We are ambassadors
I help coach people to be good ambassadors…but what does that mean?
What does it mean to stand for something? To be for something? We all want to have a life that matters, one that adds to the goodness of this world one way or another. If you’re a Christian that’s likely one reason you became one! To be a follow of Jesus is to leave this world better than we found it, not because we’re really good at doing good things, but because we have access to God, and this highest power works through us.
There’s a section in 2 Corinthians 5 that talks about our new identity as Christians. In verse 17 we read: “if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old is gone, the new is here!” What wonderful words. We are made new. We are passive in this process, it’s God’s work that makes us new. Verse 18 starts with that very truth: “All this is from God”.
Paul describes a bit what this aspect of us being made new looks like. In verse 20, he writes that we are ambassadors. That’s who we are, as much as we were brought out of death and into life, we are also ambassadors. What God does with this new job of ours is make His appeal to others through us. God’s plan A has always been to work through His church to accomplish His mission. We are all necessary parts of this!
Being an ambassador means you are sent from one country to a new one.
Influence through relationships
An ambassador doesn’t make laws, they don’t rule, they positively influence. They also call out wrong when they see it. Ambassadors work through relationships. They have to be savvy, patient, and good ones have to be loving. We must be in good relationships with others to fulfil our calling as ambassadors.
Importance of personal holiness
An ambassador doesn’t live in their sent country, they live somewhere else, but they embody the values of their sent country. An ambassador who takes on the values of the country they’re called to isn’t functioning like an ambassador anymore, they are acting like a traitor. Our own personal holiness is of utmost importance to the mission.
The responsibility of our position
Paul doesn’t say “some of you are ambassadors”, nor does he say “the best of you are ambassadors”. He says you are. You. Each person who has been saved from death to life has been given this privilege. One of the reasons Jesus died was for you to be one of His ambassadors. Nobody else has the same friends you have, nobody else has the same gifts you do. You are a necessary and important part of God’s mission in this world.
The uniqueness of our calling
What if everyone had a very good idea of how their “ambassadorness” worked out in their own context? That’s what I get to do when coaching people: I get to help you discover more of how God has made you, unearthing the gifts He has given you, so that you can live these very verses out!
Missionary Launching Cohort 2024/25
Now sometimes being an ambassador takes on more of a literal following: some people are called from the country they were born in to live in a different one, in order to be ambassadors. Cross cultural missionaries live all of the above out but in a context that isn’t second nature to them. There are unique challenges to this as well as different kinds of joys. In my experience of living outside my home culture for 10 years, I’ve learned a few things and really enjoy getting to help others thrive in other cultures. That’s why I created Missionary Launching.
Missionary Launching is a nine month process where you discover your gifts and calling in the context of cross cultural mission work. It’s for people who have questions about their own role in God’s global mission, what kind of ambassadors they can be. It’s also a great programme for anyone wanting to learn more about how they fit in to this global mission, even if that means never leaving your home culture.
Included in this is a one week residential intensive, here in Manchester where people learn how to understand different cultures, as well as learning more about their own heart response in these different kinds of contexts (photo of our most recent cohort to the right!).
Click here to learn more about Missionary Launching and the programme or to set up a chat with me about it.