I. The meaning of mission

   

   A. From God's perspective

 

      To discuss the Christian concept of "Mission" and Jesus' role in it, it is helpful at the outset to get a perspective on who Jesus really is and his relationship to the God the Father in  historical, even pre-historical and cosmic dimensions. Jesus wasn't simply a man, even an extraordinary religious man, born in a historical time and place to live out a life filled with zeal for his mission, leaving behind merely an example for future generations to follow and be inspired by...true as all that is.

    

      Jesus is intimately connected with the eternal God, including the Father and the Holy Spirit, the "Mighty God and Everlasting Father" (Isaiah 9:6), so that his role in his earthly 1st century life as the "Messiah" (foretold in this Isaiah passage), crucial as that role is for redemptive fulfillment, was in time only a historical moment in a life which preexisted his earthly birth and would continue unending after his death as witnessed by his resurrection from death.

 

     The Apostle John captures this well when he says: "As the Father has sent me, I am sending you" (John 20:21). "He (Jesus) was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made" (John 1:2-3). "Mission" in the New Testament sense begins with the Father in cosmic dimensions and results in His sending to earth His Son, Jesus (John 3:16) who preexists with him in spiritual dimensions ("heavenly realms," Ephesians 1:3) even before the world was made or humankind conceived in the Creator's mind!

 

  B. From the human perspective

 

     The call of God to us as human beings was also conceived long in advance of our own creation as well: "For he chose us in him before the creation of the world...to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ" (Ephesians 1:4-5), and even our work (mission) in this life is part of that cosmic calling: "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do" (Ephesians 2:10).

 

     This, of course, gives us much greater confidence in our attempts to please God by following Jesus into mission enterprises and even the smallest acts of mercy and sharing of our faith. We not only know that God has foreseen all of our life and circumstances, and given us the human example (a "blue print") in the life of Jesus, but we also know that He is with us in these circumstances in the person of the Holy Spirit, motivating and sustaining us as part of that "workmanship" he foreordained!

 

     Another of the implications of this for us is that the entire Old Testament (as well as the New) opens up to us as part of that "blue print" of what Jesus has done in human history. "If you believed Moses you would believe me," Jesus said, "for he wrote of me" (John 5:46), and "Before Abraham was born, I am" (John 8:58). Those two words, "I am," are filled with meaning because these were the very words God used to identify himself to Moses at the burning bush, when he called Moses to his mission back in Egypt.

 

     Moses is a good example of the relevance of the Old Testament to God's call to us in mission. "God said to Moses,'I AM WHO I AM.' This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you'" (Exodus 3:14). If Jesus is the great "I AM" of the Old Testament, and He sent a fearful and hesitant Moses into confrontation with the powerful forces of Pharaoh for the salvation of His people Israel, how much more is He able to guide, protect and provide for us in every way in our perhaps less demanding callings here and now?

  

     Much of the above is highly relevant to our lives not only as we struggle with large decisions about vocation, marriage, and how to relate positively to the mission of the church worldwide. It is also relevant to our daily struggles with moral temptations, academic self-discipline, time commitments, involvements in the Christian group, evangelism and relationships to others. If Jesus has called us all to a life of holiness and love, for him and for others, and given each of us a special calling to follow him in specific ways and circumstances, we need to know that he is all encompassing...that he lives powerfully in every "nook and cranny" of that world out there as well as in all the particulars of our personal lives and circumstances.

 

 

Missions is "Centripetal" and "Centrifugal"

 

     Missions is in the Old Testament in a different but complementary way than in the New. To use a term from Physics, missions is "centripetal" in the Old Testament...a force that pulls inward, into the center. God calls the people of Israel into being as a corporate witness to the world of His glory, power and love, and the world is thereby attracted to come and see and then believe in Him as the only true and living God. The world becomes like a stage and history like a drama in which humanity (the audience) looks on as the play unfolds showing God displaying his great love, power and blessing upon His people Israel (the actors) as well as his judgements upon them for sin.

 

     At the dedication of the first Temple, Solomon prays the following prayer: "As for the foreigner who does not belong to your people Israel but has come from a distant land because of your name - for men will hear of your great name and your mighty hand and your outstretched arm - when he comes and prays toward this temple, then hear from heaven your dwelling place, and do whatever the foreigner asks of you, so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your own people Israel..."

