A Mission Mindset

Across the Church, we remember that God loved the world so much that He sent His Son (Jn. 3:16). Jesus left the glory of heaven, took on human flesh, and died for us (Phil. 2:5-8). God did not leave us in our sin and confusion. He went after us. Acts 14:26-28 shows what happens when a church learns to live the same way. Paul and Barnabas finished their first missionary journey and sailed back to Antioch, “where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work which they had completed” (Ac. 14:26). They gathered the church, reported all that God had done with them, and told how He had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles (Ac. 14:27). Then they stayed a long time with the disciples (Ac. 14:28). The church in Antioch had become a home base for the gospel among the Gentiles. They had already settled the question of fellowship between Jewish and Gentile believers. Now they were sending people out and receiving them back. Their fruitfulness was not an accident. They show us how a congregation develops a missionary mindset, how it sends and supports people, and how it makes space for those who return so they can heal without growing comfortable and stopping their pursuit of those who still need Christ.