The Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How of Missions
Let me begin by saying that these lessons were prepared by me personally and were used in teaching a group of believers about Missions. Although I have served as a missionary for over twenty years with the last 20 years being in Africa, this is just a very limited study of a profound subject. I feel about it somewhat the way I felt about all the courses I taught in Kenya, East Africa when I began a school there in 1989 which I called my "Discipleship Training Center". I had graduated from the Seminary in 1985 with an MA and realized that I had not reached the goal of MDiv which I had started for. So ... I called every course I taught an "Introduction To:" course. We had "Introduction to the Old Testament", "Introduction to the New Testament", "Introduction to Hermeneutics/Preaching", "Introduction to Pastoral Theology", etc., and etc. So - as one of my brothers says in his blog - "For What It's Worth" here are some thoughts about Missions and Missionaries.
INTRODUCTION
Briefly:
Who is a Missionary?
What is Missions?
When does Missions begin?
Where does Missions take place?
Why does Missions take place?
How is Missions work done?
Who is a Missionary?
Definition
Purpose
Supported
His/her Work
A missionary is defined as a person who moves from his own country of residence to another country for the purpose of proclaiming the gospel. He is recognized by the Church and is supported by the church in his missionary endeavors. We limit the term missionary in the same way that we limit the use of other evangelical terms. For example: We call a man a “Pastor” if he leads a church. If he is a preacher but has no church for which he is responsible we call him an “Evangelist”. Now, a Pastor can and should do the work of an Evangelist. An Evangelist may act in the role of a Pastor or shepherd. He may find a bruised and battered sheep in his path, and pick up that weary soul, binding up wounds and lovingly holding and asking God for the healing of this sheep until the sheep is better and ready to walk again on his own.
Does a person have to be “called” to be a missionary? In light of Jesus’ command in Matthew 28:19, every believer has “a call” to be a missionary. Yes, I believe that God does call certain individuals to certain places for certain tasks in these un-certain times. I’m fully aware that God gives individuals a “burden” or “desire” to be an Evangelist. To others he gives the desire to be a Pastor. To still another they feel complete and fulfilled with the joy of the Lord in serving the church by singing in the choir or teaching a Sunday School class. In other words, God gives them a “want to” to do what they do for His glory. They are happy in that role. I believe we all can function in other roles but we are more content when doing what we “want to” for the Lord.
Let me illustrate. While pastoring in Waynesboro, TN one of the older men whose wife and family had been members of the church for a long time came to the altar to ask the Lord to save him. He wept a puddle of tears on the altar. He was so intense in his prayer, so broken up inside his spirit for about thirty minutes that I just knew he was saved. However, when I asked him if he felt that he was now saved, he said, “No. I can’t get saved. I know that the Bible says that no man can be saved except the spirit of the Lord draws him.” Finally, I asked him, “Don’t you want to be saved?” His response was immediate and animated. “Of course, I do! I want to get saved more than anything else in the world, but I have to wait until the Spirit draws me.” I then asked, “What do you think makes you “want to”? Who do you think gave you that desire to be saved?”
Sadly – that night Quinton did not accept salvation because I was un-able to help him to understand that him wanting to be saved was the sign that God, the Holy Spirit, was “drawing” him. He did get saved much later. But at that moment he had trouble un-raveling the meaning of the Scriptures.
What I’m saying here is that if you develop an intense desire to go to a foreign field and do work for God that it is God who has given you the “want to”. The devil will certainly not call you or give you a desire to do anything for God. Also I’m saying that if you have the “want-to” you can go based on the call of Jesus to every disciple to “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be damned.” Compare Matthew 28:19 and Mark 16:15.
What is Missions?
The mission, the task, the job, the purpose for which Christ came into the world is a good place to start in our understanding of missions. It means that because “Christ came into the world to save sinners” we go into the world to see sinners saved. Jesus said, “I have come to seek and to save those which were lost.”
He came to heal and to bind up wounds. He came to set at liberty them that are bruised. He performed miracles and instructed his disciples to heal the sick and cast out devils as they preached the gospel. Compare John 3:17
Ministry can and is performed by teams of builders who go to foreign lands to help those who either do not have the funds or the skills to build a building. If they are not witnesses to the power of Jesus to save the lost then they are really only doing social work. Doctors and Nurses may be moved by the great need for medical attention that is so direly needed in foreign lands and out of humanitarian concerns may move to a foreign country to live and work in their profession. However, if they have no involvement in telling the story of Jesus and leading men and women to Christ, they are not missionaries. They are merely doing social/humanitarian work. What I am saying should in no way negate the importance of their great hearts as they give their energies to helping the less fortunate. They are moved with compassion and a desire to help with the physical needs they see. That is a good thing – but it is not being a missionary.
The key is: To win the confidence of a lost world so that one becomes a credible witness to the saving power of Jesus!
Why Missions?
I. Why do we need missionaries?
a. Because Jesus commanded it in Matthew 28:19-20 “[19] Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: [20] Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”
b. Because hell is a real place and real people die and go there. Mark 16:15-16 “And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. [16] He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.”
