Barriers to Mission - Part 1

What Happened to Our Confidence?

My friend’s kids are hilarious. I love hearing each funny little story every time we see them. The one about my friend’s three-year-old shouting “Praise the Lord!” at the top of her lungs when her parents pray at meal times, or another friend whose daughter, whenever she’s asked “Guess who we’re meeting today?” hopefully says “Jesus?” with wide eyes. Then there’s my friend’s little boy who walks around his school playground singing worship songs from the previous Sunday, even teaching them to all his little Year 1 friends.

Part of the reason we love these stories is because awkwardness and embarrassment haven’t yet entered these tiny humans’ relationship with God. They just have pure, unfiltered trust. They trust that what they’ve been told about Jesus is true, and that talking about Him is completely normal (that is after all what we have modelled to them). It also amazes us that when they talk about Jesus, the other children are completely undeterred. So now, as adults, we look at them and ask, what happened? What changed?

Somewhere along the way, confidence got complicated. We learnt to read the room, to fear social missteps, to guard our reputations. Inviting people into anything connected with faith began to feel risky. We imagine eye rolls, silence, or polite rejection.

Yet mission was never meant to be polished or perfect. It was meant to be relational, personal, and full of trust. Jesus invited people with simple words: “Come and see.” He did not push or persuade. He trusted that God was already at work in people long before they met Him. That is where confidence begins, not in our eloquence but in our trust.

 

A Feeble Confidence

By the time I reached third year of university, four years into following Jesus, I had definitely learned the hard way that not everyone was as much of a fan of Him, or of Christians, as I had imagined. The once bright-eyed, excited new Christian had worn away to a tired, slightly jaded third year who was fed up that none of her friends had said yes to Jesus and weary of the endless jibes from her course-mates.

Deep down, I still wanted to be bold. To be like one of my friends kids who sings “Our God is a Great Big God” loudly in the playground. I used to imagine standing up in a lecture and inviting everyone to come hear about Jesus. But when the moment came, I completely bottled it. What came out instead was a feeble, half-hearted, “Does anyone want to come get free lunch with me?” said just loud enough for the people around me to hear.

“Ooooh is it that Christian thing?” said my course-mate, half way out the door already. “Umm… yeah.”
“Cool, I’ll come for a sandwich.”

I was convinced he was only coming for the food. We arrived late, caught the end of the talk, and I thought nothing more of it. Then he turned to me and said, “Can I come back tonight?” That evening, he responded to Jesus. That Sunday he came to church. The next week he asked for a Bible. I could not believe it. My most half-hearted invitation had led someone into a whole new life.

That moment taught me something about confidence. It isn’t about being fearless or polished or persuasive. It’s about trusting that God is already at work and daring to open the door anyway. Sometimes confidence begins on the other side of obedience.

We can so easily believe lies about what confidence should look like and believe that if we mess it up, we will somehow let God down. But the Bible tells a different story. Peter, Paul, and David all got it wrong many times, yet God still used them powerfully. Their confidence came not from themselves, but from trusting the One who called them.

So the first barrier to mission is confidence.
Confidence in mission is not about personality or performance, it’s about trust. So this week let your confidence be a little more childlike, trusting in the Father who sent you.
Invite boldly, pray simply, trust that God can do more with your small, shaky invitation than you think.