What Does It Mean To Be Engaged in God’s Mission? By Jerry Benge

I have been in Christian ministry for over a half century, serving in 4 churches as well as 12 years on the mission field in Ukraine. Throughout those years, I observed that the church members with whom I served or the churches that supported me on the mission field cared deeply about missionaries and presumably their mission. I count that as a great blessing. At the same time, as I have read the Bible through annually (several times) and as I increasingly try to grasp what God is doing in the world to fulfill His promises beginning in Genesis 12:1-3 and consummating in Revelation 7:9-10, I am overwhelmed by the expansiveness of God’s unstoppable plan to rescue sinners (like us) from every tribe, tongue and nation.

One way that its expansiveness has come home to me is when I consider that the Church has been at this task for nearly 2,000 years, and yet there are still 3,100 language groups (representing over a quarter of a billion people) in the world without access to the Gospel! I am gripped by the realization that our part in this plan remains unfinished. At the same time, I am confident that it is as unstoppable as the incarnation, death resurrection, ascension, and coming of Jesus Christ! The same God who divided human languages as a means of thwarting human rebellion in Genesis 11 will ultimately use that myriad of languages to sing and magnify his grace and glory! 

So, why are we even talking about missions? It’s a done deal, right? Yes, if you jump to the climactic end of God’s Story the book of the Revelation. But as glorious as that will be (and oh, how we long for that day!), we are not there yet. In fact, we are currently living in the part of the plot, where Gospel opposition is growing and the barriers to its proclamation seem enormous (Read Psalm 2). This brings me to the point I began to make earlier. It’s not enough to simply agree that missions are good or that missionaries are special people because they go to far away places and do good things.

Being engaged in God’s Mission requires churches that are both biblically faithful (think sound doctrine and healthy congregations) and biblically strategic (sending and supporting people who are biblically qualified and culturally prepared to talk to indigenous peoples in their heart language at a worldview level)! And that is just the beginning of the task. The end for which they labor and for which we pray and support them must be a healthy local church that can continue the task after the missionary moves on. But here is the punch line: Built into this agenda is a 20-25 year timetable! This is only possible by the unfailing promises of God working by His Spirit through His Word by means of missionaries intentionally sent and intensively shepherded by a healthy local church that will not settle for anything less. In short, the end of the missionary endeavor and the means of fulfilling that end are the same. It takes a healthy sending church to produce a healthy indigenous church that is committed to planting new healthy churches. 

This commitment starts with church leadership. No surprise there. But it necessarily involves engagement of all its members – not just giving but regular praying and effective care giving. This is where we want to move more intentionally as a church. The informed and convictional pursuit of this is essential to the sustainability of the missionaries we support or send. The more I learn about the challenges our missionaries face, the more I want to improve in my role to help them stay on the field and remain effective in their tasks. I think our members feel the same way. This brings us to the lead question of this blog post. (Look at it again if you need to). It’s an important question.

This post is only just a start. There are more discussions coming. The next one will be at the Mission Luncheon this coming Sunday. Jesse Gill from Global Serve International will be speaking. His agency is exactly the kind of agency with whom we want to partner. They see the local church as bearing the primary responsibility of missions. They exist to help us do our job better. Come and find out how you can become more effectively engaged in the mission that God has given to all of us. In the meantime, read Romans 16, especially verses 1-16 and 21-23. Read it several times and you’ll start to get an inside look at the sustaining relationships that Paul had with the congregation of one of his supporting churches. Remember also to keep your eyes on God’s Promises. They are our fuel for engaging in God’s unstoppable mission.

For the Gospel to all peoples,

Jerry Benge