II. Some teach that Matthew 24:14 gives a reason for missions. Jesus said in that verse, “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” If you choose to believe that your witness will hasten the day of the Lord’s return then that is your pre-rogative. If it motivates you to go to foreign fields to tell the story of Salvation through the love of Jesus, God’s only son (or support those who do go) then thank God for the message being spread and thank God for every soul that is reached. However – consider this:
a. I submit to you that we cannot take any action, pray any prayer, fast any length of days or do any otherwise noble and wonderful thing that will change the date of the Lord’s return. That day and that hour has been settled in Heaven. Jesus said that the angels in heaven do not know and that the son did not know but the Father (and only the Father) knows the day of the Lord’s second coming.
b. Then what is the meaning of Matthew 24:14? When studying the 24th chapter of Matthew one needs to consider that the disciples had asked Jesus three questions. 1) When shall these things be? 2) What shall be the time of thy coming? And 3) What shall be the time of the end? Following the questions, Jesus addresses all three questions, but not necessarily in chronological order.
i. “These things” REFERS TO THE DESTRUCTION OF Jerusalem, which happened in AD 70.
ii. “Time of his coming” refers to the rapture of the church, the marriage supper/tribulation and “coming with his saints”.
iii. “The end” will not happen until the millennial reign (1000 years reign of Christ and his saints on the earth) is finished and satan is loosed out of the bottomless pit and goes out to deceive the nations – then the final judgment of the nations (or the great white throne judgment).
So – For the joy of salvation we go tell the story of Jesus to the lost. On the other hand we go For the horror of hell! 2 Cor. 5:11 "Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men;..."
Some go for social work
Hospitals
Schools
Feeding Centers
Orphanages
Men and Women Of Action teams go to build or remodel buildings. All of these things are well and good - but if we do not take the story of Salvation then we might as well support the theology of the Hardshell Baptists!
When Do We Go?
Issues of Age
God calls very young children to be missionaries. Others hear the call to go as missionary much later in life. Remember that God is always on time. Do we send children who are 7 or 17 years of age? (If accompanied by parents, then small children do become missionaries. i.e., Laura Bloodworth, Matt Womble, Lauren Davis) In my own case, I felt the burden for Africa at the age of 16. However, I did not arrive in Africa until much later at the age of 50! Be patient. You need time to be prepared for the ministry God calls you to. Be patient.
Issues of Qualifications
Requirements of the Church
High School;
College?
Requirements of Foreign Governments
“You must have skills not found in our own people.”
Prefer Doctorates but will accept Master’s
Issues of support
One must not go to the field if he has to beg while on the field. He/She must be assured that they will not become an embarrassment to the Lord and the church. One faith-based mission I know about was called “Mountain-Moving-Faith Missions”. One of our missionaries rented the house they had been renting because they could no longer pay their rent and decided that it was time to leave the field and return home.
Where Do We Go?
Anywhere - Matthew 28:19 Our field is “the world”.
One may go anywhere there are lost people and “do” missionary work.
2 Tim. 4:5 “But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. “
Where do you feel led to go?
This has to do with our call. My call is first “Into All The World”. But while I believe that it is legitimate for any saved, born-again, Holy Ghost filled individual to say at any time that he is going to the missions field to do something for the Lord, I also believe that God does call certain individuals for certain tasks at certain times to certain places.
God showed Frances a picture of a map of Kenya in a dream
Before I had ever mentioned Kenya, Africa or even talked of going to Africa in our family, God allowed mother to see herself in an airplane, flying over the Ngong Hills into an Airport in Kenya. In her dream she spelled it, K-E-N-Y-A. When she woke up she asked Dad whether there was a country anywhere in the world called Kenya. When he said, “Yes. It’s in Africa.” She said, “Well, I’m going there someday.”
Go where you are needed
I really feel that this is where my calling came from. I visited Kenya for 3 weeks in 1987 and saw several nneds in our churches that I felt if I were there I could make a positive difference in. Out of that (and the request from the people on the ground there) I did pray for God to meet that need and to show me if he wanted me to go to Kenya in person.
We must also deal here with the issue of submission. Submission is to God first. Like the disciples, we will “obey God rather than men”. However, we are also told that we are to submit to those who are over us in the Lord. More strongly – we are told to “obey” spiritual leaders in the church. Hebrews 13:17 “Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.” Compare also, 1 Peter 5:5 “Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.”
My experience has been that when a man or woman gets to the point that they will not submit to the church leadership they are soon destined for personal failure. As Gene Rice often said, “Your attitude determines your altitude.” James said, “He that humbleth himself shall be exalted – but he that exalteth himself shall be abased.”
This idea of discipleship can be deceptive. Let us look at it with great care. Jesus told his disciples to go into all the world and make disciples, and to teach those disciples whatever Jesus had taught them. I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. I am not a disciple of other men – although more than one wanted me to be his personal “disciple”. Now – men can teach me, and have taught me many things about the work of God, but when I reach a certain point in my relationship with my fellow minister he has to know he is not the final authority in my life.
I’ve had missionaries under my supervision who refused to do what I asked them to do. It is o.k. with me as long as they are sure of themselves (and conduct themselves with honor and in a respectful manner) that they disagree with me. However, there is this matter of submission to those in authority. If anyone asks you to do something that is a clear violation of the teachings in the Bible -- we are to refuse. Our integrity is vitally important to our success in God's work. But if a leader asks you to do something which you can do and in which you can be obedient to God then you are not being asked to dis-obey Holy Scripture.
I'm sure someone who reads this will have corrective and enlightening things to say. Just know that I am ready to sit down and consider your opposing views. I will seriously study any light you may shed on the above teachings.
