Missions Program: The Church Reaches Out with a Global Vision

The church faces several challenges as it prepares to enter the next century. Although painful, we must recognize that our missionary activity leads to suffering. Missionary activity has never been easy. It has had a long history of sacrifice. When Adlai Stevenson visited Africa in the 1950's,he remarked, "The graves. The graves. The graves. At every mission station there were graves." Stevenson was overwhelmed that so many loved Christ so much that they laid down their lives to give Africa the opportunity to hear of Christ.

Seth Anyomi of Ghana tells how, as a boy, he walked past a tiny mission cemetery. He looked at the tombstones of missionary Fathers, mothers, children, who were buried in Ghana. He wondered, "Why did they come?" This affected his life so much that today he is a missionary doctor.

The cost of discipleship continues. Every hour, 17 Christians lose their lives just because they have become Christians. They have harmed no one,nor committed any actual crimes. Every day, over 200 million Christ-followers in dozens of countries risk being beaten, raped, imprisoned, and even killed simply because they dare to follow Christ. Persecution is at its worst in history. Last year over 1,000 Christians were rounded up by police in Egypt who used torture sessions to force false confessions. In Pakistan, existing laws make it virtually impossible for Christians and non-Muslims to defend themselves against charges of blasphemy which require the death penalty. In Sudan, relief and development organizations report that 2.5 million people face starvation as the radical Islamic government continues its campaign of death and slaughter against the largely Christian South. In India there were nearly 80 registered attacks on Christians in 1998, compared to seven the year before. Muslim bandits attacked a Christian community in northern Nigeria, killing 36 people and destroying property worth 3.9 million dollars. In Nepal, 28 Christians were hospitalized on Good Friday after being beaten by police. A mob surrounded an indigenous evangelical church in southern Ecuador on Easter eve and held 100 church members as hostages. A mob of 500 Catholic traditionalists in the Chiapas area of Mexico burned an evangelical church and threatened to destroy others in the area. In Indonesia, a 15-year-old boy who participated in youth activities with Youth With A Mission died after being beaten by members of a Muslim mob, for refusing to deny his faith. In India, a 56-year-old Australian missionary and his two sons, ages 10 and 6, were burned to death as they slept inside their jeep at an annual Bible camp. Over 1,000 mourners, believers and nonbelievers, heard the widowed Gladys Staines and her 13-year old daughter sing at their funeral, "Because He lives, I can face tomorrow; Because He lives, all fear is gone; Because I know He holds the future, And life is worth the living just because He lives." Gladys and her daughter continue to serve in India.

It is not my intention to criticize any specific religious group, although the vast majority of these incidents were carried out by religious people. When faced with these stories, how do we respond? Is it better to refrain from sharing the good news so as to avoid causing suffering? That is what the enemy of our souls wants us to do.

I had the opportunity of visiting the country of Cuba in the month of June, as a member of a delegation from our congregation. We worshipped in churches with a seating capacity of 450 to 500, but with an attendance of 800 to 1,000. Extra chairs were placed wherever there was a space. People stood in the doorways and along the outside by the windows. Permission is not granted to build any new church buildings. House churches are permitted if they are legally registered. These exist in almost every community. We had the privilege of being in a couple of these, where 30 people crammed into a small livingroom and stood in the doorway. One pastor told me, the reason the church in Cuba is growing so rapidly is because it is a suffering church. Your church in North America cannot grow like this, because it has not experienced suffering. I did not want to hear that. However, those words challenged me. Don't be afraid to share the good news even though it may cause people to suffer. It is worth the price. Jesus is The Way, The Truth, The Life! Do not withhold that fact. Is it good stewardship to invest in resistant peoples? A few years ago, a missionary to Somalia was told that he was wasting personnel and money in that country. He was told, "Give me one of your missionaries and after 48 days we will start a church. Take them to Somalia and after 48 months the Muslims will still be witnessing to you. You cannot justify that." Can we? Why do we place workers in the Middle East and southeast Asia among resistant people? Here is why. Nowhere in Scripture are we asked to provide a convert to cost ratio. We do not need to justify our presence in areas where Christ is not known. We are called simply to be obedient. Some countries and people groups need spiritual tillers, weed-pullers, seed planters, and irrigation crews to prepare the soil for the harvest. It is not that these people groups are unresponsive. They have not had the opportunity to respond. They have not clearly understood the message concerning Jesus and the gospel. They never will until someone breaks up the resistant soil. This challenge will increasingly face us as we enter the next century. It is so easy to make excuses. With our budget, we just cannot afford it. We now have a full-time pastor to support. We need to pay for our new building. We need to add on to our present building. We need a larger sanctuary, more Sunday School rooms, a fellowship hall. We have enough to do right here. Have you heard those excuses? Listen, church, if the early believers would have felt that way, the Gospel never would have gotten beyond Jerusalem. But, James and Peter and John blessed Paul and Barnabas as they went to the Gentiles while the former stayed in Jerusalem. We read that in Galatians 2:9. It is not either/or. It is both/and. It is so easy to succumb to our fears as we face difficult questions. Missionaries who are living in a strange culture, lost in a new language,harassed by a hostile government, persecuted by radical elements in the local religion, living with a lack of material comforts, faced with an overwhelming and seemingly impossible task, blocked by all kinds of obstacles-no wonder missionaries experience burnout. And, who wants to go where Christians are being killed? What if we get arrested? What if we are taken hostage? On January 31, 1993, armed guerrillas entered a village deep in the Darien jungles of Panama, burst into three missionary homes, bound the wrists of Dave Mankins, Mark Rich, and Rick Tenenoff, and marched them off into the night. That happened six years, six and one-half months ago. Their families are still waiting. There is no guarantee for the future, but only increasing violence and hostility. Does this mean their efforts were in vain? What if we invest our lives and nothing happens? Moses faced similar concerns in the book of Exodus. Yet, in Exodus 14:15, when God's people were hemmed in with the sea before them and the Egyptian army behind them, God told Moses, "Tell the Israelites to move on!" Move on. Church, move on!! No price is too great to pay, no sacrifice is too great to make, no suffering is too difficult to endure, if the vision and calling is there! Move on, church, move on!

