The
Great Commission is something that I think about daily. I have many family
members and friends who do not understand why Ryan and I have chosen to follow
this will of God. Often times we hear questions of why we must go to a
different country to glorify God rather than staying here in Smalltown, USA,
and helping those in dire need all around us. The very simplified answer to
that is that it is God’s definite will for all
peoples to know Him. And in the simplest of all simple answers, those who have
not heard will not hear until someone
proclaims the gospel to them.
I
believe that there are enough people, physical churches, and resources (bibles,
other books, the internet, etc.) here for anyone in the US who is curious about
God to ask around and find answers. [Disclaimer: That is not by any means to say that I do not think
that evangelizing and disciplining here is any less important than in other
nations – for if it wasn’t for domestic missions, neither my husband nor I
would have become believers.] On the other hand, there are so many other places
in the world that are literally unreached and in which the Gospel has never
been heard, and other places where the Gospel has been heard but true, Gospel-oriented churches have hardly been established. So while there is a definite need for domestic missionaries, there
is also an incredible need for the gospel to be taken to all other people in
the world.
I
have read the following article on foreign missions (by John Piper) before, but
as I reread it today I couldn’t help but share it with all of you!
I
really thought this article put things into a detailed, yet simple
understanding of the convictions of foreign missions.
All
of the below are highlights that came straight from the text and although the
article is lengthy, I encourage you to just go to the following website and
read it in entirety. It takes each of the following points and further explains them - is well worth the read!
Driving Convictions
Behind Foreign Missions
By John
Piper and Tom Stellar
Conviction #1—God’s Goal in Creation and
Redemption Is a Missionary Goal Because Our God Is a Missionary God
Conviction #2—God Is
Passionately Committed to His Fame. God’s Ultimate Goal Is That His Name Be
Known and Praised by All the Peoples of the Earth.
Conviction #3—Worship
Is the Fuel and the Goal of Missions.
Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is.
Missions exists because worship doesn’t. God’s passion is to be known and honored
and worshipped among all the peoples. To worship him is to share that passion
for his supremacy among the nations.
In
heaven there will be no missions; only worship. Gathered around the throne will
be worshipers from every tribe and tongue and people and nation (Revelation 7:9). Thus the
goal of missions will have been accomplished. But until that is the case, true
worshipers who have tasted the goodness of the Lord will not be content until
they have invited the nations to join them in the feast.
Conviction #4—God’s
Passion to Be Known and Praised by All the Peoples of the Earth Is Not Selfish,
But Loving.
Perhaps the best way to see that God’s passion for his fame is
an expression of his love is to notice that God’s mercy is the pinnacle of his
glory. This is what he wants to be honored for above all else. You can see this
in Romans 15:9 where Paul
says that the reason Christ came into the world was so “that the nations might
glorify God for his mercy.”
Do you see how the convictions already mentioned come together
in that little phrase: “glorify God for his mercy”? God gets the glory; we get
the mercy. God is praised; we are saved. God gets the honor; we get the joy.
God is glorified for his fullness; we are satisfied with his mercy.
So to sum up our convictions so far, there are two basic
problems in the universe: God is profaned and people are perishing. God will
not suffer his name to be dishonored indefinitely, but will act mightily to
vindicate his name and glorify himself among the nations. God has planned a way
to do this by saving the perishing through the death of his Son, Jesus, and
making them a worshipping people who enjoy his glory.
Conviction #5—God’s
Purpose to Be Praised Among All the Nations Cannot Fail. It Is an Absolutely
Certain Promise. It Is Going to Happen.
Conviction #6—Only in
God Will Our Souls Be At Rest.
Conviction
#7—Domestic Ministries Are the Goal of Frontier Missions.
Frontier missions is the exportation of the possibility and
practice of domestic ministries in the name of Jesus to unreached people
groups.
Why should there be tension between these two groups of people?
The frontier people honor the domestic people by agreeing that their work is
worth exporting. The domestic people honor the frontier people by insisting
that what they export is worth doing here. A crucial training ground for
frontier missions is on the home front engaging in domestic ministries.
Conviction #8—The
Missionary Task Is Focused on Peoples, Not Just Individual People, and Is
Therefore Finishable.
Conviction #9—The
Need of the Hour Is for Thousands of New Paul-Type Missionaries, A Fact Which
Is Sometimes Obscured by the Quantity of Timothy-Type Missionaries.
Conviction #10—It Is
the Joyful Duty and the Awesome Privilege of Every Local Church to Send Out
Missionaries “In a Manner Worthy of God” (3 John 6).
To
send in a manner worthy of God is to so recognize the supreme importance of
proclaiming the name of God in word and deed among the nations that we will do
whatever we can to support those who go out for the sake of the
name—spiritually, practically, emotionally, financially.
Conviction #11—We Are
Called to a Wartime Lifestyle for the Sake of Going and Sending.
Conviction #12—Prayer
Is a Wartime Walkie-Talkie Not a Domestic Intercom.
Conviction #13—Our
Aim Is Not to Persuade Everyone to Become a Missionary, But to Help Everyone
Become a World Christian.
Those who are not called to go out for the sake of the name are
called to stay for the sake of the name, to be salt and light right where God
has placed them, and to join others in sending those who are called to be
cross-cultural missionaries.
In God’s eyes both the goers and the senders are crucial. There
are no first and second class Christians in God’s hierarchy of values. Together
the goers and the senders are “fellow-workers with the truth” (3 John 8).
So
whether you are a goer or a sender is a secondary issue. That your heart beats
with God’s in his pursuit of worshipers from every tribe and tongue and people
and nation is the primary issue. This is what it means to be a World Christian.
Conviction #14—God Is
Most Glorified in Us When We Are Most Satisfied in Him; And Our Satisfaction in
Him Is Greatest When It Expands to Embrace Others—Even When This Involves
Suffering.
These are our driving missions convictions at Bethlehem. If God
opens your heart, you will see that there is no better way to live than in the
wartime lifestyle that maximizes all you are and all you have for the sake of
finishing the Great Commission. Because in this way God is magnified, we are
satisfied, and the nations are loved.
When it comes to world
missions, there are only three kinds of Christians: zealous goers, zealous
senders, and disobedient. Which will you be? Please join us in “spreading a
passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples.”