 

     "Centrifugal" missions is where there is a thrusting out from the center. This is not God's primary method in the Old Testament though there are foreshadowings of it. Even in their judgement and exile, for example, the people of Israel bear witness to the glory, power and love of the living God. This is what the books of Daniel and Esther are all about, as God uses this chastened people's faith to bring the knowledge of the living God to their Babylonian and Persian overlords. God vindicates his holiness in these judgements but never permanently and always with ultimate salvation in view, and the net effect in the end is missions to these Gentile nations!

 

     A rule of thumb in interpreting Scripture is that "the New is in the Old concealed, and the Old is in the New revealed." Though there were a few instances of "centrifugal" missions in the Old Testament where God actually sent an individual missionary out to foreign peoples (eg: Jonah to Nineveh), and there are numerous prophecies for the nations surrounding Israel (Amos 1-2) and even for the entire world (Jeremiah 25), it is not until the New Testament that we get the shift of focus to sending out, or "apostolic" missions. The new international and interracial nature of the church necessitated this.

 

     Even here, though, the gathering in (to a central community of the people of God) is not lost in the New Testament, as God's plan is to establish a Jewish-Gentile (World) Church, which will be an attraction to the non-believer everywhere it is planted even while the Gospel is constantly going out from those centers of worship and fellowship. So both centripetal and centrifugal missions operate to some degree in both Testaments. God's plan throughout the ages has always been that "the earth...be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea!" (Isaiah 11:9).

 

 

II. Knowing the meaning of obedience by following Jesus example

 

     The Father (God) sent His Son (Jesus) into the world (John 7:16; 8:42). This is the great paradigm for missions. Jesus is a great starting place for thinking about missions because he embodies the best of all aspects of missions from a human and "wholistic" perspective in his teaching and his life while on earth. Paul and the other Apostles reflect much of this also in their teachings and lives, but you see it best in the Gospels where the focus is not as much on ideas and doctrines as on life and relationships, and the emphasis is more on story-action than on didactic reasoning, important as that also is. (This is not to downplay the critical role of the epistles in the New Testament, which serve to interpret more clearly the meaning of the life and teaching, death and resurrection of Christ).

 

     In terms of obedience, Jesus is the perfect missionary. He obeyed His Father perfectly. In Jesus we see the perfect balance between proclamation and "presence," between witness and self-giving, between words and ways. It's the balance of preaching the good news of the Gospel to all (essential to mission of any kind) and practicing love through healings of mind and body, providing food when needed and accepting, even lifting up, the lowest and poorest classes of people (also essential to true mission). He is constantly being asked (by almost everyone) to prove his identity as the Messiah, and his typical response is to point to his works as the proof for his teachings. "I have testimony weightier than that of John (the Baptist). For the very work that the Father has given me to finish, and which I am doing, testifies that the Father has sent me" (John 5:36).

 

     When John the Baptist expressed personal doubts, Jesus tells the disciples, "Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor" (Matthew 11:4-5, Luke 7:22). This is a direct fulfillment of prophecy about the Messiah and his role(s) when he comes, which Jesus announces early in his preaching in the synagogue at Nazareth as being "fulfilled that very day in their hearing" (Luke 4:16-21, Isaiah 29:18-19; 61:1-2). For us to have a firm grasp of Jesus example in mission, we must see the breadth of his ministry as well as its depth.

 

     Now I'm not suggesting, however, that obedience to Jesus today means that we must do all the things he did either in degree or in kind. God gives "gifts (for ministry)...to each one, just as he determines," and "There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men" (see I Corinthians 12:1-13).

 

     What's more, lest we think that not performing miracles in our day may be a failure of obedience of some kind, it seems clear from observing the history of the Church that God gave unusual numbers of miracles in two basic clusters: the Exodus from slavery in Egypt and the events surrounding Jesus and the first generation church. Why is this so? I would guess because these are the two pivotal "moments" in redemptive history, where:

 

  1) God revealed the Mosaic Law (particularly the teaching about what sin is and how important is sacrifice for sin), and

  2) God incarnated Himself in the person of Jesus Christ (who would become the full and final sacrifice for the sin of the world)

 

     This is the heart of the Gospel message isn't it? Both of these major actions of God needed to have the unmistakable "fingerprints" of God on them for future generations to see (in Scripture) as well as for the present generations in those times to believe.

