On Tuesday and Wednesday of this week I was in Atlanta for the North American Mission Board meeting. Prior to that, on Monday evening we celebrated the commissioning of our new president Dr. Geoff Hammond along with a host of new missionaries. A couple of the new appointees are serving in San Diego and will be able to help with our new church plant as pastor Brad Graves gives leadership. These two young ladies are not directly assigned to the work we are doing but they know of it and they will be teaming up with that effort when necessary. I spoke with both of them following the service. I encourage you to pray for them. They are Anna Dean and Amanda Mark. Anna will work for the Focus City initiative in San Diego. Amanda is a US/C2 missionary and will coordinate volunteers as they come to San Diego to work. In the days ahead some of those volunteers will be from our church. 

One other appointee caught my attention because of his former ties with Olive. Matt Celoria and his wife, Amber, are church planters in Phoenix. If you have been at Olive for 15 years or longer you may remember the Celoria family. The entire family sang and they travelled as music evangelists for many years. Part of that time they were members here at Olive. I baptized the youngest daughter several years ago. Mark and Amber have one son and a little girl on the way. 

On the back of the program for Monday’s event was this question, “What is a missionary?” Since I have asked every Olive member to be a missionary I read with interest. Here is the definition that was given, “A missionary is a person who, in response to God’s call and gifting, leaves his or her comfort zone and crosses cultural, geographic or other barriers to proclaim the Gospel and live out a Christian witness in obedience to the Great Commission.” This statement was first adopted by NAMB and IMB in 2000 and is still so very relevant today. 

Some people answer the call of God and go to another location to be a missionary. I witnessed seeing that commitment fleshed out in the lives of many last Monday. For those we are grateful.

But we are all to be on mission. I found my mission field opportunity Thursday afternoon in a local department store. There were two people with whom I sought to share the Gospel while I was in the store. All of us must be on mission each day. Believe me when I say there is room on this team for every Christian. 

Pastor Ted Traylor 

Posted on Friday, October 12th, 2007 at 9:58 am.
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