Revolution in World Missions

Chapter 9, Is Missions an Option? If the Apostle Paul had not brought the gospel to Europe, foundational principles such as freedom and human dignity would not be part of the American heritage. Because the Holy Spirit instructed him to turn away from Asia and go west, America has been blessed with its systems of law and economics, the principles that made it rich and free. In addition, the United States is the only nation in the world founded by believers in Christ who made a covenant with God, dedicating a new nation to God. Born into affluence, freedom, and divine blessings, Americans should be the most thankful people on earth. But along with the privilege comes a responsibility. The Christian must ask not only why, but also what he should do with these unearned favors. Throughout Scripture, we see only one correct response to abundance, sharing. God gives some people more than they need so that they can be channels of blessing to others. God desires equity between his people on a worldwide basis. That is why the early church had no poverty. The Apostle Paul wrote to the rich Christians in Corinth, For I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened, but by an equality that now at this time your abundance may supply their lack, that their abundance also may supply your lack, that there may be equality. 2 Corinthians 8, 13-14 The Bible advocates and demands that we show love for the needy brethren. Right now, because of historical and economic factors that none of us can control, the needy brethren are in Asia. The wealthy brethren are in the United States, Canada, and a few other nations. The conclusion is obvious. These affluent believers must share with the poorer churches. We know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death. But whoever has this world's goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. 1 John 3, 14, 17-18 And what does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith, but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, Depart in peace, be warmed and filled, but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. James 2, 14-17 Is missions an option, especially for super-wealthy countries like America? The biblical answer is clear. Every Christian in America has some minimal responsibility to get involved in helping the poor brethren in the church in other countries. God has not given this superabundance of blessings to American and Canadian Christians so we can sit back and enjoy the luxuries of this society, or even in spiritual terms, so we can gorge ourselves on books, teaching cassettes, and deeper life conferences. He has left us on this earth to be stewards of these spiritual and material blessings, learning how to share with others and administer our wealth to accomplish the purposes of God. What is the bottom line? God is calling us as Christians to alter our lifestyles, to give up the non-essentials of our lives so we can better invest our wealth in the Kingdom of God. To start, I challenge believers to lay aside at least $1 a day to help support a native missionary in the two-thirds world. This, of course, should be over and above our present commitments to the local church and other ministries. I do not ask Christians to redirect their giving away from other ministries for native missions, but to expand their giving over and above the current levels. Most people can do this. Millions of North American and European believers can accomplish this easily by giving up cookies, cakes, sweets, coffee, and other beverages. These junk foods harm our bodies anyway, and anyone can save enough in this way to help sponsor one or even two missionaries a month. Many are going beyond this and, without affecting health or happiness, are able to help sponsor several missionaries every month. There are, of course, many other ways to get involved. Some cannot give more financially, but they can invest time in prayer and help recruit more sponsors, and a few are called to go overseas to become more directly involved. But I would submit to you that the single most important hindrance to world evangelization right now is the lack of total involvement by the body of Christ. I am convinced there are enough potential sponsors to support all of the native missionaries needed to evangelize the two-thirds world. The native missionary movement is relatively new, and many Christians still have not been challenged to participate, but that is superficial. The real truth is much more basic and more deadly. The three major reasons why the body of Christ falls short in facilitating world evangelism are the sins of pride, unbelief, and worldliness. Ask the average Christian why the Lord destroyed Sodom, and he or she will cite the city's gross immorality. Ezekiel, however, reveals the real reason in chapter 16, verses 49 and 50. Look, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom. She and her daughter had pride, fullness of food, and abundance of idleness. Neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy, and they were haughty and committed abomination before me. Therefore I took them away as I saw fit. Sodom refused to aid the needy poor because of pride. We are caught up in a national pride similar to Sodom's. Yes, selfishness and perversion come from that pride, but we need to see that pride is the real root. Deal with that root, and you cut off a multitude of sins before they have a chance to grow. One night while speaking at a church missionary conference, I was asked to meet privately with the church council to give my reaction to a new mission program they were considering. I already had preached and was very tired. I did not feel like sitting in a board meeting. The meeting, attended by twenty-two people, began in the usual way, more like a corporate board meeting at IBM or General Motors than a church board. The presenter made an impressive business-like proposal. The scheme involved shifting third-country nationals from Asia to a mission field in Latin America. It was very futuristic and sounded like a