 

     What, then is important for our obedience to Jesus example in this generation? Two things strike me as essential:

 

  1) Faithfulness to God's revealed truth and it's embodiment in the corporate life and witness of his church, and

  2) Commitment to world evangelization and mission in the fuller sense of the breadth of ministries exemplified above in Jesus.

 

     Consider faithfulness: Where the church suffers, for example, in a hostile environment, it is faithfulness to Jesus Christ and love for the Body of Christ (the Church) which counts. The Middle Eastern churches are "going through the fire" these days, particularly the church in and around Israel where a relatively racist government on the one hand wants to suppress all claims by Arabs (Christian or Muslim) to equal rights, and fundamentalist Islamic factions on the other hand want to establish the rule of Islam, resorting to more overt forms of terrorism to do it.

 

     The faithfulness of the church to Christ in the midst of  persecution is perhaps the only form of mission it can exercise since it is restricted from giving any overt testimony to Christ through preaching or personal witness. The Middle Eastern Church sees itself today as fulfilling its role as a witness to Christ there simply by remaining faithful to Christ during this period of intense oppression and persecution.

 

     The same could probably be said for the church in China in recent decades, but as the spiritual climate changed (with Marxism losing its hold on the minds of the people) that church now has grown in astonishing and unpredictable ways (up from a few million to an estimated 50 million since the missionaries started to leave in 1949)! Faithfulness made the difference.

 

     Talk about faithfulness: It has been said that there are more martyrs for the Christian faith in the 20th century than there have been in all the previous centuries combined! Obedience in our century means that individuals not only refuse to compromise on the Gospel and on their identification with the Church, but they also look for opportunities to influence society in their own "Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8).

 

   - Do you want share the Gospel somewhere in the world in obedience to God? Are you obedient to doing that now?...especially in your own context (or Jerusalem) here at the university among fellow students? You don't have to have a calling to be an "evangelist" to share the Gospel, (though you may have such a calling!) Are you trying to learn the essential truth of the Gospel message so that you know how to share it with someone interested enough to listen? (There are many good books on this by IV Press by the way).

 

   - Do you want to follow Jesus example? Jesus instructed in his "Sermon on the Mount" (Matthew 5:13-16) that we should be "salt and light." Well then, are you "salt and light" in your home and among your classmates?  I take "salt" to mean, among other things, that Jesus wants us to stand for what is right in an otherwise wrong or morally corrupt environment. And I take "light" to mean, among other things, that Jesus wants us to bring truth to an environment otherwise filled with falsehood or partial truths (sound like the university atmosphere?). How are you doing at resisting the moral deviance and intellectual relativism of this campus? Are you looking for ways to influence others, or are you more being influenced by them?

 

   - Do you want to have a healing (of mind and/or body) ministry like Jesus did? Well then, are you open to people sharing deeply about themselves and their problems with you? How's your prayer life? Jesus said of some demons "this kind can come out only by prayer" (Mark 9:29). Maybe you have a friend who isn't troubled so much by demons as by guilt, anxiety, awareness of unconfessed sin, tension in relationships, lack of social skills, or a host of other things troubling their mind, and they might only share this over time with you as one of the few people they can trust. Praying for sensitivity and being available to people to listen when they express their troubles can be a vital form of ministry, just as helping people (Christian or non-Christian) with practical physical needs is a form on ministry. "Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ" (Galatians 6:2).

 

     You see, missions is integrally interwoven with discipleship.

I was impressed recently, for example, with a Christian student who went out of his way to help a newly arrived international figure out what to wear (especially the right kind of boots and socks) and where to buy these relatively cheaply. That international will probably never forget this practical act of kindness. For the Christian it was cross-cultural missions, because it was a person from another country and culture. It was also sacrificial discipleship because he had to go out of his way to help.

