Global Missions at Home?

“Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” 

Mark 16:15

Can you construct a church building in an instant?

Establishing a community of believers to occupy such a building may not be instantaneous either. 

Now, imagine that you want to establish that community in another country, without a common language, without transportation, infrastructure, water, electricity, a home, and without a Bible in a common language. What kind of team would you need to complete your work? 

How can you serve in missions where you are?

If missions is about access to the Gospel, then “missions right here, right now” is difficult because none of us Christians speak the language or know the culture of the people who have no access to God’s message. The Unreached Unengaged People Groups (UUPG) do not live near you, but the people who could work together to reach them do. 

Everybody around us here and now already has access to the Gospel. They have you. They have Christians in their workplace. They have Bibles in languages they understand. They have churches in their communities. 

Not all have heard. Not all have believed what they heard. Yes, they do need messengers to go tell them. Again and Again. They do need us to reach out to them personally in addition to the thirty other ways people are reaching out to them each day: church billboards, highway advertisements, tracts, radio broadcasts, web sites, online videos, email messages, cable television, magazines, movies, videos, news stations, podcasts, door to door visits, tracts, and Bible distribution. 

Is that missions, or the normal, ordinary, expected ministry of Christians as part of local churches in their communities? 

How about those people who live, work and die outside of the edge of the church — people who have no messenger? These people have no access.

That’s where we must function as a Body. The missionary is a necessary part of preaching, baptizing and teaching people who have no access. Romans 10, 1 Corinthians 12, and Ephesians 4, along with many other passages of Scripture, paint a picture of a Body working together under the Head, Jesus Christ, to complete a specific task. 

The Body

“And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.” 

See 1 Corinthians 12:21

Where do missionaries come from?

  • Who passes on the vision to people who might be missionaries?
  • Who disciples people in the faith and equips them to be career missionaries?
  • Who sends missionaries?
  • How do missionaries pay for their transportation, food, housing, ministry activities and resources?
  • Who cares for the missionaries and their children over a lifetime of ministry?
  • Who prays for those missionaries and the people they serve?
  • Who creates a culture of sending missionaries in a local church body?
  • Who is interested in the work of the missionary being completed? (Romans 15:23)
  • Who supports the churches that have been established through the work of missionaries? (Acts 15:36, 16:4-5)

These things are normal and ordinary activities of individual Christians in a community of believers who are thriving and growing in faith; The Body. 

Christ’s command is to teach people to obey all that He commanded us. (Mt. 28:20) Teaching obedience means building long-term relationships where God sends us. That means giving people access to God’s word so that they can grow in knowledge and also teach others. Doing that as an outsider in a faraway place where people have no other access to the Gospel means doing together what none of us can do alone. (Romans 10:13-17)

  • If missions is about access to the Gospel, how did the Gospel arrive all the way from Jerusalem to you? 
  • How did the Bible become available in English? Who gave you access and how? 
  • How can you respond in like manner to give access to people who have not had access? 
  • What role will you fill on the team today?
  • How will you prepare believers where you are today for what God has for them tomorrow?

Building for the Mission

“…I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.” 

See 1 Corinthians 3:10-15

Did anyone receive a more direct instruction about God’s will for his life than the Apostle Paul on the road to Damascus?

There could be no doubt about what Paul was going to be doing. So, Paul* spent three years in Arabia, six years in Tarsus, and two years in Antioch before the church leaders sent him as a missionary under the direction of the Holy Spirit.

My point is that, even knowing God’s direction and purpose, a person normally spends time learning, growing, and ministering to others before the Holy Spirit sends us out as career missionaries. 

According to the book of Ephesians, the Holy Spirit builds the Body for the work of the ministry through the written word of God and a variety of gifts and offices in the Church under the direction of Jesus Christ as the Head. 

If you want to be engaged in the work of God around the world, get involved with the organism of the local Body. 

Do you want co-workers to assist you on the mission field ten years from now? Lay the foundations for missions in the minds of the children, youth, church members, and leaders where you are now. 

I mean, this is God’s idea, not yours, right? So help other people to learn from God’s word and develop a community culture that is centered around God’s mission.

 

Things You Can Do Now

There are a lot of practical things you can do now to support missionaries, assist your church, and prepare people to engage in missions. What are your skills? What gifts can you use? Where can you use your talents most effectively in the Body?

  • Fix missionary cars.
  • Create a missionary fund-raiser.
    • Ideas: Fund flights for national & tribal church-planting missionaries in Brazil, Asia-Pacific, and the Philippines.
    • Ideas: Provide a helicopter for reaching people groups near the ends of the earth. 
  • Find people who will lay down their lives to share the hope of eternal life with people who have no access to the Gospel. 
  • Create social media buzz about global missions and unreached ethnolinguistic people groups by forwarding messages, magazine articles, photos, and web pages.
  • Organize a group to go to Wayumi Weekend Retreat. 
  • Read missionary biographies. Organize a reading event or missionary book club.
  • Join “A Third of Us“
  • Help your peers to know the difference between ministry and missions.
  • Show people the difference between “unreached” and “unreached-unengaged” (UUPG).*
  • Teach children about missions. 
  • Host a missionary at your church. 
  • Take a missionary out to dinner. 
  • Organize prayer teams with specific objectives or people groups in mind. 
  • Subscribe to Ethnos360 Magazine. 
  • Subscribe to Ethnos360 Weekly or Daily Prayer Bulletins.
  • Follow Ethnos360 or a representative on multiple social media platforms.
  • Be an advocate for the least-reached people groups.
Neal Pirillo’s book, “Serving As Senders” can give you a lot more ideas. 
Dawn Sanford at Wayumi (wayumi.com) has adopted and developed these and many other ideas into her local church, so she is a great resource if you have questions about practical implementation. 

