A complete small group study guide

The theme of the Bible is God bringing glory to Himself by blessing all nations on earth through Jesus Christ, the descendant of Abraham. It’s a main dish, not just a side salad. As God’s people, do we organize our lives around that redemptive theme? Or are we just biding time until we die and go to heaven? We must be on guard against attitudes and ideas that pull us away from our mission. Our enemy loves to see us merely drift. Don’t let the enemy distract you from your purpose, convince you it only applies to other people, or make you think it can’t be done. We must periodically stop and ask ourselves whether we are aligning our lives with the plan that God lays out in His Word.

Many North American Christians are convinced that missionary sending—to the degree it’s needed at all—should now be delegated to Christians from other parts of the world. Sending career cross-cultural missionaries from the West can seem anachronistic. Technology, globalization and the growth of the Church in the Global South all have a dramatic impact on the way we go about missions, but none of those factors change our responsibility to participate in fulfilling the Great Commission. Westerners still have an important role to play in partnership with the church of the Global South. The equipping and sending of qualified missionaries from our local churches into the least-reached cultures of the world is still important. Don’t believe the myth that Westerners are no longer needed or wanted.

Some Christians define missions broadly enough to include virtually any activity of the church, including ministering within local congregations, serving the poor and fighting injustice. Although this trend is often driven by good intentions, we are in danger of losing our focus on global discipleship if we don’t have specific vocabulary to describe it. Language evolves over time, but we should be asking ourselves, Does broadening the term “missions” lead to increased engagement in the task of taking the gospel to every people group on earth? We must also avoid defining missions too narrowly, in strictly geographic terms. Defining missions according to the Great Commission mandate does not limit us to only one type of ministry or relegate other activities to second class. Rather, it frees us to apply the full resources of the global Church to the work our Lord has given us.

Under stress, we tend to simplify our options into binary categories. We can’t do everything, so we must choose between the needs of our families and the needs of the world, between home-culture ministry and international missions, between evangelism and social justice. But binary thinking can be a trap. Missions and other ministries are not mutually exclusive, and pursuing missions does not have to come at the expense of everything else. A focus on God’s big picture plan for the nations will also strengthen our personal faith, our families, our churches and our local ministries. We can serve our local communities well as we disciple the nations.

Short-term trips and virtual experiences make global missions accessible to many Christians. They can have many wonderful outcomes and benefits. Our main concern is whether they can replace long-term missionary work. Is it still strategic to send a few cross-cultural workers for long-term ministry when we can now send many more for shorter stints? The core of missions is discipleship, which is often a long process. Missions, therefore, must always have a long-term mindset. This chapter explores some of the ways that short-term missions can inspire and support the long-term cross-cultural discipleship goal. The two approaches can work in synergy rather than competition. When done wisely, short-term experiences complement a long-term incarnational presence.

We sometimes picture missionaries as super-Christians with an exclusive calling or as social misfits we don’t want to be associated with. Either way, the more separation we create in our minds between ourselves and cross-cultural missionaries, the less likely we are to engage in Great Commission efforts. Missionaries are often strange in the sense that they no longer fit in in their home cultures, and they are holy in the sense that they have dedicated their lives to a special type of service to God, so it stands to reason that they are also rare. We can honor their unique role without elevating them in an unhealthy way. We all have a part to play in the Great Commission, not just the professionals, or the super holy, or the losers, or whatever other label might make us feel like we can’t (or don’t have to) participate. Becoming a missionary is just one of many ways to contribute.

In some secular circles, and even among some believers, world missions is associated with a legacy of imperialism, oppression, and discrimination. Without doubt, terrible things have been done in the name of missions. However, the idea that missions has been—and still is—predominantly destructive rests on faulty assumptions (cultures should be preserved exactly as they are, missionaries are the dominant force of change, Christianity is a Western construct, missionary influence has been primarily destructive, etc.). The gospel is good news for all people in all cultures with no exceptions. When we evaluate the impact of missions on the world, we must distinguish between the core message and the irresponsible, clumsy, and ethnocentric ways it has sometimes been carried out. Let’s acknowledge the mistakes of the past and strive to learn from them, but let’s not allow a negative perception of missions to diminish our enthusiasm for our God-given task.

The church has made huge progress toward the fulfillment of the Great Commission. The remaining needs of the world are staggering. Those two truths do not cancel out. We have a limited view of a God-sized task and must keep in mind that God’s church spans both geography and time. Let’s not be fooled into thinking that the Great Commission can be reduced to a checklist. Regardless of what we may see in any particular context, God’s global church is now growing rapidly, both in terms of individual believers and diversity of people groups. Ultimately, whether global missions is advancing or regressing in a particular location has little effect on our responsibility to pursue the Great Commission. Don’t allow a sense of negativity or failure to become an excuse for apathy or disobedience.

As Christians, we have the words of life that provide redemption and salvation for anyone who believes. The accelerating pace of global change requires that the Western Church recalibrate our missions strategies, but let’s not misinterpret that as an opportunity to opt out. There has never been a more exciting time to be involved in world missions. The key question for believers in the West should not be, Will we play a part? but, What is our best contribution? Westerners are particularly well-suited to be encouragers, catalysts, connectors, resourcers and pioneers. We must fulfill these roles not only with the right strategies, but also with the right attitudes: we must be biblical, collaborative, strategic and creative. We must also avoid the tasty carrots our enemy offers as excuses and distractions.

Parisians fell in love with the Eiffel Tower because it democratized the view. For the first time, normal people could afford a ticket to see the expanse of the city. The Great Commission does the same for us. Every Christian has an opportunity to admire God’s big picture plan for redeeming representatives from all the peoples of the earth and find their place within the worldwide, millennia-old panorama. In 1925 a conman successfully sold the Eiffel Tower to scrap metal dealers—twice. God is not going to allow His redemptive plan for the world to fail any more than Paris is going to sell its beloved Eiffel Tower for scrap, but that doesn’t stop our enemy from trying. Don’t fall for the con. Especially not more than once. Our Commission is great because our God is worthy.