Is Everybody a Missionary?

Historically the word “missionary” is used for people churches send / support in cross-cultural ministries distanced from the church. And missionaries are indispensable because they are the ones who plunge deep into the nations by learning the language and the culture.

What about the thousands (multiplied thousands!) who stay at home? What do we call them? I asked this question during a Sunday morning service and a lady blurted out, “Stationaries!”

She aroused a good laugh from the congregation, including me, but at the same time she sobered me. What do we call everybody else? Are we to be stationary?

God is giving American churches a unique opportunity to reach hundreds of nations right at home … right in their community. No plane ticket necessary! No passport necessary! No inoculations necessary!

Should we call those reaching the nations in their local community missionaries? I don’t think so. It would cause confusion. The word missionary is the agreed upon word we use of those ministering geographically distanced from the church.

But let me show you something interesting within the word missionary that describes God’s desire for the rest of us. Let’s keep using “ary” suffix for those the church sends out, okay? That leaves the word “mission” for those on the home-front … in their community. Now focus on the suffix of the word mission. It’s the word "on". It describes what the rest are to be doing. Everybody is to be “on mission” in reaching the nations in their community.

If you claim the name of Jesus, he has commissioned and empowered you to be “on mission" right where you live.

What (In The World) Was Jesus Talking About When He Said Nation?!

When Jesus approached his followers in Matthew 28, what exactly did he have in mind when he said to “make disciples of every nation?”

Every nation? Every single one of them? Yep! Okay … um … so what (in the world) is a nation? And what were the disciples thinking when they heard the word nation?

The answer to these questions is critical in understanding the scope of “the mission” of the Church - The Great Commission.

Our everyday English doesn’t help us because we use the words nation and country interchangeably. For example, in the Pledge of Allegiance we say, “One nation under God.”

It’s Luke’s account of The Great Commission that begins to bring clarity to this issue. In Luke 24 Jesus took his followers to the Old Testament to launch The Great Commission. Now, that makes sense, doesn’t it? After all, there was no New Testament, right? Have you ever pondered the fact that Jesus was restricted to the Old Testament while launching the Church into a new endeavor popularly referred to as the Great Commission?

Jesus said, “(Everything) must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses (Gen.-Deut), the Prophets and the Psalms” (v. 44). “Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures” (v. 45).

Wow! That must have been some kind of “Bible study.” I wonder what passages Jesus used?

No doubt he took them to the first place the word nation is used in the Bible: Genesis 10. That’s where Moses laid out the family tree of Mr. & Mrs. Noah through their three sons. The seventy names listed under the three boys are identified by languages and are called nations (vss. 5, 20, 31).

God, through Moses, identified a central element of nation being language - the highest expression of culture.

Let me combine these two elements into a definition of a nation:

A nation is a group of people
who have their own language and culture

According to www.joshuaproject.net there are 16,000 nations in the world and 7,000 are still unreached

Who are they and where do they live? Many of them are living in our communities!

“Oh, Lord, open our eyes to see the nations in our communities: in our grocery stores, in our schools, across the counter at the donut shop, at Wal-Mart, K-Mart, and Lowe’s. Places where we shop, places where we play. In Jesus name, Amen.”

You mean one hundred people, right? Not one hundred families!

Not long ago my wife, Jan, and I pulled into Kohl’s parking lot in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. We paused as a group of Asians walked in front of us. “Jan, look at those people. They look like they’re right off the boat.” They had mismatched clothing and the dazed look of newly arrived immigrants.

Upon entering the store Jan veered off to the women’s section and I started wondering through the men’s. And there they were, about twelve of them. I attempted to make eye contact with them one-by-one and initiate a smile. Finally one man locked on my eyes and responded with a smile.

I asked him, “Where are you from?”

“Burma.”

“Wow. I’ve never met anyone from Burma.”

“Are you Burmese?”

“No, I am Mon.”

“Hmong? I didn’t know the Hmong (pronounced Mong) were in Burma. I know they live in Lao, China, Viet Nam and Thailand. But I didn’t know they lived in Burma.”

“Mon!!”

“That’s what I’m saying, Mong.”

“No, you say Hmong. I’m Mon.”

Well, to my ears Hmong and Mon were sounding the same. I mean, it’s just one letter different, right?

“Okay,” I said, “How do you spell your name?”

“M ---- o ---- n”

I then disengaged from the conversation, went across the store and called the GBIM office on my mobile phone. I asked Ted Rondeau to go on the Joshua Project website (www.joshuaproject.net), click on Burma and then click on the Mon People. A couple of minutes later Ted uttered a “Wow” and commenced to tell me that there are 749,000 Mon living in Burma, they speak the Mon language, they are Buddhists and they are an unreached people group.

I approached the gentleman and shared with him my new-found information.

“How you know that so quickly,” he said.

“Oh, I have my ways.”

I then explained to him that I know a website that gives information about the people groups of the world.

I continued the conversation, “How many Mon live in Ft. Wayne?”

“One hundred families.”

I then explained that we must be having a translation problem. I shared the difference between the English word “people” (as in 100 people) and the word “families.” I counted out five people on my hand. My thumb is the father, my first finger is the mother and the remaining fingers are the three children. In other words, one family, but five people.

He then restated what we had shared from the very beginning in answering my question.

“One hundred Mon families (that’s 100!) live in Ft. Wayne!”

I was deeply moved! I was in awe! Standing in front of me was a Mon from Burma! A person from an unreached people group. Most likely this man had never heard the name of Jesus, let alone the concept of a creator God.

Lessons learned:

1. God is bringing the people groups (biblical nations) to our communities.
2. Many of these people groups are unreached. In other words, they have never heard the name of Jesus, let alone the plan of salvation.
3. You and I can have a significant cross-cultural ministry right in our community.
4. You and I can reach people who have never heard about Jesus right in our community.

Are you aware of the Joshua Project website? Be sure to check it out at www.joshuaproject.net.

“Oh, Lord. Please God, open our eyes to see the nations in our communities and open our mouths to speak to them and open our hearts to love them. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”

Internationals, USA Mission Statement

Grace Brethren International Missions (GBIM) has launched a new ministry called Internationals, USA.

“What is I-USA?”

“Who is I-USA?”

“What's it all about?”

Mission Statement:

Mobilizing believers to reach the nations in their communities by sharing the gospel through word and deed.

As you can see,

• It’s all about the local church.
• It’s all about the calling out the Bride of Christ from among the nations.
• It’s all about significant cross-cultural ministry in your community.
• It’s all about you!

“Lord, I pray that you would give us the eyes to see the nations living in our communities.”

Bed-Rock Truth for Reaching the Nations in Our Communities

Acts 17:24-27 is foundational for the Church in the U.S. We are becoming spiritually pluralistic, much like Athens where Paul was presenting God to the philosophers. When preaching to the Jews, he began with the Old Testament Scripture; but with the Gentiles, he always gave them an opportunity to climb aboard by starting at the bottom rung: creation by a Creator.

Paul boldly affirmed that God made the world and everything in it (v.24). Part of that creation is the nations (v. 26). Paul stated that God made every nation (all 16,000!) from one man (Adam) and he determined two things about these nations: the time of their existence and the “exact places” where they should live (v. 26).

On of those “exact places” is the U.S. More exactly, your community. Now why did God do this? Verse 27: “God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him …”

God is giving the nations of the world an opportunity to find him by bringing them to America. God is giving the Church living in America an opportunity to make disciples of all the nations.

Bell’s Blog ‘Bout the Nations is a journal of my journey in calling out the Bride of Christ from among the nations. I pray God will open your eyes to see how you also can have a significant international ministry – right where you live!