Recently I posed the question: How do these terms differ and how are they similar: Disciple and Missionary?
I contend that practically, these two terms are not mutually exclusive but integrated from their core outward. We become disciples of Jesus and since the God we serve is a missional God, we are to cultivate the same heart, the heart to GO into all the world and make disciples, as Jesus said. He didn’t just say it, He commanded His disciples to do that. We must, therefore, live missional lives. We should always be “on mission” as Jesus’ followers.
Just to be clear, a missionary is a disciple formally commissioned, sent by others, to go to those who need to learn the truth about God and the gospel of Jesus Christ.
When I was a child at Bible camp, I went down front at the invitation to put my faith in Jesus (although it was when I was a few years older that I pinpoint my true conversion). I have never forgotten what the bus driver, a Methodist minister, said to me: “Someone told you about Jesus. Now you tell someone else about Jesus.” I was seven years old.
At a Vacation Bible School one summer we sang:
Untold millions are still untold
Untold millions are still outside the fold
Who will tell them of Jesus’ love
And the heavenly mansions awaiting above?
Jesus died on Calvary to save each one from sin
Now he calls to you and to me
To go and bring them in
For many untold millions are still untold
Untold millions are outside the fold
Who will tell them of Jesus’ love
And the heavenly mansions awaiting above?
The words of that song, and the tune, have stayed with me all these years.[1] (Did you sing it as a child? Do you also remember the words and tune?) Today we should sing billions rather than millions, billions of people for whom Jesus died who have no access to the Word of God and the gospel, right now, today.
So the command of Jesus is for us today. There are still thousands of ethnic groups (people groups) unreached with the gospel of Jesus Christ. In India alone, of 2,256 people groups in that country, 2,033 of those are least-reached or unreached with the good news of Jesus. Add to this the least-reached people groups in other countries, and of the 7.3 billion people in the world today, 2.9 Billion of them have NO, or limited, ACCESS to the gospel of Jesus Christ.[2]
I can’t count that high. I can’t get my mind around 2,900,000,000. But we are talking about more than numbers: these numbers represent real, flesh and blood people; boys, girls, men, women; people like you and me who have never heard that Jesus loves them and therefore they cannot yet enjoy His grace and peace through Jesus Christ.
Why should you and I have this wonderful life in Christ when others haven’t even heard of Him? I’ve asked myself this question more than once. Is it because we are more special to God, more loved by Him? Though we’d never say that, don’t we actually tell ourselves we are special, so very loved by God? Some even say we are princesses (for you gals) of the King, right?
Though God does love us, enough to send Jesus to make a way of salvation for us through His death and resurrection, He has convicted me about focusing on myself rather than focusing on God’s love for “the world,” on His kingdom and righteousness.
I am not more loved by God than those who have never heard the good news of Jesus. I need to be living my life so as to introduce them to the Jesus that someone introduced me to. You know, one beggar telling another beggar where to get food, rather than hoarding it for myself.
When less than 1 penny of every dollar given by Christians to all causes, goes to pioneer church planting among unreached peoples, something is very wrong.[3] You and I can change that statistic. Yes, we can.
God help us to change that statistic.
Jesus told us to go and we must go. We can do so in many ways: leaving our homes to go to the untold, pray for and financially support others who do go, care for/become involved with missions and missionaries in a variety of ways, making God’s kingdom and His purposes our priority in life.
Some of us were doing that last Thursday. We held a prayer walk in SE Bakersfield, one of our needy, near neighborhoods. We prayed for local churches and ministries to children and families going on there: we prayed that God would capture hearts and lives as His love is put on display by volunteers and as the Word of God goes forth in summer outreaches and VBS programs. [4]
Many of us on that prayer walk are also members of the Bakersfield She Is Safe Advocacy Group and we prayed for the ministries of She Is Safe, especially those in India.[5] As members of the Bakersfield SIS Advocacy Group, while living right here in Bakersfield, we can make a difference in the lives of women and girls in slavery and poverty, our unreached neighbors on the other side of the world.
During this prayer walk we physically walked the sidewalks of SE Bakersfield and spiritually walked the brothels of India, pleading for physical and spiritual changes in both places. God heard. And we can be assured that when He hears, He acts.
What are you doing currently, or what will you do starting today, to bring the gospel of Jesus to your near and far neighbors? Leave a comment to let me hear from you. We need to encourage one another in our obedience to Christ.[6]
[1] I found the whole song here: http://www.hymnlyrics.org/newlyrics_u/untold_millions.php
[2] Learn more at www.joshuaproject.net
[6] For more information about the Bakersfield SIS Advocacy Group, or starting one in your town, leave a comment for me.