Christ’s commands were simple (not easy): Love one another, teach the Gospel and ‘Follow me’. How those commands are carried out in the lives of the individual Believer will (and should be) as varied as the individuals involved. Whether it be how we do missions, how we worship, how we educate or raise children, etc…I have long been frustrated by the tendency of some to prescribe one size fits all answers, and further define our mission beyond that which was given by Christ.

But like you said — being about His business doesn’t necessarily mean we need to go overseas for foreign evangelism. There’s plenty of evangelism to do right here in the States. My own hometown has been barely reached with the Gospel, yet to hear some missions-minded people tell it, I’m to abandon the lost sheep of my own house — where I already speak the language, where I’m already familiar with the culture, where I can easily demonstrate how to live out a Christian life without my foreignness getting in the way — and go directly to the uttermost parts of the earth? That’s not even consistent with Jesus’s instructions to His disciples in Acts 1. You preach to your homeland first. When God intervenes and tells us to leave, we leave; until then, we’re to serve God where He placed us, and support anyone He places on our hearts (with money, short-term missions, fellowship, etc.) while we’re at it.

The sad “retirement” of that fiftysomething couple is that they are doing nothing for the Kingdom, and little for society. If they were retired and sharing Christ with their neighbors, God would approve — but they’re doing nothing. Just like 80 percent of the Church.

The short version of the “special forces missionary” model is to deploy small numbers of very highly trained westerners who are well versed in the Gospel and in cross-cultural teaching. The focus would not be on western missionaries personally evangelizing as far and wide as they could, but rather assembling and training a cadre of indigenous missionaries who can be more effective in building the church in their own culture. On a strategic level, special forces have a fairly low tooth-to-tail ratio and for missionaries this would be similar. Behind the missionaries would be administrators, logisticians, teachers, bible translators, and so on who would equip and enable the missionaries to focus on discipleship. An even larger number of individuals would have to work in the western world to gather the resources to support the work of the missionaries and the caring for the poor.

Obviously, the special forces model could not be directly translated into missions work, but I think certain valuable lessons and methods could be brought into the discussion. Um, I hope this wasn’t too much of a tangent… :\

Several years ago, Denise and I stopped giving money to students going on short term trips unless they impressed us that the group they were gong with had a real knowledge of what missions is and how missions works today. I simply am not going to finance a trip to hug kids and hand out t-shirts.

IM essay:

http://www.internetmonk.com/articles/A/accidental.html

that book has been one of the hardest pills for me to swallow with a calling for missions. one thing i’ve thought about is the role that thousands of western Christians can have overseas – possibly in training (if KP’s vision takes hold, or ones such as the Back to Jerusalem movement, there will be thousands upon thousands of believers needing instruction, praise God) and always in mercy and peace. As far as mission trips, again (since I’m such a stickler for them) I wonder whether the question may not as much be whether mission trips are needed but rather how to do mission trips right, ones that show youth and adults how to impact culture and mobilize others in thier lives. much grace.

for glory…
steve

You talked about something like this a while back on Christian merchandising when you said we could support a pastor and his church in India for 50 years rather than pay for books by Joel Osteen and Max Lucado. I completely agree with you on this and see where you are coming from.

So true! Three years of my early twenties were given over to such fundamentalist fanaticism.

Am I awaking from sleep or is there an increasing polarization of Xians between the I-Will-Do-Amazing-Things-or-Die-Trying-For-God camp and the Huh?-It’s-Not-My-Problem crowd? Neither one seems to value service in the small things, i.e., a not-so-mega church with a growing kid’s ministry.

Everyone must find, and live out, their own calling, whatever that is. And they should always be missional, no matter where they are.

I am tired of the constant “my way is the best way” approach to the faith. This is the best way to preach, this is the best way to do missions, etc. This approach causes 90% of the needless division and antagonism within the church.
We are each unique in talents and personalities and callings, but so many with an agenda want to jam us in their box.

I believe that I am called to missions involvement ( as opposed to pastoring a church, youth ministry, music ministry etc.) I live in a border city, do cross cultural missions and have relatives and friends who are full time missionaries in other countries. At this point in my life, I see my calling to be a mobilizer and have a desire to encourage Christians to be “world Christians.”

Yet, I realize it is not everyone’s calling. So I encourage and invite, but I do not beat people over the head with missions or send them on guilt trips. A big success for me is simply getting someone to cross the border to attend a worship service at a church in Mexico. You wouldn’t believe how hard that is, even in a largely bi-lingual border city.

One last point. I have always heard the “neighbor” excuse (If you don’t reach your neighbor…) and think it is invalid.
Missions is primarily about church planting, not door to door evangelism.

I have not sat down and given the Romans Road to all my neighbors personally. And I do not think successful evangelism means everyone must get a 15 minute presentation.
The point is that virtually everyone in the U.S, and certainly everyone in TX, have abundant access to the gospel. In TX, you cannot spit without hittng a gospel preaching church.
If folks do not get the gospel, it is not for a lack of churchs and opportunities.

In many other countries, unbelievers have no access to the gospel, no access to a church.
And churchs need to be planted, even if it requires “foreign” help. We need to stop thinking about the “western” church and the “indigenous” church. There is only one church which is comprised of Christians with more and Christians with less. As one speaker said at Urbana recently, the goal is not national church independence and self-reliance, it is inter-dependence.

1) Read K.P. Yohannon’s book The Revolution in World Missions -it’s free from GFA- and see if you believe the world needs westerners overseas in large numbers.

2) After many missions trips, I saw little if any lasting impact on students. Lots of temporary impact, but little lasting. I am more interested in seeing how to impact a culture, not seeing it first hand. I know hundreds who have been overseas and think that mission trips to do VBS and hand out t-shirts is what is needed. What’s needed is to understand indigenous movements and how we can encourage them.

peace and thanks MS

1. being a college student myself, i see tons of my friends living lives in a way that, sadly, they will not get this. perhaps the call to go SHOULD be given in a huge way, if nothing else than to save us from materialistic lethargy (esp. since the sbc sends a whopping 5000 missionaries overseas long term – 5000?!?! we should be sending 500 000…yet i see the need this would also bring about of more people to send)

2. also being a youth worker, i see the impact short term missions experiences have on students. i also remember your post on expensive youth trips and thier effectiveness. it is a hard road i walk in my mind, but i have to believe that the $2000 spent on each of 5 students to go to a third world country and serve for a week is worth the return in terms of missional vision and the loss of an American innocence that so many people where i live have.

keep up the great work!

for glory…
steve