Raising funds for your salary is often a necessity in ministry work. However, we must not forget that support raising, although necessary, is as much a spiritual work as serving at your church, praying fervently, or reading your Bible. These all take a little bit of discipline and a lot of the Holy Spirit. Each of these gives us the greatest joy when done with the right heart, but can quickly spiral into legalism and shame if we are not careful.
Everyone has a place and role in the Great Commission. God wants to use you for beautiful things! Here are some things you can do right now to start reaching the nations whoever you are, wherever you are.
What works against you in grasping Christ's love for you? When I think about this question, my answers create a long list, sadly. My sin, fear of rejection, not being good enough, not being faithful enough, being a burden, seeing and experiencing broken relationships, feelings of shame.
During my time with Cafe 1040 in Europe, our group navigated the city through a "buddy system," ensuring no one ventured out alone. When a teammate sought a companion for a rendezvous with a girl she had met at a local Korean Festival, I volunteered without hesitation, completely unaware of what God would do from this encounter.
No Christian is meant to live in isolation, so no missionary is meant to live in isolation. Bible precedent for this. We don’t all have the same gifts as Paul. Team is a group of missionaries who meet together regularly, working together intentionally for the spread of the gospel. We need others alongside of us in this task.
The Great Commission is not dependent on you or me or any other worker...it is a privilege to be a part of what He is doing across the world. But He does allow his children to be a piece of His work. It’s often a theme that when Jesus gives someone a dream about himself, that person doesn’t start fully believing in Him or following Him until someone else comes along to tell that person what the dream is about and who this Jesus is. It amazes me.
Here’s the thing: the missions world needs you. Teams need you. Families need you. You are a force, a breath of fresh air, a teammate and a friend.You are the glue that holds a team together. You are a gap-filler that makes a healthy, well-rounded, high-capacity team. You are uninhabited by challenge and change. You are free to obey passionately when He calls.
3.1 billion people are in such a dark place they offer up gifts to a god, yet they haven't heard that they can receive the ultimate gift of life. The gift that doesn't require a bell or a giant mountain top temple... He just wants our hearts. He wants all of us for His glory. He already won the victory.
Our transformed lives are the product of an infinitely loving and gracious Father who seeks us out and calls us to himself. The power of our Creator, who made all things and in him all things hold together, the power of our shepherd who restores our souls, and who leads us by his voice, the power of God incarnate, who pardoned our iniquity by dying on the cross, providing a way for us to be made righteous before God, and giving us access to a real relationship with a perfect and holy God—there are so many more things to talk about in terms of increasing enjoyment in God and how his Word is fully true, alive, and does not return void.
But there is rest for the fearful, hope for the hopeless, and sight for the blind in Jesus Christ. I'm encouraged knowing I have a relationship with the One who casts out fear, who is my eternal hope, and who gives me a vision and the assurance of my future. This motivates me to pray without ceasing, fervently asking God to draw these lost sheep to him.
Join me.
We haven’t been able to run an overseas program for a few semesters now, but some of the lessons you can learn overseas you can also use stateside whether you’re waiting to go long-term, working to mobilize your church or school, or learning about unreached people for the first time. We wanted to share something one of our students from a previous semester learned on our program!