 

 

III. How to keep our mind and heart focused on mission

 

  A. How the early disciples kept focused on Jesus' mission

 

     The first century disciples seemed to do this with relative ease...probably because they had such a vivid memory of actually being with Jesus personally, watching him move out with love, teaching and healing toward people of all social classes and backgrounds, even Gentiles! Being filled with the Holy Spirit at Pentecost may have been enough in itself!

 

     Many of them left their jobs and careers, family, possessions etc. to follow him, but even these I notice had some difficulty when the going became rough (life threatening) or when they had to face including Gentiles as equals in their fellowships (their racial prejudice was challenged). Initial, and even repeated dedication to the Lord and His purposes is not enough to guarantee a life given to discipleship. It is not simply an endeavor generated in human strength. God's grace must be abundantly given along the way.

 

     The classic example is Peter here. He's like the whole Jewish church really but far more visible in Scripture. Peter didn't know himself (as a sinner) very well, even after three years of relatively close contact with Jesus. He promised to die for Christ, but Jesus knew better, and thankfully enabled Peter to go through the heart-wrenching experience of denying Christ just before the crucifixion and then, unlike Judas, coming out a repentant and chastened disciple (Luke 22:31-34). Such deepening is necessary for us too if we would truly keep our mind and heart focused on Jesus, so we shouldn't be too surprised if Jesus allows some hard things to come into our life, even when we're seemingly obeying him in every way we know how.

 

     Peter also was intimidated by the Jewish Christians after Christ's resurrection...so much so that in Antioch he opposed Paul in refusing to eat with the Gentile Christian converts there (Galatians 2:11-15). Not too good a cross-cultural missionary example! He lost his focus on the mission at that point, yielding to fear of the Jewish leaders who came from Jerusalem. Thankfully Paul had not lost his focus! Paul's was based on his own dramatic conversion experience and a direct vision from the Lord on the Damascus Road regarding the Lord's desire to open the door of faith to the Gentiles (Acts 9:15; 26:12-20). Knowing God's word helps!

 

     Peter's focus was restored in the context of fellowship with other alive and focused Christians, and this should be a clue for us in terms of our keeping in close, regular contact with a Christian group. Some in Inter Varsity these days are reading Eugene Peterson's books and talking a lot about having a more mature Christian mentor to help insure continued spiritual growth. Certainly the early church in their own way practiced learning from the apostles (mentors) and sharing intimately with one another. "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayers" (Acts 2:42).

 

     It's comforting to me that Peter, the grand leader of the original twelve disciples, should find things difficult and even fail at points. If God can overrule Peter's failings and create the empire-changing church that eventually resulted, I need not feel that it all depends on my commitment or focus to accomplish God's work in my sphere of influence. God is going to see His Kingdom purposes accomplished with or without me, but Scripture gives me ample warnings of the ways I (and we) can avoid disappointing Him and losing our reward in heaven perhaps for failures along the way.

 

     Peter and the early church had earlier received a number of directions from God about inclusion of the Gentiles into the church. It's a fascinating Bible study to work through the first 15 chapters of Acts looking for evidences of racism in the early church and how God, the Holy Spirit, deals with the Jewish church's resistance to including the Gentiles as full and equal members. The Holy Spirit time and again leads the church toward inclusiveness via things like the appointing of Deacons to meet the needs of the Greeks in Jerusalem, the scattering of the church throughout Judea after the death of James and persecution of the Jerusalem church by the Romans, and the ministry of people like Philip in Samaria among Gentiles like Simon the sorcerer and the Ethiopian eunuch. The culminating event, of course, was Peter's own vision of God making unclean animals clean and then leading him to the Roman Centurion, Cornelius,' house (again the eating-with-Gentiles issue) (Acts 10).

 

     The care with which the Lord deals with Peter on this difficult racial issue gives me great confidence that God gives equal care to me in my areas of weakness and can still use me when I give myself unreservedly again and again to God in spite of weakness. It also means that God is able to overcome the deepest of prejudices in our lives in His time and way...but that these areas must be overcome if he is ever to keep us focused on his mission, which is at heart so thoroughly cross-cultural and inter-racial.

