Bible Students

What is the Gospel? How does culture relate to the Gospel today?

The gospel is best summed up in John 3:16: For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, so that whoever believes in Him would not die, but have everlasting life. There are many important notes in that one verse. God loved His world. He did not want to see it be destroyed by sin, but cared for it. He initiated change. It was Him who reached down from heaven, not humanity. He made great sacrifice by sacrificing His Son. The love He has for the earth was great enough to make great sacrifice over. Now an individual only has to believe in Him to be saved from their own sin. 

Today, the general Christian culture views the gospel as personal salvation from something, instead of salvation for something. We believe God has saved us by believing, but we don’t act like God (1) loved the world, (2) made the change, and (3) made great sacrifice. If we did, we would want to follow in His footsteps. We need to love the world, because it was made by God and is horribly broken. We need to make change. We have to be willing to make great sacrifice, even unto death. 

What did missions look like in the book of Acts?

Missions is one of the key focuses of the book of Acts. The Apostles (1) waited on God, (2) allowed the Spirit to do His work, (3) surrendered material wealth, (4) learned, (5) made disciples who grew into missionaries, and finally (6) were martyred.

The Apostles waited on the Spirit in Jerusalem, just as Jesus told them to. They did not run ahead of God’s timing, but rather waited on Him for the right time to make a move. The Apostles could have formulated teams and went out into the world preaching the kingdom, but instead they waited in a room for the Spirit to come. 

They allowed the Spirit to do His work. When Pentecost came and the Jews gathered in Jerusalem, the Apostles were filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues. This is one of the first times they allowed the Spirit to do His work through them, which turned out to be a key skill throughout the book of Acts. You cannot do proper missions when you resist the in-the-moment calling of the Spirit to reach the lost. The Apostle’s surrendering of control to the Spirit caused a great multitude to follow God. 

The newly formed group surrendered their material wealth to one another in order to learn and become missionaries in their own lands, spreading what they had learned. Missionaries cannot be tied to material wealth, because missions work stands in stark contrast to material wealth and luxury, for it represents true spiritual wealth and the luxury of the future. 

The new converts took time to learn from the Apostles before going back into their countries. Paul also did this when he was converted: He took time to learn before going into the world. One can do much harm from teaching while being uninformed. A missionary does not need to be a theologian, but a missionary does need to understand the gospel. 

Whenever converts were made in Acts, whether that be the Pentecost Jews, Paul, Aquila and Priscilla, or any of the churches planted, disciples were being made instead of converts. On his mission trips, Paul raised up local leaders like Aquila and Priscilla, who eventually would become missionaries, presumably making disciples of their own. Missions work was about fostering true conversion (discipleship), and not simply conversion. 

Finally, many of the Apostles were martyred. Many of the early church members were persecuted. They did not surrender their faith. Missions was and is centered on the complete surrender of oneself. If you are not willing to give up your life for the gospel, then missions may present serious difficulties. The founders of the faith were willing. Are we?

What missions opportunities exist today?

What are different ways that missionaries engage the unreached?

There are a few different types of missions structures and missions positions. There are (1) short-term missions, (2) long-term missions, and (3) sending missions. There are also (1) workers, (2) work leaders, (3) supporters, (4) teachers, and (5) senders. There are a few more categories than this, but I believe these to be the most common. An individual may be in multiple positions at the same time,for instance, a long-term missionary who both helps the neighborhood physically (worker) and teaches the Bible (teacher). 

Short-term missions are a great way for church members who are not committed to missions to be involved. Short-term missions run the risk of doing more harm than good, though, especially when interrupting economic growth and stability in a region by artificially pumping in funds. However, because they allow congregants to regularly be engaged in missions, they are essential to a church’s missions vision. 

Long-term missions are great for those who are committed for over two years to missions. It takes a long time to begin doing effective work in another culture, which is what long-term missions aims to do by planting an individual in a culture for over two years. This is difficult to do since many times it’s hard to hold a job in another country where the language is unfamiliar. Additionally, this is unappealing as a whole to regular congregants. However, long-term missions (especially to unreached people groups) is absolutely essential to the Great Commission. 

Sending missions are for those who either can not or will not go on a short-term missions trip. This allows congregants to send money, resources, emotional support, or administrative help to the front-lines from the comfort of their home. This is the most appealing to regular congregants, and has great opportunity to be applied in any situation. Anyone can be a sender.

Workers are those who do material repairs. Often, they are the ones helping build or restore buildings. These helpers are essential in repairing the broken material world, and missions work needs a lot of them. However, they also run the risk of harming the society they are placed in by doing work that a local person could do. These workers should be wary not to do more harm than good.

Work leaders are those in charge of workers. They envision, plan, and run job sites. However, this position also runs the risk of taking a job a local person could have. The ideal work leader on a missions trip would be someone who delegates work to those who live in the area, including the jobs workers are doing as well as leadership positions. Work leaders should aim to create sustainable leadership in the area, so that when they leave, the situation will not collapse back worse than it was before.

