God’s people often choose to hide their light out of laziness, fear, or apathy.

Unless we intentionally choose let our light shine, we will succumb to the cultural pull to do nothing.

The modern way of life invites us to wall ourselves off from the world in the safety, comfort, and convenience of our homes. Air conditioning, TV, refrigerators, video games, computers, and whatever else we have at our fingertips can keep the average follower of Christ satisfied and happy, oblivious to the crying need of lost people, unless we have a nagging sense that we have a responsibility to lead them to Christ. Those of us who acknowledge our responsibility will need to figure out how to let our light shine in ways that glorify God.

You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15  Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16  In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. Matthew 5:14-16 (ESV)

Lost and hurting people are waiting for church people to break out of their religious cocoon and be released into their neighborhoods and the world at large.

There are multitudes of ways to love our neighbors that are not self-serving or obviously intended to add them to our church’s membership rolls. If people sense that our good works are part of a church related agenda, it will likely repel them. However, if we serve out of love, expecting nothing in return, God will be glorified, and people may be drawn to Christ.

This is a challenge in two ways. Some of us are uncomfortable merely engaging people, which definitely hinders God’s mission. We have grown comfortable being passive with regard to the Great Commission, expecting the world to come to us and our meetings. God calls us to go where our neighbors live, work, and play, and engage them on their own turf, so to speak.

A second challenge is that those of us who are willing to get out and engage people often have difficulty cultivating deeper relationships. We may be task oriented and feel that, unless we can get others to make some move toward accepting the gospel, we have failed or wasted our time.

People are worth befriending simply for its own joy, whether or not they are currently open to the gospel.

Many times people will not trust us until they know we love them. Why should they open their hearts and lives to people they do not fully trust? The old adage applies. People don’t care what we know, until they know that we care. Cultivating relationships takes time and work. Those who are looking for a quick turn around will likely fail at letting their light shine in a God glorifying way.

Cultivating relationships for the kingdom’s sake requires commitment, work, and time.

Missional churches encourage their members to intentionally connect with unsaved and unchurched people in a way that clearly demonstrates Christ’s love.

Ways to Be Intentional

Below is a list of ten ways we can let our light shine.

• Pray privately for our neighbors.
• Be friendly.
• Start conversations.
• Visit.
• Ask to pray for them openly on the spot.
• Invite people into your home.
• Use your home for ministry.
• Serve when and where you see a need.
• Share the gospel.
• Invest in making a disciple who does what you do.

The key is find out what we can do lovingly and in a way that does not make people seem unnatural. When we are “up tight” it often makes others on edge. Personally, I find it easy to be friendly, start conversations, visit, offer to pray for people, and, when the opportunity arises to share the gospel. I am also quite willing to develop interested people into disciples, too. It is more of a challenge for me to have people over and serve in practical ways because it tends to be quite a bit more time consuming. But what if spending time helping someone with a practical job opens their heart to you and the gospel? What about you? Where can you see yourself connecting with your neighbors?

Leaders of missional churches model a missional lifestyle as well as teach and equip their people.

It is not enough to talk about letting our light shine. Leaders must make it their practice and take others along with them so they can catch the vision and develop a passion for mission. The challenge often is finding people who want to commit to the process.

Missional leaders configure their churches around the priority of training their people to be and make disciples.

That means we have to first develop them into disciples. We can only duplicate who we are.

Leaders of missional churches encourage and celebrate their people taking initiative and give permission for them to think and move “outside the box,” while at the same time building relational and missional unity around common priorities and values.

Nothing thwarts missional creativity so much as a decision making bottleneck created by overly controlling leaders. We have to give the Holy Spirit room to lead people. The more trust that is developed among the leadership team, the greater freedom and latitude can be enjoyed.

Leaders of missional churches are willing to send people to start new ministries, groups, and churches and to be missionaries in other cities and nations.

Developing a missional culture in a church means that we abandon ourselves to God’s mission, no matter what the cost.