Overcoming resistance to the Gospel is not ultimately in the hands of missionaries. It is in the hands of God. Our job is not to persuade people to put their faith in Jesus, and if they do not, we have failed. Our job is to present Jesus Christ in a way that people will understand. Then the choice is theirs to follow or not to follow.

In the May issue of Missionary Messenger, Richard Showalter focused upon the challenge of the Asian community. More than half of the world's population lives there. All of the major non-Christian religions of the world are found in Asia. More of the world's poorest people live there than on any other continent. At the same time, the Asians have come to us in two very different groups. The boat people came from Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, and China. Then, the jet people also came. These are Asians who came for jobs or for study. Those with professional expertise have been hired by corporations in North America. So, we have the boat people and the jet people, and only a small minority knows Jesus.

III. Receptivity to the Vision

In recent years, we have been challenged by the needs of the 10/40 window. Those challenges continue. There are millions of people who have no viable Christian witness among them, no local fellowship of believers with whom they may identify. These are unreached people, and the vast majority live in the 10-40 window, that huge area that covers northern Africa, almost all of Asia, and parts of Europe. There are other windows that challenge us. One is the 4-14 window. This refers to age. These are children who are abused, neglected, abandoned, homeless, dysfunctional, and victims of broken families. One source reports that 100 million children live on the streets in our world. Of these, 1.5 million are infected with the AIDS virus, 1 million are prostitutes, and 2 million die annually from lack of proper immunizations against preventable diseases. That is 228 every hour. So, the 4-14 window challenges us. Then there is the 15-45 window. This also refers to age, and is the age bracket where most HIV positive persons are found. Recent sources reveal that a total of 14 million people in the world have died from AIDS. Another 5500 die from AIDS each day in Africa. That means approximately 150 persons in Africa will die from AIDS while I am speaking this afternoon. Up to 20% of the population of Zimbabwe, Zambia, Uganda, and South Africa is infected. Every family in Kenya has lost at least one family member, neighbor, or friend from AIDS. A Bible translator expressed that his work is a race against time, before AIDS wipes out the entire population that speaks that dialect. Twenty million Africans are presently infected , and infection rates are rapidly on the increase. Churches, out of their fear and prejudice, are reluctant to respond. But involvement does not mean approval. Although not all, the majority of this unreached group has practiced a lifestyle of drug use and illicit sex that puts it out of touch with the Christian community. It is the largest unreached people group in the world. These people urgently need the Good News, for most of them will die early, and the vast majority do not know Jesus. The challenge lies before us of the 10-40 window, the 4-14 window, and the 15-45 window.

As we enter the 21st century, the message will not change. The Bible is still the authoritative Word of God. Jesus Christ is still the only Savior. Sinners are still in need of salvation. But, strategies and approaches and opportunities do change. What can we expect in the 21st century?

