The Heart of Jesus' Mission

Excerpts from Ed Stetzer post:  missionSHIFT:  Introducing Jeff Vanderstelt

Jeff Vanderstelt is a pastor and an equipper of church leaders. He served in Youth Ministry for 14 years and as a pastor for over 7 years. Presently, he is one of the pastors of Soma Communities, a multi-expression church and one of the founders and leaders of the GCM Collective. Jeff is married to his wife of 17 years, Jayne, with whom he loves and shepherds their three children in Gospel life and mission.

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Ed: Obviously, the word "missional" is spoken of, used by, and claimed by many groups. Instead of giving another definition for the word, can you tell the readers an example of where you and your wife are seeking to live missionally?

The best expression of mission for my wife, three children and I is our own neighborhood and our children's elementary school. We have called a group Christians to join us in the mission of making disciples who will make disciples in these two fields. These people have reoriented their lives along with us toward this mission.

This looks like meals together with believers and unbelievers 2-4 times a week; cleaning up the yard of our widowed neighbor next store; serving at the elementary's auctions, community events and after school programs; going through "The Story of God" 1-2 times a year with unbelievers to introduce them to the Gospel; sharing our house for others to live with us and join us on the mission; having an "open door" policy to our neighbors and friends; throwing parties regularly to meet more people who we hope will also come to faith in Jesus; etc... We focus on demonstrating the change the Gospel makes in our lives through tangible expressions of serving and declaring the reason why we live this way by sharing the Gospel.

In this past year, our group grew from 9 to 27, with 6 people coming to faith in Jesus and 5 people trained to lead new MCs. We recently sent out some leaders to start more groups to reach more people. Now my family is leading mostly new believers and unbelievers in living this Gospel-centered, missionally focused life together (all the others were sent out to start new works).

Ed: In terms of missionSHIFT and the Missional Manifesto, what would be a great end-game in your mind for this event and process?

I would love for the church to have a better understanding of the mandate of The Great Commission and better clarity on the term "missional"--that it isn't just a new form of social justice in action, but it is getting back to the heart of Jesus' mission to make disciples who make disciples leading to every member in the Body of Christ being a minister and missionary of the Gospel all day long, all week long, all life long. And, I would hope that we would be able to move from theory and talk to belief and action in very tangible ways so that North America might experience in this century the most pervasive missionary movement of Gospel centered and sent people it's ever experienced.