Missions isn’t optional

Missions is a unique concept. In many world religions, the idea of going forward and inviting others to surrender to its ideology is not commonly practiced even if it is valued. Even with our more progressive Western forms of atheism or secular humanism, the basic idea is that each person should be left alone to live how they want to live. However, disagree with an atheist or a secular humanist and then you will quickly find out how evangelistic they can become.

In Christianity, missions is not optional. It is actually the very core of our faith as a theme that runs from the opening of Genesis 1-2 through the end of Revelation. If we call ourselves followers of Jesus we have a mandate as God’s ambassadors to take the gospel to the ends of the earth.

When I first really grasped what it meant to follow Jesus, I was in my early 20s and I immediately had an overwhelming burden to want to grow and know more. You may have had the same experience when you first had a real encounter with Jesus and it changed everything.

I have always been an avid reader and someone who loved to study anything that interested me. After receiving this revelation, I began reading all the books I could get my hands on about discipleship, Christianity, and theology. I also started a “Bible in a year” reading plan, because that’s what you’re supposed to do when you become a Christian, right?

It didn’t take long into the plan, which was a traditional Old Testament-New Testament-Psalms mixture each day, before I reached Matthew 9. My faith was pretty simple at the time, so it usually entailed reading and praying whatever I got out of my reading.

On the day I finished Matthew 9, the last two verses really hit me that morning. They read:

Then he said to his disciples, “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.”

After finishing my reading, I immediately began praying that morning for God to send out laborers into his harvest. This seemed like a simple request, especially since I had already come into contact with missionaries through the church we were attending at the time. This was my primary context for laborers that were to be sent out.

As I prayed my simple, straightforward prayer, I heard God’s voice gently say, “Instead of you praying for others to go out into the harvest, would you be willing to go?” It was a simple invitation to not just look to others to answer this call, but would I be willing to be the answer to my own prayer?

This was one of multiple steps that led Sarah and I to become missionaries and serve over the past 13 years all over the world.

You might be thinking, “That’s great for you, but that’s not my story.” And you are probably right, because not everyone is called to be vocational missionaries. The majority of those who follow Jesus will do so through their own vocations in business, education, entertainment, government, science and technology, or even a role in their own family. This isn’t a lesser calling than those in vocational ministry, just a different one.

But no matter what our vocation is, we are all called first and foremost as ministers of the gospel and missionaries to the context in which God has called us. And over the years I have come to understand that there are a few important keys for every follower of Jesus to keep the mission of Jesus at the forefront of their lives and the local church.

In essence, it boils down to two main categories that should be mainstays in the life of every follower of Jesus. They are:

1.     Send
2.     Go

No matter what our vocation is, we all have the obligation to sow generously into God’s mission both locally and globally. This is not just through giving to your local church, but also investing in those God has called out of their local context to serve in other parts of the nation and globally.

Especially for those not called into vocational missions, it’s important to understand that you play such a vital role in helping to send those who are called to do so. Again, this does not mean there is some hierarchy of whose calling is more important. But just as he has called those in every other vocation to make their living from their work, he has also called those who are to take on the vocation of missions to rely on the generous funding of their church and fellow believers.

Why is this important? Because it both strengthens the relationship of every believer to God’s mission and creates accountability for those whose calling entails serving others according to the gospel for a living. In too many North American churches, missions is either an afterthought, non-existent, or it is a distant reality for a select few whose stories you may hear once a year.

For others, their calling is to go! It can be one of the scariest decisions to step away from all that you know, your comfort, your family, and your job to answer the call to be a missionary.

This means that you may or may not know where your next “paycheck” might come from, which can be especially challenging with kids on the mission field. But when the church and fellow Christians step behind a missionary with prayer, finances, and investment in their ministry, there is nothing that can quite match the encouragement as well as the amazing sense of responsibility to steward your time and talents well.

Missions is a relationship that marries the local church to God’s overarching transformation around the world, and to not be a part of either sending others or going ourselves is to miss out on the DNA and lifeblood of the church.