate, and