{"id":31771,"date":"2022-09-10T15:43:26","date_gmt":"2022-09-10T20:43:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/5-truths-we-forget-about-world-missions\/"},"modified":"2022-09-10T15:43:26","modified_gmt":"2022-09-10T20:43:26","slug":"5-truths-we-forget-about-world-missions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/5-truths-we-forget-about-world-missions\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Truths We Forget About World Missions"},"content":{"rendered":"
Brett Zeck photo – Unsplash <\/p>\n

By Deborah Spooner<\/em><\/p>\n

You might see the words \u201cworld missions\u201d and feel dread (and then feel guilty that you felt dread). Or, you might feel excitement rising. No matter your reaction, missions evokes a response in pastors.<\/p>\n

How do I talk about this with my church? Are we really making a difference? Will anyone support our missionaries financially? Am I failing as a pastor if few in my congregation serve as overseas missionaries? Why doesn\u2019t my church seem as passionate about missions as I think they should?<\/em><\/p>\n

Whether missions has been your rallying cry for years or whether you face discouragement, uncertainty, and frustration, we all share a common tendency: We forget. <\/em>We forget simple realities around missions that can speak to all our situations.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s remind ourselves of these five things about missions:<\/p>\n

1. It\u2019s a lifestyle and not just a theory.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

We talk about missions\u2014a lot. The best ways to run our short-term missions trips. The veracity of short-term trips in the first place. How to help without hurting. The true cost of living overseas.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

But, at the end of the day, missions isn\u2019t a theory we hold at arm\u2019s length. Either we are 1) equipping our congregation to model their lifestyles after Christ so they are ready if the Lord calls overseas, or 2) teaching them that missions is something we say but rarely do.<\/p>\n

It has to not just be a distanced theory but become a livable, urgent, honored, and even taught lifestyle\u2014a lifestyle of going and praying for those who do.<\/p>\n

2. It\u2019s a reality and not just a story.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Sometimes, we can treat missions as an isolated set of stories from the field and feel that they are just very distanced from our lives or that missionaries are superhuman. Yet, reality is different.<\/p>\n

Missionaries and their stories are real, and they\u2019re humans just like we are. They\u2019re humans ministering to other humans. We forget they have experienced loss.<\/p>\n

They get frustrated. They\u2019re jealous, tired, and happy just as those they minister to aren\u2019t just the lost but are people with hopes, dreams, and fears, too.<\/p>\n

This changes how we pray and interact. They\u2019re not people needing pitying or idolizing. Missionaries are people needing Jesus and sharing Jesus even as we pursue Jesus, too.<\/p>\n

Missionaries are family, and it\u2019s our greatest reality to not write them into a separate story but see their unique role in the story God is weaving in all humanity.<\/p>\n

3. It\u2019s a Church culture and not just a department.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Do you wonder why few are signing up to travel overseas? Question whether your church should at least have catalyzed one person out of all your members to commit their lives to reaching the unreached?<\/p>\n

Consider stopping to ask mission\u2019s place in the fabric of your church. Is it something you highlight once a year or mention passingly as a prayer request? Or is it something that is steeped into the core of your values?<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
See also  4 Changes I’d Make If I Could Start Ministry Over<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

We forget that missions is a cornerstone of our greater Church reality, a reality that doesn\u2019t stop with us. The Church had a consistent presence in the past and will span into the future.<\/p>\n

The truth is, we couldn\u2019t contain missions into a department if we wanted to do so. It\u2019s the Churches\u2019 true culture and aim, and we miss out if we minimize its role.<\/p>\n

4. It\u2019s a place for urgency and not for cynicism. <\/strong><\/h3>\n

What can we really<\/em> do? We can cynically tend to stop at this statement and wonder if our prayers, money, and people are actually making an impact in a world of such great need and such staggering number of people unreached with the gospel.<\/p>\n

Good news is, the pressure isn\u2019t on us in the first place. We don\u2019t have the right to be cynics when we\u2019ve been centered with a mission: the Great Commission.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re called to be disciples making disciples, to the ends of the earth, and we can pray to replace our doubting, prideful cynicism with a Jesus-given urgency and burden for those without a saving faith in Jesus.<\/p>\n

5. It\u2019s a measurement and not just a metric. <\/strong><\/h3>\n

We can get caught up in the numbers. How many missionaries we are funding, praying for, and sending. How many conversions they are seeing.<\/p>\n

But when we see only numbers, we miss true sight. Missions isn\u2019t just a metric of these things we hold so highly. It\u2019s a measurement of what matters: that Christ can save beyond measure.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s about daily obedience to Christ not the results that we wish we could see.<\/p>\n

Instead of only asking for numbers, we can seek to find these measures of God\u2019s grace: in the stories of what the Lord is doing in people\u2019s hearts tangibly, in how His glory is being made known even through dry seasons, of the faithful actions of the less glamorous tasks, of the worshipful hearts in those doing ministry in a world of pain.<\/p>\n

World missions doesn\u2019t have to be daunting, and we would do well to remember these things. Challenge yourself to not forget the wider perspective on missions as you seek to lead your church deeper into God\u2019s heart for the world.<\/p>\n

DEBORAH SPOONER<\/strong> is a marketing strategist for Lifeway’s Groups Ministry.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
Dig Deeper at Lifeway.com<\/div>\n
\n
<\/div>\n
\n

Something Needs to Change<\/h2>\n

David Platt<\/p>\n

FIND OUT MORE <\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Related posts:<\/h3>\n
What Do Pastors Believe About the End Times? What Do Pastors Believe About the Book of Revelation? 3 Ways to Reach Non-Religious People in Your Community <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brett Zeck photo – Unsplash By Deborah Spooner You might see the words \u201cworld missions\u201d and feel dread (and then feel guilty that you felt dread). Or, you might feel excitement rising. No matter your reaction, missions evokes a response in pastors. How do I talk about this with my church? Are we really making … Continue reading “5 Truths We Forget About World Missions”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31771\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}