I’m Channing Lewis, and this is how I’m living deeply through missions. 

“I’ll admit, when my husband Will and I got asked to join a group of young adults on a CSPC overseas trip last fall, I was all in right away. Traveling with friends sounded amazing. Will, though- he’s wiser about saying ‘yes’ to these things than me. So we talked about it a lot, then said ‘yes.’ It wasn’t a typical mission trip. We weren’t going to serve directly, but instead to learn and hopefully grasp a vision for church planting partnerships. Honestly, I didn’t even fully understand what that meant. We landed in London, then visited Manchester, and ended in Edinburgh. Each stop introduced us to churches and organizations doing incredible work to spread the Gospel in a post-Christian culture. In London, we met with the London Project, a group connecting existing churches rather than planting them. That struck a chord with me because of my work in disability ministry. I am the Ministry Relations Manager for Joni and Friends, Knoxville, and while I am not planting churches, I am helping plant ministries, so to speak. I also gather groups of leaders across the region, and so I resonated with their honesty on the challenges that come with this. Their perspective on the value of their work really helped me to see the importance of the daily tasks within my own role. In Manchester, we spent time with Ralph Cunnington and his team at City Church, who’ve planted several churches and been heavily supported by CSPC. Finally, in Edinburgh, we visited multiple church plants in various stages of growth. Seeing their struggles and sacrifices began to shift something in me. At first, it felt like we were just observing. But slowly, God started working on my heart. The people we met weren’t just pastors- they were men and women who had left stable jobs, homes, and communities because they were convicted about the urgency of the Gospel. They saw the need to bring Jesus into places where churches were closing, where faith had become foreign. It made me realize how comfortable I’d become in my own faith and how much room there was for God to make me uncomfortable in the best way possible.

One of the most impactful moments for me happened in Edinburgh, at Hope City Church. Their pastor, Matt Round, was once a key early leader of a large worldwide corporation. He had everything the world would define as success. But he walked away from it all to pastor a small church in an old business park. During our visit, he teared up as he admitted how hard it was. ‘This job is hard. People are the hardest thing I’ve ever worked with. I’ve faced temptations to quit,’ he said. Coming from someone who had faced unimaginable pressures in the corporate world, that was a powerful statement. But then he added, ‘I know how important this work is. People need saving.’ Hearing Matt speak drove home something God had been impressing on me throughout the trip: the urgency of the Gospel. It’s easy to forget that urgency when you’re surrounded by believers and live in a community like Knoxville, where faith feels normal. But in the UK, it’s different. Christianity isn’t just uncommon- it’s countercultural. Churches are closing. People openly admit they don’t believe in God. It felt shocking to me at first, but by the end of the trip, I realized how much our culture here in the U.S. is heading in the same direction. Our UK partners were telling us, ‘In 10 years, you all will be asking us what we did to beat past these issues.’ Will and I started asking each other hard questions: Are we too comfortable? What would it take for us to embrace discomfort for the sake of the Gospel? We don’t have many close relationships with people who don’t already believe God is sovereign. How can we change that? I know how much the Gospel’s changed me, so why am I not communicating that urgency? What would living with Gospel urgency look like? We don’t have all the answers yet. But God is shifting our perspective. He’s challenging us to open our lives more- to step into the discomfort of relationships and conversations that might feel hard. And we’re praying for wisdom about how to live out this urgency in a way that points others to Him.

One of the biggest takeaways for me and Will is how deeply we were challenged to look at our own community through fresh eyes. The pastors and church leaders we met were so intentional about studying the people around them- not just casually knowing their names or stories, but truly understanding their lives, their struggles, their needs. Watching them work, we realized that ministry isn’t always about grand gestures or programs. Sometimes, it’s just about opening your home, sharing a meal, or grabbing a coffee with someone who doesn’t yet know Christ. That conviction hit home for us. The leaders who organized the trip told us one of their goals was for the younger generation at CSPC (us!) to realize how important it is to invest in global missions, but also to see to see how that should lead into local missions. It’s easy to romanticize the idea of serving God somewhere far away, but we started to ask ourselves: Are we truly investing in people right here in Knoxville? Are we willing to step out of our comfort zone, even in small ways, to reflect God’s love in our own neighborhood? We realized that if we aren’t living sacrificially here, there’s no reason to think we’d suddenly start doing it somewhere else. One of the most powerful moments on the trip was hearing about how much of the world’s progress -things like public education, healthcare, and social reforms- have historically come about because of Christians who were simply living out their faith. It reminded me that God can use anyone, anywhere, when we’re willing to step into uncomfortable spaces and obey His call. The great thing about being part of the Body of Christ is, you never have to totally do it alone. We were able to see how deeply our church partners were living in community. That allowed us to deepen our own growing sense of community with the other CSPC young adults on the trip- and having that supportive community behind you is so key when God is calling you to step into new challenges. If you’re considering a missions trip, go! Go with open eyes and no expectations. Be ready to see God in ways you’ve never imagined, and let Him start to change how you live when you come home.”