Missio Dei Communities

We asked Mike Baumert to share some lessons he has learned over the last year leading the Mill Ave MC.  
 
A few weeks ago, I was presented with the idea of writing a blog about leading the Mill Ave. MC.  Immediately, a bunch of ideas leapt to mind about all the experiences we’ve had thus far and what we’ve learned along the way about leading an “effective” MC. A few days later, I was sideswiped with the exact opposite of where my mind had been initially gravitating. I was confronted with my absolute inadequacy to live and lead missionally apart from Christ, even in the midst of gospel community!  

While this should come as no great surprise, here are a few principles I’m learning today through living on Mill: (in increasing order of importance)

1.  There is so much to learn about culture and how to engage with people.  We learn through each other how to do it.
It’s good to be on mission with brothers and sisters that share a similar heart and focus because I’ve learned more about how to engage others lovingly as well as how to be a tangible expression of love through the others guys in my MC than I have through my own trial and error – and there’s been a lot of error to learn from.
 
2.  Don’t be afraid, and acknowledge when the depravity you’re encountering brings you down.
There have been a few times over the past year that I’ve had to mentally and physically “check-out” because I couldn’t handle any more of it. Lean into your brothers and sisters and repent of your own attempts to do it without God
 
3.  Pray. Always.
I cannot understate this. Here’s a quick guide to the relationship between prayer and mission:

No prayer = disillusionment, numbness, exhaustion, frustration, overwhelmed, done.

Prayer = thankfulness, gratitude, passion, desire, fulfillment, onward!