Supporters are the spiritual workers. They are those who help create an atmosphere of Christian values and fellowship, but who aren’t as able to teach. On a short-term missions trip, they may be highschoolers who want to go to care for the children in the area. Hanging out with the kids is a great way to encourage Christian community in the area. 

Teachers are those who go in and teach the Bible to those who do not know it well. They cannot easily be replaced by locals initially (especially in unreached areas), so a teacher’s goal in addition to teaching the Bible should be to disciple local leaders for the time when the missionary leaves. The ultimate goal should be to make a sustainable Christian culture that thrives whether missionaries are there or not.

Lastly, there are senders. These are people back home at the church who send finances or emotional support to the missionaries on the field, and who are able to do administrative work back home like renting out the missionary’s house. Senders also pray for the missionaries, and pray a lot. Everyone in the church should be a sender, someone able to financially or emotionally support the missionaries. 

There are many organizations that help these different kinds of people grow into these positions. These include things like Ethnos 360, SEND International, Mission Finder, and Faith Driven Entrepreneur. 

What are some of the most effective ways to spread the Gospel to the ends of the earth? What ways are ineffective?

Spreading the gospel is effective when it is self-sustainable. The goal of missions work should be to grow local people into positions of leadership so that they can impact their own community. The missionary should only be there to do (1) immediate relief (for example, in the case of a tsunami) or (2) initial growth. The missionary should try to facilitate, but their goal is to delegate all authority they think they have ultimately to local people in order to create a self-sustaining Christian community. Absence of the missionary should not mean absence of the Christian culture. 

When missionaries go into a place and artificially inflate local work ability or economic situations by pumping in new workers/finances, the situation is almost instantly doomed to become worse than before once the missionaries leave. Missionaries should not be doing all or even most of the work. They should not be spending lots of money on workers, but instead using the resources the community has access to to grow sustainably. Success is not measured in houses built, but in the attitude of the community towards building houses. 

How can you practically support missionaries today?

Senders, talked about in section three, are some of the most important people for missionaries. There are four main ways to help: Help with Money, help Mentally, help Manage, and help Multiply. 

Senders can send Money to the front-lines for the missionaries and commit to supporting financially. This can even include tithing specifically to missions, which is what I am doing. Sending money is a great way to support the missionaries, since having a job is often difficult. 

Senders can help Mentally by keeping in contact with missionaries. When my friends go on missions, I can keep in contact with them in order to help them still feel connected, and not stranded in a strange land. Emotional health is very important for missionaries, since missions work comes with intense spiritual warfare. They need all the support they can get. 

Senders can help Manage. If a missionary has a house, the sender can rent the house to tenants. If the missionary has a car, the sender can sell it. If the missionary needs supplies, the sender can arrange packages to be sent and communicate with the local church to meet the missionary’s needs. 

Finally, senders need to Multiply. They should not be silent about the missionaries, but act as a mediator between them and the whole congregation. Senders should inform congregants about the situations the missionary is in, and the financial/emotional support needed. Senders should be making more senders, praying corporately and privately, and encouraging one another to support the missionaries. 

What are your three biggest takeaways and learnings from this course?

Missions work is of pressing importance. Around two billion people have never heard the gospel, and I only heard it because my ancestors had missionaries go to them. Without missionaries, I don’t know where I would be. Missions work cannot be something on the backburner, even though that’s where it has been in the modern church. Because of that, missions work must be put so close to first in importance that every church in America is sending missionaries to unreached people groups. Until that time, missions work should not step down from being one of the most important, pressing, and serious ministry avenues in the mind of every congregant. 

Missions work is also tricky, and you should not do all the work yourself. Painting a house and leaving does not change the community’s attitude towards painting it. Building a school without training teachers does no good. The neighborhood knows what they need and has to be at the forefront of planning and execution. The goal of missions work should not be to build a thing, but to build a community centered around the gospel. From that, the attitudes of individuals change, and the material situations change afterwards. That order must not be confused. The gospel comes, the attitude changes, and then the environment changes. Changing the environment does not change the attitude.

Sending is an essential part of missions that is often overlooked. I never thought sending would be so important, but it is. Sending is something every individual congregant in a church could do, but they don’t. Pastors don’t talk about missions, and the church members don’t think about it. Those who know about missions, and know its importance must be advocates for missionaries when pastors are not. We should speak out about missions work, raise awareness, and never be silent.

Bibliography
“A Global Evangelical Missions Organization – SEND International.” A Global Evangelical
Missions Organization – SEND International, https://send.org/.
Corbett, Steve, eds Brian Fikkert, When Helping Hurts (Chigaco, Illinois: Moody Publishers,
2012).
“Mission Finder.” Mission Finder, https://missionfinder.org/.
Rob Martin, eds Brian Fikkert, When Money Goes on Mission (Chigaco, Illinois: Moody
Publishers, 2019).
“Top Business as Mission Resources.” Faith Driven Entrepreneur,
https://www.faithdrivenentrepreneur.org/business-as-mission-resources.