 

  B. How we can keep focused on Jesus mission

 

     I've mentioned the importance of good teaching, fellowship and prayer with other believers. For you as an individual I recommendation that you focus on prayer and saturate your mind with personal study of the Scriptures, even if only in extended Quiet Times. When Paul wrote his second letter to Timothy from prison in Rome, he was concerned that Timothy carry on the mission if Paul's life should be taken. Paul said: "Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth" (II Timothy 2:15).

 

     The Psalms, for example, are a good place to study the Scripture and learn something about prayer as well. Billy Graham once said that every day he spends a certain amount of time reading the scriptures and praying, and he always includes a Psalm because it is an encouragement to worship. In terms of mission focus, when I study Scripture I always have an eye open to passages that point to God's concern for the nations, and one of the most surprising things to me in studying the Psalms was to discover the constant reference to the "nations" or "peoples" (plural...not just one people Israel).

 

     This was surprising because one expects to find the focus on God in devotional passages like this in Scripture, but not a focus on missions. Yet here is a collection of prayers in the Bible, the most devotional passages in the Scripture, talking about the world, the nations and God's concern for their salvation! Why is this so? It would seem that the closer you get to God, to knowing him intimately, the more you begin seeing into his heart concerns as well as learning about his glory and majesty as a person!

 

     Just to help you get started on this, take the following passages sometime and do a study of the Psalms looking for the uses of words like "nations," "peoples," etc. Ask yourself what God's intention and heart is for these peoples as you ponder these passages. Then praise him for what you discover. This exercise should help you along in keeping focused on Jesus mission!

 

 

Psalm 2:1,3-6,8

Psalm 9:7-8,11,15,19-20

Psalm 22:27-28

Psalm 33:8-15

Psalm 46:8-10

Psalm 47:1-2,7-9

Psalm 49:1-3,7-9,15

Psalm 57:2-3,9-11

Psalm 66:1-4,7

Psalm 67:1-7

 

     It's another good study, of course, to read through other passages in Old and New Testaments where there's a focus on mission as God's concern for all the peoples of the world, particularly peoples outside ones own cultural and ethnic boundaries. Here are a few other good passages to study and reflect on:

 

Genesis 12:1-3

Exodus 20:10

Leviticus 19:33-34

Deuteronomy 10:16-19: 31:12-13

I Kings 8:41-43

Isaiah 45:20,22; 55:5; 56:3,6-8

Ezekiel 37:26-28

Zechariah 8:20-23; 9:9-10

 

Matthew 8:5-13 (Roman)

Mark 7:24-30 (Greek)

Luke 9:51-54; 10:30-37; 17:11-19 (Samaritans)

Luke 2:32; 4:25-27; 7:1-10; 13:29; 23:26; 24:47 (Gentiles)

John 4 (Samaritan)

Matt.28:18-20; Mark 16:15; Luke 24:47-49 (Great Commission)

Acts 2:5-11 (representatives of surrounding nations)

Epistles (largely instructions to mixed Gentile-Jewish churches)

Matt. 25:31-40; Hebrews 13:1-2 (hospitality to strangers)

Matt. 24:14; Revelation 7:9-10 (end of history)

 

     One of the things that helps keep me focused on critical areas of Bible teaching (as well as being helpful in giving the Gospel and other Scriptural instruction to others) is having memorized many verses of Scripture. The Navigators have an excellent "topical memory system." They call it "scripture for busy people" because most of us, in hurried urban societies at least, don't feel we have the time to sit down for hours and memorize things. The Nav. system encourages the use of small carrying cards that can be used while in idle moments waiting in a lunch line, at a bus stop, for a class to start, etc., etc..."saving otherwise idle moments."

 

 

     Another thing that has helped is reading good books on missions, particularly well written biographies of missionaries.  One of these for me this past summer was reading Living Stones of the Himalayas, by Thomas Hale, a missionary doctor in the Hindu Kingdom of Nepal. Also exciting was reading about God's miracle-work among the Muslims of Afghanistan, where it is also illegal for one to become a Christian. That book is More to be Desired than Gold, by J. Christy Wilson, who taught in Afghanistan many years.

 

     Perhaps you know of other current biographies that are good, particularly of pastors, teachers, evangelists, missionaries and perhaps even "tentmakers" or non-professional missionaries who use their own professions to advance the Gospel.

