Okay, how do I unpack what has been put on my heart without – yet again- offending the very people I love: Those who I am committed to take extra special care of: believers, followers of Jesus Christ, disciples, Christians. I don’t like it when a holy discontent is put on my heart…even though it’s a privilege.
It’s missionaries and the way churches package their efforts. And for the record: I love missionaries. I have nothing but respect for them and the sacrifices they endure in order to teach people about salvation found alone in Jesus Christ.
The other day I heard a missionary at Mars Hill in Seattle give his testimony to the congregation. He and his family came back to the states after spending 3 years in a remote jungle somewhere in Papa New Guinea. They were back for 10 months – long enough to give birth to their 3rd son – and they planned to leave again for 3 more years the following Saturday.
It was said that they went to the jungle three years prior with nothing. No one where they were going knew Christ. No one where they were going knew English. Over the course of three years and two kids: this missionary and his wife began to translate the Bible, and they baptized 50 believers into Christ. They had established a church of disciples. They had in fact ‘made’ disciples, baptized, and taught Jesus’ commands. This is the Great Commission: what Jesus told all the disciples right before he ascended. Before he even stepped up to the mike my heart cheered for this missionary and his wife because their efforts were so true to Jesus’ last human/earthly words. So biblical in their mission. It is truly amazing to see someone authentically living out the gospel. And to see it in church is even better.
When the missionary stepped up to tell his story, he did not talk about all the transformed lives he affected, he did not talk about his work, he did not bring any attention to his family or their sacrifices related to the success of the mission. Rather, here is what he said: (paraphrased)
“God has made many believers in (the village) in the remote jungle of Papa New Guinea. There are 50 now in Jesus' church. We came back to have our third son, but mostly to restore our marriage. I gave into much temptation during our stay – always choosing to do translating over spending time with my family, choosing to have a church meeting over being with my wife, and the list goes on. There’s so much to do as a missionary over there, and I let it consume every minute of my day, and destroy my marriage. We let it separate us. And we had to come back to get clarity on what was really going on.
"We know Satan wants to take us out. We are huge targets because we are making Christians where there were none. If we are taken down – look at all the believers who he (Satan) would lay claim to. If we fail, what would that mean to the village and the church of believers? What would that mean to Jesus? We knew we had to make our marriage and our relationship with Christ our primary focus. So we came back to the states and got some help, and now we’re going back this Saturday, and we’ll do things differently. But we will not stop our mission of making believers.”
As I listened, all the air had been taken from my lungs. In the background of the podcast, you could hear a pin drop. There was dead silence. The stark reality of the toll their walk of faith was taking on them hit us all in the gut. In most other churches, one would expect to see smiling faces of the whole family up there giving testimony of their "I changed the world" experience -and we would be clapping, nodding, smiling, but not really listening; just staring at the slide show of village kids playing with the missionary kids in a dirt patch between huts.
Even though there was everything self-glorifying about what these people were doing, the missionary used his limited time with the congregation to talk about what was on his heart - lay himself out at the feet of the body of Christ. Their endeavor was hard and taking a huge toll on them, their marriage, their family. It was a hard life. These guys were the real deal. Real missionaries really carrying out the Great Commission. They could totally grab that glory trophy and take the glory for their work. But no.
Just considering the depth of their sacrifice, the honesty with which he confessed, and the conviction on his heart were all too much to bear. I felt so convicted. It brought forth the realization that we who stay behind need to be faithful in prayer for those who are bringing people to Christ and will stop at nothing to do so. Doesn’t matter to me that they were in New Guinea or New Mexico. They were committed to the Great Commission…really and truly. And the church didn’t make a big deal about it – they didn’t take the credit. And the person, the missionary, gave all the credit to God. Didn’t talk about all his great accomplishments or call any attention to any glory that might be his to take…he gave all the glory to God and took all the responsibility for the sin.
I felt convicted because I contrast that experience to so many churches who tout that their mission is to ‘carry out the Great Commission’ and then validate the claim by connecting a group from their congregation with a Christian organization (such as Compassion International, World Vision, Prayer Watch, etc.), and then send them on a sanctioned, scripted, orchestrated, insulated journey to aid people in need – but who already have been evangelized…saved…made disciples…know who Jesus is - -and believe.
While this kind of good will is -in fact -good, it is NOT ‘carrying out the Great Commission’…because it’s just not. But that is somehow the spin it gets. Maybe it’s just because these good-willed people are sent out of the US to a third world country…maybe that’s why some churches will call this 'a carrying out of the great commission' because there is travel to another continent involved. And because we are to make disciples of all nations, the church dumbs it down by hanging on the 'all nations' part rather than the 'making disciples' part. When in fact all nations means all lineages/names as equally as geographic nations. They don't mention that in a melting pot like America, you don't need to go anywhere to make disciples of all nations.