Some Key Areas to Develop Now

How can students can be involved locally in missions now? 

Practice Evangelism. (Goodseed.com)(interlocked.online/comeandsee)

  • Experience: Will you be suddenly skilled doing overseas in another language and culture what you have never done at home
  • Knowledge: A good way to find out what you don’t know is to tell other people what you do know while involved in evangelistic outreach.
  • Message: Clarifying the message. What do people need to know to be saved? Do you know what to tell them? (https://www.goodseed.com/blog/2014/01/06/what-is-the-point-of-the-bible/)
  • Heart transformation: By sharing the Gospel with people around you, you cultivate a heart for the needs of other people. You gain confidence in God’s written word and will grow in your dependence upon the Holy Spirit’s power to communicate through you. You get to experience the joy of seeing other people respond by faith in God’s word. (Cultivate, Heart)
  • People skills.  See “Tactics” by Greg Koukl. Also, “Open Air Campaigners”.  Living Waters – “The Way of the Master” – Ray Comfort, Kirk Cameron (https://www.youtube.com/@LivingWaters)

Other Links

How can we serve God’s global mission in the future while remaining in our own country?

Educate Yourself

The best start I can think of to educate yourself about missions is to attend Wayumi. 
(wayumi.com)I

  • Do you know the metanarrative of the Bible?
  • What on earth is God doing?
  • In light of what God is doing on earth, what should you be doing?
  • What do unbelievers need to know to be saved?
  • What is and is not the Gospel?
  • What do Christians need to know about spiritual growth and maturity?
  • What do Christians need to know about missions?
  • How did the Bible come to you in your language?
  • What is an ethnolinguistic people group?
  • What do we mean by “reached” with the Gospel?
  • What is an unreached and unengaged people group (UUPG)?
  • Where in the world are the ethnolinguistic people groups who have not had access to a Bible, church, or Christian?
  • Why have these people groups not yet heard the Gospel?
  • What is being done to tell them?
  • Who is taking the Bible, God’s message to people who have never heard of Jesus?
  • What is the goal of missionary work?
  • How do you know when the Great Commission been fulfilled in a particular location or people group? (Romans 15:20-23)
  • When is a missionary’s work completed?
  • What is a thriving church?
  • How do you learn an unwritten language?
  • Where do you go to learn how to translate the Bible into an unwritten language?
  • What are the steps toward serving overseas as a career missionary?
  • What can you do in your local church, today, to send missionaries in the future?
  • What mission organizations are working to establish thriving church among people groups who have no access to the Gospel?
  • Why do some missionaries insist on teaching the Bible in the heart language of the people they serve?
  • How do missionaries fund their work?
  • By what means do churches and mission organizations hold their missionaries accountable?
  • How can you serve as a sender of missionaries?
  • What are the needs of missionaries from your church and how can you help meet them?

Educate others so that they may be…

Go Short-Term (…And bring other people with you!)

Get Training for a lifetime of service

Practical Steps

There are a lot of things you can do now that may have great impact later. 

  • Adopt an unreached, unengaged people group. Pray for God to raise up laborers to go tell them about Jesus. Where do they live? What do they believe? What would it take to visit or live among them? What are the obstacles? Find out what it would take to establish a thriving church there.
  • Pray for people who will go as missionaries to the least-reached people groups.
  • Pray for churches who will intentionally prepare people to be sent as missionaries to the least reached people groups.
  • Organize prayer groups among students, dorms, small groups or churches around one of the ethnolinguistic people groups who have no access to the Gospel.
  • Educate your friends and church about people who have no one to tell them about Jesus. peoplegroups.org
  • Show missionary videos to children, classmates, small groups and churches to increase awareness. Ethnos360.org/videos
  • Read missionary biographies to learn how other people have approached the Great Commission and what God did through their steps of faith. (Stilluntold.org/books)
  • Learn about Bible translation

Completing the Great Commission involves a variety of activities. You might be involved in one or more of these.

  • Evangelism: Leading people to who know God through believing Him and obeying Him (Hebrews 11:6)
  • Growth: People who are willing to add to their faith (2 Peter 1:3-15, Mark 4:8, Luke 8:15)
  • Discipleship: People who disciple other people so that new believers are established in their faith (Matthew 28:20, Ephesians 4:12)
  • Service: People who are willing to lay down their own lives so that other people may live eternally. (Mark 10:45, Luke 9:23, Galatians 5:23, John 20:21, 1 Peter 4:10)
  • Sending: (Mark 16:15, Romans 10:13-17, esp.15, Acts 1:8)
  • Going: Why Me? (stilluntold.org/why-me/) (Matthew 28:18-20, Mark 16:15, Luke 24:46-48, John 20:21, Acts 1:8, Romans 10:13-17, 1 Corinthians 15:34, 2 Corinthians 3, 4, & 5)

Where Are We Going?

Church Help for Missions

Bible Basis of Missions

Missions: Why ME?

Missions FAQ

Next Step: 

(The only step you can take by faith is the next one.)