The present momentum in missions gives us hope. Ken Mulholland, a former missionary to Costa Rica, is now the president of the Evangelical Missiological Society. He has observed that in the present 20th century, the ratio of Christians to non-Christians in Asia declined from one in 177 to one in 12. In Africa it declined from one in 20 to one in three. The number of evangelical Christians in Latin America increased from 50,000 to more than 50 million. The number of evangelical Christians in China, India, and Brazil equals that of the United States. Every day there are 78,000 new Christians in the world. Every week 1,600 new congregations are established. Most of the world's evangelical Christians now live in the Two-Thirds World-Asia, Africa, and Latin America. What does all of this infer for the 21st century? We need to find ways to create international missionary partnerships without unhealthy dependency. Presently, missionaries from Asia, Africa,and Latin America, number 300,000, about the same as the number from Europe and North America. The number is rapidly increasing and will soon exceed the number from Europe and North America. In fact, it can be said that the evangelical center of gravity has shifted from the West to a point somewhere in Africa. The church in the western world is no longer the sending church while all others represent the receiving church. We need to learn to work hand-in-hand with many other nations towards the evangelization of the world.

A major issue to be faced in partnering is that of financial support. Some are sincerely convinced, "Let's just pay national workers." They are capable of planting churches. Let's pay them to do it. They can speak the language better than the missionaries. They fit better into their culture. They understand their people. They do not require as large a salary as missionaries do. Let's support several national pastors instead of a missionary! All of this sounds good, but it causes problems. Here are some of the results. There is a decline in local church giving. If the Americans can pay the salaries for the pastors, they should be able to pay for the needs of the congregation -- its building, its teaching materials, its maintenance. Another problem is the image of the "professional" pastor. "I won't do anything unless the mission pays me to do it." The reis also a lack of accountability. Those supported feel no accountability to the local church but only to the mission. Then, tensions begin to develop between the local church planters and the missionaries. "We want more money. We are doing the work of the missionaries. We should receive missionary salaries."

Effective partnership means there will be a sense of local and national ownership. As long as the concept is there that this is the work of the "mission," the idea will exist that the mission is the owner and the owner should pay the bills. Sometimes, in our eagerness to fulfill the Great Commission, we have created the Great Commotion.

The Bible does not tell us to only send our money. It tells us to go! If we stop sending our people, we will soon stop sending our money. If we only support nationals without sending people, mission interest will soon dry up. The church is called not only to give, but to send. So, today we are commissioning those who are called to be sent. As we partner in mission, it will be necessary to partner in finances. However, we need to avoid creating a permanent dependency and welfare mentality through ongoing support of programs that will fail if the mission does not keep sending that monthly check. There needs to be a wise use of resources, insights, and spiritual gifts, in a relationship of mutual commitment, confidence, communication, and collaboration. Let me say something about the need for support personnel. In warfare, the role of support troops is essential to success. The same is true in spiritual warfare. We like to have our money go to pioneer evangelists or church planters. We want them to target unreached people groups in the 10/40 window, and we expect them to produce results far beyond what we accomplish at home. We ask, "How many conversions did you have this week, Who did you lead to Christ today, How many baptisms did you have this month? If your record is good, we want to support you." Yes, financial support is needed. Prayer support is needed.

