Please take a minute to help one of our readers to discuss how to be vital in our walk with Christ. Click here to see Jocelyn's entry and her question. Your interaction would be greatly appreciated.

Enjoy the discussion. 

To say that someone has influencing hands, we are making a significant statement. We are saying that this person’s character and actions have profound effects on those around them. Now influence isn’t always good, but lets focus on spiritual influence here. 

To work in missions our hands must be about the business of influencing those around us for God’s glory. What does that look like?

Dee Nyamieh Walker, Ph.D., a missionary appointee to Sub-Saharan Africa for HCJB World Radio (www.hcjb.org), shares his thoughts on hands than influence.

“A missionary is an influencer - one called to positively influence others for an eternity with God.  To be a positive influencer, the missionary should be accessible to others.  To be a positive influencer, spiritual maturity, in my estimation, is the most important characteristic a missionary should have.  The missionary (like other Christians) is in a spiritual war zone.  S/he needs to always put on the full armor of God.  In order to do this, a missionary must constantly be in tune with God's leading (through prayer, Bible study, fellowship with other mature missionaries, and sometimes fasting in solitude).  The missionary who thinks s/he has attained maturity because of academic accolades, favor with others and/or experience in scholarship and speaking, is treading on dangerous grounds.  A missionary must have an intimate relationship with God by daily trusting in the Lord with all his/her heart and leaning not on his/her own understanding; by acknowledging God in all his/her ways (Prov. 3:5-6).  This is a proactive pursuit of God in whose service the missionary has been called.”   

So are you in good enough spiritual shape to be an influencer?

Do you lead people around you into a deeper walk with Christ or do you create conflict, self-promotion or confusion around you? Being a positive influencer isn’t an automatic missionary gift – we must seek it in our walk with Christ!

Misunderstanding is part of a missionaries' MO. You are misunderstood in a new culture and misunderstood by new partners that you are striving to work with.

Misunderstandings lead to conflict - and there is always plenty of that in dynamic missions situations. So what do you need to be ready for - FORGIVENESS.

A heart of forgiveness will make a huge difference as you try to impact the world through service to Christ.

Debora Baltazar, Tuvida.com Associate Director, Book of Hope International (www.bookofhope.net), says we need to proactively forgive!

"The most important characteristic for a new missionary to be an effective servant is to have a forgiving heart all the time. So many things happen around the new world of missionaries and they need to be forgiving the people (in their target people group) all the time. Missionaries need to have a clear communication with God and holding unforgiveness in their hearts will not allow them to hear from God and know the Lord's will for their lives and ministries. It creates an obstacle in the fulfillment of God's plan for the missionary's life. A missionary needs to make a decision everyday to forgive in advance to those who might offend them and to those who would be even be against them. Do just like Jesus did when He paid a high price and forgave all those who tortured Him while in the cross."

Are you willing to forgive in advance? 

One question I have recieved as we have been doing this blog about effective service in the 21st Century is, "How do you define effective?"

Good question!

Effectiveness is not objective. Effectiveness cannot be defined in a list. There are many things that you will see very quickly rise to the surface through this blog, but you cannot simply define effectiveness and be done with it.

Effectiveness has a lot to do with culture and with God's heart for a specific set of people. 

Our hands reflect the authenticity in our lives. In our hands we see the wear and tear of life and we have to connect that reality with how we represent ourselves.

Lim Phi-lan, Member care coordinator for YWAM, Singapore (www.ywam.org) makes this comment, "My short answer would be intimacy with Christ & authenticity."

This is a real test of our heart for missions. Are we willing to invest the time it takes to be intimate with Christ and to be authentic with those around us. People can see through a person who doesn't really have holy initmacy. And people can sure see a lack of authenticity in the lives of people working in their culture.

So are you willing to invest the time to create an intimacy that will lead to authenticity. Only then will true cross-cultural relationships flourish.