The Real Reason Your Missional Dream Keeps Dying Before It Starts (p2)
Note: This blog is a continuation of a series. If you haven’t read Part 1 yet, you’ll want to. It sets the stage for what we’re about to unpack here.
If you have read it, welcome back! Because today we’re talking about that moment when you’re ready to lead something new, but no one around you wants to come with you.
You’ve prayed. You’ve dreamed. You’ve pitched the idea. You’ve sat through conversations that end with polite smiles and phrases like, “let’s pray about it” (code word for, lets never do this…) And now you’re standing there, heart burning for mission, surrounded by people who just don’t share it.
So what do you do when you feel called to lead change, but no one joins you?
Do you just give up and do nothing? Or is there something—anything—you can do?
Before I give you my thoughts on what you can do next, let’s take a quick tour through scripture. Because it turns out “wrestling with the dead” is a struggle as old as time itself. Here are a few examples:
Joseph in Egypt
God called Joseph to do some pretty cool things in redemption history. But rather than honor the calling, Joseph’s family rejected his dreams as the ramblings of a kid who thought a bit too highly of himself. But it got worse. Joseph’s own brothers (God’s chosen sons of Israel and fathers of the 12 tribes) didn’t just reject him… they sold him off into slavery in order to get rid of him!
But here’s the crazy part: it was in Egypt, among pagans, that Joseph’s dream was fulfilled. Pharaoh’s court became the stage for God’s plan.
In other words, when God’s chosen covenant family turned their backs on what he was doing, God fulfilled his purposes through pagan outsiders.
Elijah and the Widow of Zarephath
We see the same thing taking place during Elijah’s days. Israel, God’s chosen nation, turned their backs on him and began worshipping Baal. So a great famine fell across the land. And during that time, God sent Elijah to a Gentile widow who lived in the pagan land of Sidon.
In other words, it was in pagan territory, not in a faithful household, that God sustained His prophet.
Cyrus the Persian
Israel was in exile. Their disobedience to God led them to become more wicked than the people who they had driven out of Canaan. So God sent Babylon as judgment. Jerusalem fell and the people were displaced. Decades later, it was time for God’s people to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the city and the temple. But in order to achieve this task, God didn’t raise up an hero from Judah. To the contrary, God raised up Cyrus, a Persian king, to rebuild Jerusalem.
In other words, a foreigner financed God’s project while His own people were still trying to find the courage to return.
The Magi
Let’s take a look at one more example. When Jesus was born, Israel’s priests ignored the prophecy. Or maybe its more accurate to say they completely missed it. In fact, all of Israel missed it. So the story tells us that the religious insiders missed the arrival of their own messiah. Meanwhile Gentile astrologers from Persia (likely Zoroastrian priests) followed the prophecies of Isaiah and the star to Bethlehem.
In other words: The outsiders saw what the insiders missed.
Whats my point?
Every one of these stories repeats the same pattern: when God’s people fall asleep, God doesn’t stop moving. He keeps writing His story with whoever’s awake enough to say yes. The mission never pauses. It just bypasses those who won’t move.
Maybe that’s the pattern we need to recover.
Maybe it’s time for missional Adventists to stop waiting for permission from the frozen and the fearful.
Maybe it’s time to bypass.
If your local church is asleep, if you’ve tried every possible conversation and still no one wants to move, then maybe God’s invitation is to step outside the walls and find a different space to build in. Among the pagans. Among the Zoroastrians. Among the secular.
Here’s a few simple steps to get your creative gears spinning.
Pray for God to place on your heart a group you can either join or start. It can be anything you love: A running group, a book club, a crochet circle. Keep it simple. Make it a space that feels like a break from the noise of life, not another complicated duty.
Remember, this isn’t a Bible study or a church service. It’s a place to connect with people, to be a friend, to listen, to serve, to live your faith naturally. This means you don’t need to be a pastor, evangelist or theologian. You just need to be a human who wants to connect with other humans.
Join or start the group and meet weekly. Learn people’s names. Hear their stories. Ask lots of questions. Share tons of laughter.
As you spend time with them, pray for God to move. Pray quietly for curiosity, for hunger, for spiritual questions to rise. Don’t force it. Don’t bait-and-switch. Just be present and pray for God to move.
Don’t preach, but don’t hide. You don’t want to be pushing religion. This will turn people off. But you also don’t want to hide your faith because thats just gimmicky. So be yourself, love humans, and when opportunities to reflect Jesus come up, take them. As people come to love and trust you, the will know you are a safe person to turn to when they have spiritual questions.
Do this for a year or longer. And I promise, you’ll find them. The ones who are spiritually hungry. The ones who have never set foot in a church but are searching for something real. They’re everywhere.
The key is to stop wasting your energy trying to resurrect what refuses to live. That sounds harsh, I know. But at some point you have to accept it. If the people inside aren’t interested, it’s time to move on. The field is ripe, but the harvesters are few. Pray for God to send out more harvesters and then… be the answer to your own prayer…
You don’t need to be a pastor or a preacher. You’re not starting a church here. You just need to go where people already are, do what you already love, and bring Jesus with you.
Years ago, I joined a fitness group in my city. Within a month, I met a young guy who started asking spiritual questions. He’d never been to church, never read a Bible, but he was hungry. Being present was all it took.
I’ve had this same exact experience multiple times. So have many of the missional believers I’ve trained over the last decade. Because the truth is, there are thousands upon thousands of hungry people looking for God. They don’t show up to our monotonous church services. But they are out there waiting for someone to exit the “building” and step into their world.
We just have to be brave enough to walk away from the spaces committed to doing nothing so that we can finally do something.
Next week, I’ll share how you can move from these friendship spaces into spiritual spaces that nurture new believers. For now, I’d love to hear your thoughts. What’s stopping you from stepping out? Ask below and I’ll do my best to offer more helpful insights to help you get moving!
PS. If you are looking for a space where you can get practical training on how to do the above + community support to empower your missional journey… Join the Mission Collective! We do LIVE friendship evangelism training every Sunday + have workshops on how to pray for, connect with, and explore scripture alongside seekers & new believers in your city. CLICK HERE to learn more and join us today.
