Are You Called to Go or to Send?
Welcome back to week 3 of missions ministry with Pastor Mike! To listen to today’s Deeper Devo click HERE. Or feel free to check out my latest Revive Our Hearts post: The Impact of Being in God’s Word
“I just feel like with so many needs here, it’s hard for me to focus on the needs far away.”
That’s how a conversation with a Pastor friend of mine started when I asked him what he thought about missions. He went on:
“I definitely believe missions is important. It’s just not something I’m personally passionate about.”
I’ve had this conversation several times throughout my ministry career. In fact, I used to feel this exact same way. But as the Lord has opened my eyes to God’s heart for the nations in scripture and how to develop a missions culture in your church, I’ve come to believe that every believer is called to play a part in bringing the gospel to the ends of the earth.
The Need is Great
Not only is the commission clear in Matthew 28:19-20, but the need is great. There are over 17,000 people groups in the world today. Over 7,000 of them would be considered unreached, meaning there is not enough of a local church presence to be able to share the gospel with everyone.
If you live in America, you live near plenty of unsaved or unchurched people. But you don’t live near any unreached people. That’s because there’s a church nearby that preaches in their language and there is a copy of a bible in their language as well.
Unreached peoples do not have the option of hearing the gospel and reading God’s Word in their language. Of those 7,000 unreached people groups, 3,100 are completely unengaged, meaning there’s no known believers even working among them.
How can that be? We send thousands of missionaries every year from America alone! It’s a problem of imbalance.
There are over 400,000 full time missionaries in the world. But, only 3% of those missionaries are going to the 3 billion people in the world that have never heard about Jesus. That means that there is only one missionary for every 250,000 people in the world who have never heard the gospel. Imagine the entire population of Fort Wayne Indiana or Toledo Ohio having zero Christians, and only one person who could share the gospel with them. That’s a problem!
Our giving tells the same story. Less than 7% of giving to Christian causes is going to cross cultural workers. And only 1% of that money is going to people working among the unreached.
That means 99% of our cross-cultural giving is going to people working in places that have a strong local church presence already. Are you starting to see the issue?
Jesus told us to go to the nations—to the people who had never heard the gospel—and make disciples. But the nations aren’t being reached. And even when we do go or give to ministries in other countries, the vast majority of those resources are going to people who have already been reached by the gospel.
Combine that with the mindset that many Christians have that, “Since there are unbelievers here, I don’t need to worry about the unbelievers in other places who speak other languages,” and you can see why the unreached continue to be unreached.
Granted, this is not easy work. The 3 billion unreached are unreached for a reason—because it’s hard! But the commission still stands, we’re called to reach the nations. God’s Word is clear. And the need is great.
Some Are Called to Go
But Pastor Mike what do I do? I’m terrible at geography. I don’t even like ethnic food. Besides, this whole problem is way too big for me to even make a difference.
The truth is, we are either called to go or called to send. If the Lord is calling you to go, you need to go.
Will it be hard? Yes, harder than you can imagine. Will you miss your family? Yes, more than you thought possible. Will you make mistakes? Yes, more than you will ever realize.
But the truth remains: If the Lord is calling you to go, you need to go. He will provide abundantly for all your needs. When God calls, he equips.
Jesus says in Luke 10:2, “The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few. Therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” If you’re called to go, I’m praying that you will be obedient to the call.
The Rest are Called to Send
God calls some to go, but he doesn’t call everyone to go. The rest are called to send.
3 John 1:6 says, “You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God.” How do we become good senders? There are three things:
1. Prioritize the Unreached
There is good and important work going on all over the world that is bearing much fruit for the kingdom. I am not advocating a radical approach that says the only work worth supporting is with the unreached.
However, as we saw from the statistics above, we have a serious imbalance when it comes to the way our resources are used. If you are looking for a missionary to start supporting, you should prioritize supporting those who are working among those who have never heard the gospel. Agencies like Pioneers and Ethnos360 make it their mission to preach the gospel and plant healthy churches in areas that have no church presence. Radius International is a phenomenal missionary training school that prepares students to plant churches among the unreached. That’s a great place to start if you’re looking to support a missionary.
2. Personalize the Relationship
Missionaries are doing important work, but they are also just people like you and me. People who get lonely, people who need encouragement, and people who love relationship.
One of the simplest things you can do to encourage a missionary you’re supporting is simply respond to their update email. I spoke to a missionary one time who said, “We would send out an update to hundreds of supporters, and I wouldn’t hear a single response. I started to wonder if people were even getting them.”
He said the easiest thing you can do to encourage a missionary partner is just to respond to their email with, “Thanks for the update! We’re praying for you!”
Also, your kids can make cards and send them. You can figure out how to send a care package, and ask their agency what kinds of things you should send. Learn their kid’s birthdays and send them a card or a present. You can read their update letter around the dinner table and take turns as a family praying through it.
Being a good sender isn’t just about financial support. Personalizing our relationship with missionaries already in the field needs to be a top priority.
3. Pray, Pray, Pray!
Finally, the most important thing you can do to be a good sender is to pray. Pray for the unreached people group of the day on the Joshua Project app. Pray that the Lord would send more workers into the harvest. Pray for the missionaries that your family supports, or that your church partners with. Put your missionary cards in a prominent place to remember to pray for them. Spin a globe and pray for the workers in the country where your finger lands.
There are a million ways you can creatively pray for God’s work among the nations. The bottom line is, we need to pray.
I hope these last three weeks have encouraged you as you’ve learned about God’s heart for the nations. From Eden to eternity, we see God’s plan that every nation, tribe and tongue will worship around the throne.
The way God accomplishes his plan is through his people fulfilling the Great Commission. Whether you’re called to go or called to send, my prayer is that you have a better sense of how you can be part of the greatest mission ever given.
God Bless,
Pastor Mike
For further study check out these Deeper Devos:
The Lesson We Learn From John the Baptist (It’s worth a few minutes of your time.)
I Know It Sounds Crazy But Please Act Like Your Dad
20 Things to Praise God For When You’re Not Sure How to Start
