Missional Living.

I'll be quite honest and say that I have mixed thoughts about that entire TED talk. The majority of the things that I enjoyed were that the speaker brought up some very unique points, not all of them were on point, but she did bring up some things I found very interesting. I personally thought she was kinda creepy. I could handle the fact that she worked as a human statue in order to make a living and such, but the stripping and some other aspects of the video really did creep me out. I will say that she did make a good point about asking somebody for something instead of demanding payment for it. I likened this to my own life and how I live my life as a follower of Christ. She stated that it is important to foster a relationship instead of wanting money and attention. As a Christian, I am called to go out and witness to non believers about the Gospel and the love of Christ. If I invite somebody to church with me, we don't normally do much together, they say no, and I ignore them from then on, what does that say about me? I believe that it is important to practice the mindset of "missional living." Similar to what Ms. Palmer was referring to, this is a way of living life that doesn't make a person a project or a number. This concept is about building relationships with all kinds of people, those who share in my faith and those who don't, those who live how I do and those who live differently. Instead of just beating them over the head with the Bible, it is important to get to know the person, genuinely invest time into their lives and care for them. Whether they accept my invitation to come to church with me or not doesn't mean I change how I interact with them. In fact, if they said no it should make me want to be with them more, to gain their respect and trust and to continue to witness to them. This idea of missional living is about being "in the world, but not of the world." I can be friends with people that don't share my same opinions and hang out with them but it doesn't mean I have to do the things they do that I feel are wrong. They will respect me more if I stand by my values and are still friends with them than if I just don't hang out with them because we see things differently.