 

IV. Practical application of mission in our daily lives

 

     Keeping focused is one thing, doing something about it is another. Let me in closing give you some practical suggestions as to areas you could pursue personally in coming weeks and months on a daily basis.

 

  1. Include in your daily prayers a missionary or two that you know personally or could find out more about. Find out more about this person's personal needs and concerns in their ministry by writing a personal letter to them and letting them know you are praying for them daily. Pray for God's grace to keep holding them up even when you don't much feel like it.

 

  2. In your daily reading of Scripture begin looking for mention of the nations, peoples of the world, Gentiles of various kinds, foreigners, aliens in our midst, sojourners or travelers, etc. Make note of these on a piece of paper you can easily slip in to your Bible for quick finding.

 

  3. Begin daily "journaling." That is, keep track of some of the things, however small or seemingly insignificant, that God is saying to you or doing in your life as they happen (so you won't forget about them). At the end of a week or month it can be quite exciting and encouraging to go back over these things and you might even see a pattern or get some guidance from recognizing a persistent, though quiet, "still small voice of God" to you.

 

  4. Try the Navigator small card system of daily memorizing a few verses of key Scriptures that God gives you. You will do well to only memorize about three a week since memorization requires repeated going over, and you may only be able to snatch a few moments each day on each verse. Remember periodically to pull out the older (already memorized) verses to refresh your memory of them.

 

  5. Try "nibbling" at a chapter a day (or less) of a missionary biography. The late evening before bed might be a good time for this. If you're like me, it will help put you to sleep! After finishing this book, you might go on to other types of books needed for your spiritual growth and development to establish a habit of reading Christian literature over time. You can always come back to another biography as you find a good one. (My problem is I have too many good books waiting to be read!)

 

     A few books on the subjects of evangelism and missions are: Campus Evangelism Handbook, "A Practical Guide for Showing and Sharing God's Love" (IVP, 1987); "New Hope for the 90s" The Coming Great Awakening (IVP, 1990); and "Ready to do something?" 50 Ways you can Reach the World (IVP, 1993).

 

  6. Look for an opportunity each day to share something of the Gospel with another student or at least something from the Lord with another Christian friend for their encouragement. The Holy Spirit will give you the openings as you are willing and open.

 

     You will do in years to come what you start doing here and now. Don't think you will become a missionary in any sense (volunteer or full time) if you have to wait until you are in a special "mission" situation to begin sharing your faith...it doesn't work that way. Another caution: this, like any other of the above things to do, does not need to become a legalistic demand of your conscience (you can guard against that by purposely not doing it occasionally...at the very least you'll find out if legalism's a problem for you this way!)

 

  7. Doing mission is serving others, as well as sharing verbally. What are some simple ways you can serve others in your daily routines on campus? You know your own sphere of activities best. Could you offer to help type a roommate's paper who is under pressure of a deadline?...prepare some music, or snacks, for the fellowship meeting coming up?...if you have a car, let it be known you'll run an  errand for someone in the group if they need it and haven't the time?...other ways? It's those practical little things that exhibit a spirit of service growing in you daily. Jesus said that only if we are faithful in little things will be able to be faithful in bigger ones.

 

     One way to serve others is to get involved in a project which meets the needs of people and where you are held accountable for doing something by being with others in the process. A project has a beginning and an end, so this might last a week or even just a weekend (not necessarily daily). I mention it here as it could be a key way to serve during a break time or less demanding period in the semester. For example: In August meeting newly arrived international students (from whatever country...breadth of missions, remember?), in cooperation with the Foreign Student Office on campus. In Madison we do an annual "Tour of Madison" for Univ. of Wisconsin students there. It's practical, project oriented missions, and a great way to get started in a potential friendship with an international student.

 

  8. Finally, start writing email, or if necessary, "snail mail" [postal letters :)], to a missionary or two. By getting their prayer letter regularly you can pray for them and begin supporting their ministry as well as learn first hand about mission work in another culture and part of the world.

 

     All these are just suggestions for getting going practically. If they seem overwhelming to you, start with just one suggestion, but don't wait for some bolt of lightning from God to strike you before you get moving in obedience to God's known will!