When to move?
Are we done with missionaries simply relocating from the community
that they left to another community?
Every missionary leaves their Jerusalem (the place where they live and church they attend) to enter their Judea (within their state), their Samaria (within their country) and the uttermost parts (crossing borders into some other country).
The Great Commission calls all believers to reach their world. Working through the local church, we are to give witnessing to the lost a significant priority. However, witnessing for most believers is primarily limited to their neighborhood and their larger community. It is a big task and every local church needs to involve its members in evangelism, discipleship, leadership development (including future missionaries) and even church planting, depending on the size of their larger community.
The opportunity for believers/local churches to reach their world comes through missionary endeavors. “Every missionary goes to someone else’s Jerusalem” when they cross any border – local, state or international. Support from churches and individuals allow them to leave the boundaries of their community to enter the spiritual battlefield of others for the purpose of evangelism, discipleship, leadership development (including missionaries) and church planting.
Paul shares his zeal for missions in Romans 1:14, identifying his overwhelming debt to Jesus Christ for the lost people of the world. With this burden, Paul was sent by the Holy Spirit and released by the Antioch church to take the gospel to their world. We are so blessed by the record of his three missionary journeys and his anticipated fourth.
This example of missionary zeal should challenge missionaries of today. We follow Paul through his journeys and find him spending hours in some places, days in others, weeks, months and sometimes years in multiple communities. Here then is the question, “Are missionaries really meant to simply transfer from one community to another community, trade one boundary to be confined within another boundary?”
Another question, “As missionaries enter the spiritual battlefields of others, were the missionaries sent to fight the battle for them?” No doubt, there is the need for initial leadership but the goal of Paul seemed to be evangelize, organize and move on. His letters and return trips represented his continuing ministry to the churches he established, organized… and left behind.
Yet, many times, missionaries move into a community and begin their work. Then they become entrenched in that community and busy in wonderful, heart-felt, redeeming ministry. From time to time, they look around at all the things they are expecting/expected to do; only to discover that national believers are simply watching them work. Seriously? Let me ask again, “How many national believers are simply watching Americans do the work in their community that the Great Commission calls them to do?"
As missionaries to a world of 8 billion people, being a debtor to Jesus Christ cannot be reduced to a single community any longer. For some missionaries, settling into a community may be necessary for a time (teachers, translators), but for most, it defies the objective demonstrated by Paul to be men on the move. Staying in one place for an inordinate amount of time should be off the table.
Time to move, then move, then move…let’s get moving! There is a world to reach for Jesus Christ to whom we owe a debt.