Letters of encouragement are needed. But, those pioneers, those church planters, cannot function without support personnel. Some missionaries still tell people about Jesus as they gather outside a grass hut in the jungle. Others are involved in university teaching, or leading Bible studies with businessmen in a high-rise office, or repairing a plane or a computer system. Persons are needed to fill out tax-deductible receipts for your donations, to serve at retreat centers that minister to tired pastors and missionaries, to spend hours in lawyers' offices and government buildings managing legal details, work permits, residence visas, property and vehicle legalities, persons are needed in the home office to handle the mail, answer the phones, and get information to the churches. They do not have dramatic stories to tell, but they serve a vital function in the work of missions. If this helps enable local churches to be more effective, it is a good investment. Another area of opportunity is the use of tentmakers. Rosedale Mennonite Missions is one of many mission agencies that believes in the concept of tentmaker missionaries. These persons go out as mission associates on a self-supporting basis, receiving a salary from the local economy, and testifying to the hope we have in Jesus Christ, in a culture or country where open missionary activities and professional church planters are not welcome. Tentmaking opportunities abound and are on the increase. Sue Jacobson was teaching English at Beijing University in China. The administration asked her to also teach American culture. She asked the department head if she could teach something from the Bible because that is a part of American culture. Surprisingly, he approved, so she taught a course on the Gospel of John. As she prepared her final exam, her final question was this, "Will you accept Jesus Christ as your Savior?" Nine people in the class said yes, and one of the men soon began leading a house church. We need to let God direct us into areas of world evangelization we never dreamed possible. We are seeing a rapid increase in Short-Term Missions. In the 60's and 70's, we experienced a dynamic Voluntary Service program. It served an important function. It produced many missionaries. My wife and I are products of that program, although our VS experience goes back to the mid-50's. Today we have the ministries of the SEND Department, such as REACH and SWIM, groupLINK, and seniorLINK. The SEND Department is working on a restructured VS program which will perhaps be known as serviceLINK. These are great eye-openers, and perhaps their most valuable contribution is not in what they accomplish during their short time on the field, but in the way God is using them to equip senders and those who are called to be sent. We need to be co-laborers, co-workers, co-mission-aries. We need to co with those who go! Surveys have shown that on the average, one-half of those who are involved in short-term missions will not return to the field long-term. They become the senders. One-fourth of those who have served will return to the field almost immediately. One-fourth of those who have served will return to the field after training, marriage, and other preparation. Short-term missions are a good investment, as a way to equip people to be senders and sent ones. Many long-term missionaries would not have gone had they not firsthand a short-term experience. Let us not overlook the tremendous open door represented by our international students. Here exists the opportunity to reach the thousands of students who are in the States at one time, preparing to return to their countries. They can return without concerns about residence visas, work permits, language study, or cultural adjustment. Here lies tremendous potential for making disciples of all peoples, equipping them to return to their people and make disciples as they go.

As we enter the next millennium, we are seeing the need for a new kind of missionary. More mature, specialized missionaries are in demand, not as church planters or pastors, but as equippers, especially of leaders. Persons studying at The Spanish Language Institute in Costa Rica now average 39.6 years of age. Thirty years ago the average age was 30.3. That is right where I was when I studied there 38 years ago. An increasing number of present-day missionaries go out as "second-career missionaries", with previous experience in another setting. This trend will likely continue.

David Zac Niringiye of Uganda observed, "The missionary came to us, feeling that he or she would like to do evangelism and church planting ina different culture. But in some cases, they have never done evangelism and discipleship in their own neighborhood and churches...We need more proven leaders on the mission field." Tom Telford, in his book Missions in the 21st Century, says the church needs to move away from waiting for volunteers and begin to recruit those who are gifted for a missionary calling. Jesus did not wait for volunteers. He prayed, and then He recruited them. Pastors, parents, Sunday school teachers, youth leaders, pray them out. Tap them on the shoulder. Missions needs people.

IV. Recommitment to the Vision

We need to learn to release the work to the Spirit of God. We are not indispensable, although we are valuable and useful. In country after country, missionaries have laid a sure foundation, but the most rapid growth takes place after they leave. Look at China. Many churches would not be there if the national movement of evangelism would not have sprouted without missionary funds and personnel. God gives the gifts of the Spirit to these believers. He gives them intelligence, zeal, vision, dedication,and a willingness to make sacrifices. As we unleash the Holy Spirit and allow Him to do His work, the church will be unleashed. Often our own efforts are flawed. We present a flawed message. We carry the message in earthen vessels, in jars of clay. We assume people understand more than they do. It is amazing that with our flawed efforts, anyone understands. But, they do, because the Spirit is at work. We have heavy accents and broken grammar, we do a poor job of understanding the cultural thinking and world views of the people, we have biased ideas as we try to apply our North American concepts of the gospel in an overseas setting, and yet, the Holy Spirit is at work. He was there before our arrival, and He will be there after our departure. The church is in good hands.

Conclusion

I will conclude with this account. Selchun, a young pastor in Nigeria, ambled through his village, holding his new Bible in his right hand. Suddenly a few Hausa warriors happened by, grabbed Selchun and dragged him to the village square. Now, not all Muslims are extremists or terrorists, but some are, and these Hausa were. They dragged the pastor's wife and daughter from their hut and called the entire village to watch. They propped Selchun's right hand on a block of wood and one of the warriors shouted as he raised his sword. "This is what comes to Christians who carry their holy book in this village!" The sword fell and whacked off Selchun's right hand.

Immediately, Selchun raised his left hand and began to sing, "He is Lord, He is Lord. He is risen from the dead and He is Lord!" That represents our conviction, our commitment, our calling; that represents our mission, our message, our motivation. Jesus Christ is Lord!! Come, let's proclaim it! (Sing "He is Lord")

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