Bri K

A Missional Vision Tour

2 Corinthians 5: 18-21
“All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

The vision the Lord has given me is for peace and reconciliation. Many of you know that reconciliation is a huge part of my heart, but now I will be in new lands where I will experience ancient tensions and so also see the beauty of the Gospel of reconciliation in new forms. My prayer is that my feet would be fitted with the Gospel of Peace. My vision is that I would be used to bear witness to Christ himself who is our Peace–He who reconciles us to Himself and reconciles one to another. My hope is that I would experience Christ as the one who has destroyed the dividing wall of hostility.

In speaking of Jews and Gentiles, Paul writes this to the Church in Ephesus (which I will actually get to travel to!):

“For he himself is our peace who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility…His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.”

My conviction is that this journey is essential not only to who Christ has called me to be, but also to what he has called me to do. I am gifted to lead and to teach, and so I am responsible to be a student of His word, of the people He has created and of the cultures that we form and that we are formed by. I am convinced that the Lord will use these experiences to shape who I am, my understanding of His story and my role within it, as well as my vision of the world. I believe that this opportunity to serve and to learn is essential for me to be a good steward of the influence that He has entrusted to me.

I am convinced that the kingdom will be advanced through the opportunities I will have to proclaim the Gospel in word and deed, by the relationships that I will build, by conversations that I will have with people I will never meet again, by walking and interceding over the land, by connections that will be formed as I meet with those laboring in these countries, and also by how I will be shaped as I learn and study history, texts, people and cultures.

In light of this vision, there are four values that drive what I will do on this journey. This is a framework that has guided the opportunities that I have chosen and will choose to take:

1. Ministry & Service

2. Cultural Immersion

3. Learning & Study

4. Partnership & Networking