The Church Needs a Global Mentality

The need is great for the church to refocus its vision on global evangelism. Satan cannot be confronted on just one battlefront, here in the U.S., because he is all over the globe trying to influence men for evil. Therefore, the outreach of God’s people for converting lost souls to Christ needs to be global, reaching far beyond our local congregations. In this new millennium the leaders in the church need to be focused, unwavering and driven if they are to reach the masses with the Gospel of Christ! Excitement needs to be generated in the hearts of every elder, deacon, preacher, missionary and congregate in the churches. Until the church becomes truly excited and enthusiastic, we will never succeed. Sadly, in too many places apathy for reaching the lost seems to be the norm.

Success in global missions calls for passion and intensity in our endeavors. The church has been blessed in years past with some great missionaries who exhibited immense dedication, wisdom and zeal. They have done untold good in spreading the Gospel in distant lands at great sacrifice to themselves. I have tremendous respect for all those pioneer missionaries who paved the way for many of us.

With that being said, I want to address a flawed practice in the church that has cropped up from time to time through a lack of knowledge. Well-intended individuals have all too often said, “Well, if a man just can’t make it here in the United States we ought to send him to the mission field.” Why? The fact is nothing could be further from the truth. The main thrust of this article is to refute the notion that men who have proven themselves incapable of doing the work of an evangelist here at home should be sent to the mission fields of the world. The fact is, they will do more harm than good.

The dawning of a new day is needed regarding the qualifications of missionaries sent to serve in foreign lands. If anything, we should be sending some of our most talented, most educated and most effective men to carry the Gospel to the nations of the world. The missionary will leave behind a strong spiritual environment and go into a foreign country where he’ll face innumerable challenges, starting the moment he steps off the plane and heads to immigration. He will likely find himself in a pagan, Godless society where no one will have any appreciation for who he is or what he is or what he thinks. He will be crossing into another culture and he needs to be ready and fortified for the awesome job that awaits him. The problems he will face in the mission field will far outweigh any problems he might have had in the States because his support system will not be there. There will be no elders, no deacons, no faithful Christian parents, relatives, or friends. Congregations in America are blessed with talented leadership, organization, and the blessings of numerically and spiritually strong congregations. This is not true in the mission fields.

The missionary leaves a strong spiritual environment and transitions into an environment often lacking in leadership, organization, spiritual and numerical strength. In the congregation missionaries find themselves working with a relatively small number of people. He must be capable of making decisions that he never had to make before. He discovers that the talent pool has diminished greatly. There aren’t nearly as many talented people in this remote corner of the world to help him carry out the work.

Necessity is laid upon him to communicate effectively with government departments just to stay in the country where he is working. He must handle matters with all sorts of government agencies that will be foreign to him. There will be Customs, Immigration, Tax Department, and a host of other bureaucracies with which he must deal according to their laws. In some countries even the mayors must be reckoned with because they have tremendous powers that can make or break one’s work in a given country. He needs to meet with presidents of universities to open doors of opportunity on their campuses. He needs to be capable of meeting with the president or prime minister of a country, should the opportunity arise. He must understand that many laws and privileges afforded citizens of the U.S.A. may not exist in the foreign country in which he is working.

It is just too late for poorly trained missionaries sent to foreign lands to then discover that they should have been educated and trained in cross-cultural evangelism prior to their departure for the target country. Even with training, culture shock often hinders and disables missionaries. The likelihood of that happening increases when there has been no proper training. The apostle Paul often prayed for boldness. He requested prayer from fellow Christians that he might have boldness: “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints—and for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains: that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak” (Eph. 6:18-20). Missionaries themselves often fail to speak out boldly concerning this subject because they do not want to seem boastful about their own qualifications. Although they know how important it is for the church to send only effective missionaries to the mission field, they sometimes fear that some will misunderstand their intentions. Missionaries need boldness and they need to plead the case for sending individuals who have the talent, ability, zeal, education and training to get the job done. Like Paul, we need to pray for boldness regarding these matters. We need the courage to speak out as we ought to speak addressing the real issues facing us in global evangelism.

Not just anyone should become a missionary. If a man is not willing to receive education, instruction and training prior to going abroad, perhaps we should question his sincerity. Why would a person want to just jump up and go overseas without first preparing himself by receiving the education and training needed to properly fulfill the work assignment? We don’t just need more preachers or just more missionaries! We need more effective preachers and more effective missionaries! We need individuals who are driven when it comes to fulfilling the Lord’s command of global conquest. Missionary endeavor calls for the best we have in every area and this includes the personnel being sent to the target countries to carry out evangelistic outreach. What do you think about Paul, Barnabas, Silas, Timothy and Titus, who went out to the mission field? Were they some of the best qualified men or were they sent because they were not talented enough to accomplish the work in Jerusalem and Antioch? Of course, we know the answer to this question. They were certainly qualified for the job they were sent to do.

Now this is not to throw off on anyone who has gone and sacrificed and given the best they had to the Lord. No, indeed! Thank God for everyone who has ever gone and given God service in foreign lands. I am not trying to criticize, condemn, or make light of anyone who has served. What I am trying to say is that we need to wake-up and send out some men like Paul, Barnabas, Silas, Timothy and Titus. We can do better preparing individuals for missionary service. We need missionaries totally grounded in God’s Truth! We need missionaries who are capable of dealing with government officials. We need missionaries who can carry on when there is a lack of leadership and congregational strength to draw from. We need missionaries who are capable soul winners and capable preachers of God’s Word. Never forget this: “For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe” (I Cor. 1:21). Preaching has taken a back seat in the minds of many in today’s world, but the Holy Spirit teaches that it is through the foolishness of preaching that men are saved. Hence, we need to send the best preachers we have to achieve the largest task before the church today; that is, converting the masses of humanity residing in nations that are presently hungering and thirsting for the salvation offered them by the uplifted Christ (John 12:32).

The message of reconciliation has been committed to us and we must be good stewards of that which has been entrusted to us. The responsibility to put our best foot forward in proclamation is vital in global missions. Missionaries today have been entrusted with the same message of reconciliation that was entrusted to Paul (II Cor. 5:14-21). Notice Paul was compelled to proclaim that message to the lost of his day—Paul was driven!

Where does the Lord’s church need to concentrate its most talented and effective men? Of course we need to have talented, educated and dedicated men here at home to preach in the local congregations. Without strong local congregations to provide the “supply line,” there would be no missionaries going out from the U.S.A. However, as much as we need effective men at home, even more so do we need effective men out on the mission fields. The truth of the matter is that America is less receptive to the message of Christ than many of the Third-World countries. We should extend ourselves to preach in these lands where the people are receptive to the Gospel. We need to educate, train, motivate and activate the best we have for service on the battlefronts that will produce the greatest results for God. It just makes sense that we would concentrate our efforts in an area where it will do the most good. This would be true in a commercial business. It is just as true in the Lord’s business.

Many American congregations have elders, deacons and members sitting in the pews every Sunday as listeners who could themselves be up preaching and teaching and handling the worship service for the local congregations. The “front row” illustration is still as true as it ever was. If you had an auditorium full of starving people but you only fed the front row over and over, disregarding the pleas of all the other people, it just wouldn’t be right. Sometimes in the church we have been guilty of continually feeding the front row and ignoring the people who live in distant lands who desperately need to know about the “Bread of life.”
In conclusion, we need to realize the necessity of sending effective and qualified men to the mission fields and we need to be generous to other countries in sending some of the best that we’ve got to teach and preach!