What an event like this is – is part of the Great Commandment – to love each other as Christ loved us. Not the Great Commission. In addition, Christians are called to take special care of other Christians. So pre-packaged, corporate partnerships with Christian organizations are all good - in fact, they're extra good. Just not the commission of making disciples.
A trip like this needs to be called what it is: good will, strengthening the body of Christ, believers taking care of believers. It is biblical. And it is great. But this type of missionary- one on a good-will mission that has been planned-out and combined with a larger partnership - should not be confused with a missionary of the Great Commission, a missionary whose primary goal is to make disciples, baptize and teach about Jesus. Good will (or caring) missions have a primary goal of say, delivering water, bringing food, building a shelter, digging a well, planting a crop...but not converting unbelievers to believers. The praying, talking about Jesus, teaching, - they all seem to be byproducts – a secondary goal.
So, that's what bugs me: that the Great Commission and the Great Commandment get blurred. And hearing the Mars Hill missionary -whose only focus was to carry out the Great Commission - so crystalized the dichotomy of realities happening in churches across America. I might be splitting hairs but that's OK because it's important to understand the difference. One increases the size of Jesus' kingdom; the other strengthens the body of Christ. Both are vital - that's why Jesus pairs them together - - that's why it's his last orders before leaving. One doesn't make sense without the other. One dies without the other.
So, if churches and missionaries have a habit of blurring what they are doing out in the mission field...that is to say, for example, if I go to Somalia under the umbrella of World Vision and build showers for people as my primary goal...I am being Jesus' hands and feet...I am caring for an already evangelized segment of God's kingdom...I am helping strengthen the body of Christ. And the hopeful-but-by-chance-after-effect of my good work might be that the people I am helping learn from my example, that Christians are caring, giving, healing people. Without intentionally planning to teach/preach the story of Jesus, I may just be remembered as a nice American...but should be remembered as a Christian. So I'm not really making disciples if I don't intentionally make that my goal.
Then if I go back home believing that I was out 'making disciples', and my church celebrates my arrival home and announces my good work as part of the church's global reach of 'fulfilling the Great Commission', guess who loses? Jesus. Because my people who supported my trip believe they are making disciples through my efforts - when they in fact are not...and the kingdom is not advancing...not growing. But we feel happy, content, complacent, we have checked that box. We use buzz words like, 'advancing the kingdom' and 'global reach' in our church circle, then continue to not talk to people about Jesus' story.
Another problematic: Sometimes, when we care globally as a church but have limited resources, we can begin to become apathetic towards our own neighborhoods' care needs. Because we can only do so much and we are a "missional church" (read: we only do third world...can't help every little cause). We stumble over our own homeless to get to the airport to catch our plane to, say, Tangier's. We don’t pay attention when it’s local, or not sponsored by some big Christian organization...that's not sexy like Africa or India.
Most of us don’t have the guts to go face to face to help. We haven't learned how to be people who help like Jesus. It's not intuitive. We travel half way around the world to give a kid a bottle of water and a pair of shoes– and we come back astounded that we were capable of giving. It's our heart that changes. Giving changes us. It made us grow…giving did. That is what strengthens the body of Christ - when we learn a heart for giving. But we had to spend a lot of money and leave our country - our own needy - to ‘get it’.
And we come back after building an orphanage and puff our chests that we carried out the great commission – us ‘missionaries’. But we didn’t. And we aren’t. We are good Christians/disciples, though, doing good things. What we did was good. What we did was God-inspired. But it wasn’t the Great Commission…intentionally, and we can’t dupe ourselves into thinking that it was. Because we will slowly, subtly stop the process of making disciples if we keep on this tact… And that’s the evil one’s plan…to stop us.
1. I am not saying that giving globally is bad - it's good. It's Godly. Just don't forsake what's in front of us every day. And help teach the church to teach us believers how to make more of an impact for the complicated needs of our own communities.
2. And I am not saying that caring missions are bad either. Just call them what they are - lest we forget what we have been 'commissioned' to do.
3. And when we are involved with true missionaries of the Great Commission - whether they are in L.A. or in Papa New Guinea - local or global-- pray for God to strengthen them and praise Him for their courage to focus on the one goal: to talk about His son.
Thank God we live in a place and time where I can contemplate such things.
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