The Shortest Mission Trip You’ll Ever Take

The second Sunday of January is historically one of those high-water marks that our church experiences on an annual basis. Along with the third Sunday in August, we typically see an attendance bump. Folks are back from vacation, back to their schedule, and everyone shows up…usually all at once.

Yesterday was no exception. I saw text messages and Twitter feeds from Summit campuses and church plants from Durham to Wilmington as spare chairs came out, lobbies filled up, and volunteer teams scrambled to accommodate the guests that were showing up.

How appropriate, then, that Todd Unzicker, our Brier Creek Campus Pastor, wrote the following post for our January monthly update. Todd did an excellent job capturing the heart of what we believe about the missional nature of scootin’ your booty…

From Genesis to Revelation, our God sends.

My family has only been a part of the Summit for the past three years, and in many ways we still feel like newcomers. We are often asked by friends, “How is it that God is doing what he is doing at your church?” I translate this question out of church language and into everyday life as “why does our church see such growth?” The answer to this question comes directly from Scripture.

From raising up Abraham, an elderly man, to father a nation to uprooting Paul, a deeply religious man, and turning him into a pioneering missionary, God always seems to be sending out his best. This is why we say that “we determine success not by seating capacity but by sending capacity.”

The majority of our first time guests attend at a peak service time (10am on Sunday and depending on your campus either 8:30 or 11:30am). Regarding our weekend worship, the most effective way for us to reach our city with the gospel comes by freeing up those seats. Over the next several weeks you will hear your campus pastors, small group leaders, and leadership teams asking you to consider moving to another service for this purpose.

Consider how you can worship missionally. That might mean choosing a service that may not be your first preference but that allows your seat to be occupied by someone who could be hearing the gospel for the first time. A Saturday worship service or another time on Sunday may be the shortest mission trip you ever take! There is a good chance that you are plugged into the Summit because someone did the very same thing for you.

(photo credits: Merriem Franks, Austin Franks, Maritza Pearce, Clayton Greene)