What are your frontlines?

I wonder if you remember a series of sermons in the autumn of 2022 about “Frontlines”? I know I am challenging your memory! (They are still available on the website here.) Ian and Geoff took the 6M’s developed by LICC to illustrate “How to show and share Jesus where you are” (If you want to watch some real life stories that demonstrate the 6M’s click here). Some of us picked this theme up in our Life Groups and took time to explore how this applies to our everyday life – with family, at work, socially, with our neighbours and even online.

The whole idea of frontlines fits with our term “Missional Discipleship” – disciples who are demonstrating the love of God, inviting others to follow Jesus and impacting the world they live in day-to-day. Whether we are aware or not, it is on our frontlines that we are a witness (in word or deed) to what God has done – and is still doing – in our lives.

So what are my frontlines? Where are the places I impact the people around me and make a difference? And how can I partner with the Holy Spirit to become a better representation of Jesus where He has put me?

The first frontline question we may think of is “Where do you work?” Currently I work on the church staff team. Most of my interactions in church are with you lovely Christians – hardly the model frontline! However, I am also working one day a week in the Finance department of CATH. I don’t have much contact with service users or members of the public, but I have known my colleagues now for 4 years. We sit in an office together. We face the challenges of work life together and sometimes we share in each other’s personal struggles. We have laughed lots and we have also cried together on occasions! We range in age from 24 to 64. I have prayed in the background. I have listened and coached and trained and encouraged. In those 4 years, we have only had a few conversations about my faith. It was amazing when the opportunity came up, but I believe they know more about Jesus in me by the way I have lived (real and with integrity, so not always perfect!) I took advantage of the “Try Praying” booklets and gave them each a copy with an Easter card this year – with a little message that just said I hoped it might help them understand why Jesus is so important to me.

I am sure you get the idea. But work isn’t my only frontline. There are some challenges currently in my wider family and I get to pray and speak encouragement and wisdom there. Most of my friends are Christians but there are some who don’t yet know Jesus, even after many years of witness and I will continue to love and pray for them.

I grew up in a street where our neighbours just knocked and walked in. Our back garden was the neighbourhood playground. We definitely live in different days, now. But one neighbour I had for 15 years before we moved to America just died a few weeks ago. She was a wonderful character. Kind and complicated and colourful and messy all wrapped into one. She sent me a little cushion one year which says “You will always be my friend. You know too much”. I will treasure the memories we shared as we gradually got to know one another over those 15 years, followed by phone calls with an 8-hour time difference over the years following.

There is no doubt COVID has made it harder to have relationships with our neighbours these days. We moved into this home in 2021 and have little interaction, beyond the usual niceties. This is a frontline I can work on. Another one is the gym. I am part of small group training twice a week so it’s lovely getting to know a whole variety of new people. I’m still working out what being a witness there looks like, as we share the victory of surviving another session!

So why am I sharing all this with you? I believe in relationship. I believe with all my heart that I am made firstly for relationship with my Heavenly Father and then with all those He has put in my life. I want to encourage and inspire you that your “ordinary” life matters. That has been my story. We are here to love, as we are loved. It’s not always easy….but all things are possible.  

I am praying for you on your frontlines this week. Lord, inspire us with interesting conversations and new ways to love the one in front of us. Help us to see the opportunities and lean into what you are doing in those around us. Surprise us, Holy Spirit.

I'd love to hear about your frontlines. Feel free to drop me an email and share what you find rewarding and challenging.

God's best!

Janice