major leap in missions, but warning lights and bells were going off in my mind. To me, it sounded like nineteenth-century colonial missionary practice dressed in a different disguise. The Lord spoke to me clearly, Son, tonight you must speak to people who are so self-sufficient. They've never asked me about this plan. They think I'm helpless. When the chairman of the church council finally called on me to respond with my opinion of the proposal, I stood and read certain parts of Matthew 28, 18-20. All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always. Then I closed my Bible and paused, looking each one in the eyes. If He is with you, I said, then you will represent Him, not just be like Him, but you will exercise His authority. Where is the power of God in this plan? I did not need to say much. The Holy Spirit anointed my words and everyone seemed to understand. How often have you met for prayer? I asked rhetorically. How long since you have had an entire day of prayer to seek God's mind about your mission strategy? From their eyes it was easy to see they had prayed little about their mission budget, which was then in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. The discussion went on until one-thirty in the morning, but with a new sense of repentance in the room. Brother K.P. said the leader to me afterward, you have destroyed everything we were trying to do tonight, but now we are ready to wait on God for His plan. That kind of humility will bring the church back into the center of God's will and global plan. Churches today are not experiencing the power and anointing of God in their ministries because they do not have the humility to wait on Him. Because of that sin, the world remains largely unreached. So little of evangelical work is done in total dependence upon the living God. Like our brothers and sisters in that big church, we have devised methods, plans, and techniques to do God's work. Those involved apparently sense no need to pray or be filled with the Holy Spirit to do the work of Jesus. How far we have drifted from the faith of the apostles and the prophets. What a tragedy when the techniques of the world and its agents are brought into the sanctuary of God. Only when we are emptied of our own self-sufficiency can God use us. When a church or a mission board spends more time in consultation, planning, and committee meetings than in prayer, it is a clear indication that the members have lost touch with the supernatural and have ended up, in Watchman Nee's words, serving the house of God and forgot the Lord Himself. Part of the sin of pride is a subtle but deep racism. As I travel, I often hear innocent-sounding questions such as, how do we know that the native church is ready to handle the funds? Or, what kind of training have the native missionaries had? So long as such questions are based on a sincere desire for good stewardship, they are commendable. But in many cases, I have found the intent of the question to be much less honorable. Westerners refuse to trust Asians the way they trust their own people. If we're satisfied that a certain native missionary is truly called to the gospel, we have to trust God and turn our stewardship over to him and his elders, just as we would to another brother in our own culture. To expect to continue controlling the use of money and the ministry overseas from our foreign-based mission board is an extension of colonialism. It adds an unbiblical element, which only humiliates and weakens the native missionaries in the long run. Christians need to learn that they are not giving their money to native workers, but God's money to His work overseas. Here are some further manifestations of pride. Instead of glorifying two-fisted fighters in the John Wayne tradition of American folk heroes, Christians would do well to sit still until the power of God is manifested in their Christian activities. Churches need to develop the quiet disciplines they have lost, practices such as contemplation, fasting, listening, meditation, prayer, silence, Scripture memory, submission, and reflection. Many Christian leaders are caught up in secondary issues that sap their time and energy. I will never forget preaching in one church where the pastor had turned defending the King James translation of the Bible into a crusade. Not only does he spend most of his pulpit time upholding it, but thousands of dollars go to printing books, tracts, and pamphlets advocating the exclusive use of this one translation. In the years I have lived and worked in the United States, I have watched believers and whole congregations get caught up in all kinds of similar crusades and causes that, while not necessarily bad in themselves, end up taking our eyes off obedience to Christ. And in this sense, they become anti-Christ. Red-hot issues burning across the horizon, such as inerrancy, charismatic gifts, the latest revelation of itinerant teachers or secular humanism, or whatever new issue raises its head tomorrow, need to be kept in their proper perspective. There always will be new dragons to slay, but we must not let these side battles keep us from our main task of building and expanding the kingdom of God. When I go to Asia, I see our churches and theologians there being just as violently divided over a different set of issues, and through this I have come to realize that many times these doctrinal divisions are being used by the evil one to keep us preoccupied with something other than the gospel. We are driven by powerful egos always to be right. We are often slaves to a strong tendency to have it our way. All of these are manifestations of pride. The opposite of that is the servanthood and humble sacrifice commanded by Christ. Making a sacrifice for one of these unknown brethren, supporting his work to estrange people in a strange place using methods that are a mystery to you, does take humility. But supporting the native brethren must begin with this kind of commitment to humility and must continue in the same spirit. Sadly, our pride all too often stands in the way of progress.