What is ‘Christian Missions’?
Pt. 4, “What is Your Role in Missions?”
by John Ambrose
If you’ve read through the previous three articles about Christian Missions, congratulations. You may be feeling a little beat up, a little discouraged, or a little confused about what to do. Let me attempt to allay some of these.
And if you’ve read them, you know how to answer, “Do I (need to) play a role in Christian missions?” If you are a follower of Jesus – Yes! You do!
Now the question in focus is “What is my role?”
Thank you for asking. Let’s think this through together. First, let’s start with the end in mind.
Jesus wins.
Our Savior, who cannot be contained by death and could not be stained by sin, will be worshipped and receive the glory that He seeks. He will have people from every tongue, tribe, people, and nation in His family. He has won. He will win.
Second, our lives are like the 6:00 am dew. They don’t last long. But we have been granted not only salvation through faith in the blood of Jesus, but a chance to participate in His mission before we die and join Him in eternity, removed of the curse of sin. That alone should motivate us to put down the distracting glow of our smartphones and Netflix and follow Him to the unknown. If it is not enough, consider the billions who need to hear Jesus, some of whom will weep for joy when they encounter His salvation for the first time. I have seen the look on a Muslim man’s face when he was struck by the love of Jesus. There are no words that can describe the hell from which he was just snatched. I live for the glory of Jesus, but I am motivated by the potential to see that look again.
If none of these thoughts or ideas are enough to stir your heart, find the nearest electronic defibrillator. Or find a way to remind yourself of your purpose. Whether that’s reading a Christian’s biography or watching a gospel focused movie or hearing someone’s testimony, seek it and treasure it.
Having found your source of passion, discover also your gifts. And I’m talking specifically about Holy Spirit giftings (see 1 Cor. 12) for building the church. Then workout those muscles. For me, the thing I love the most is teaching. Although I am passionate about my own personal Bible study, there is just something wonderful about being able to help someone light up when they understand a truth from the Scriptures they hadn’t noticed before, especially if it increases their passion to take their cross and follow Jesus. I was just learning about some Moravian missionaries who sold themselves into slavery to minister to an island full of slaves. Their motivation – “May the lamb who was slain receive the reward of His suffering.” They took up their crosses with painful joy.
Now the key part – build the church. Wherever you are, regardless of what your future plans are, the local gathering of believers is the arm of Christ’s body. He is reaching into the heart of a dark world. He
does this by the church. I promise you will find stupid, sinful people in any church. You will be one of them. Working with and for the church is not easy. But Jesus loves His bride. It is towards the church that He shows His greatest affection. Learn to love and serve the local church. Ask your pastor(s) how you can do this. It is especially satisfying when you do it by doing something you love. There’s nothing like doing something that will affect eternity with a heart full of joy.
Then, having infiltrated your local church with love and service, learn about just one unreached people group (if you don’t intimately know any already). This can come from missionary stories, research (joshuaproject.net is a good resource), and eventually from getting a team of people to actually go there. This may feel unrealistic (it is certainly idealistic), but it is doable. The only way 7,414 estimated unreached people groups hear about Jesus and get to have a church and Scriptures in their language is if one person or group of people does the hard work of getting to them.
Take a Perspectives course (Lord willing, if you live near Kittanning, Pa, we will have one for you starting the beginning of 2023! But there are always many happening. Check out “Classes” at perspectives.org). Study your Bible and trace the theme of “the nations” (yes, God is doing something big for Gentiles the whole way through the Old Testament, too; see Gen. 12:3 “all the families of the earth”). Interact with someone from your church or a mission agency who can point you in the right direction. Go on a short- term mission trip. There are so many ways to take small steps that lead to big ones.
And one final note. Missions is different now than ever before in history. To begin with, more than half of the world’s population lives in the city. Also, North America and Europe used to send more missionaries than the rest of the world combined. That is no longer the case. South America, Asia, Africa – they are all sending missionaries to other places. Mongolia was at one point the leader for sending the most missionaries per capita. Some studies now indicate that it is Palestine and Ireland. Brazil and South Korea usually top the charts for most numbers of missionaries (although the U.S. is still the foremost for this). Even post-COVID, missionaries are coming from everywhere and going to everywhere. We are a part of a global revolution that will echo through eternity and is led by many different languages and peoples. But the laborers are still few. So, we still pray. We still send. We still go. We still believe that we have power given by the One who has all authority. And we still have the promise that He is with us... until He comes back to bring us Home.
“May the lamb who was slain receive the reward of His suffering.”