Missions & The Missionary Task

My last post dealing with who is a missionary has generated some spirited discussion on several blogs in the blog-o-sphere world. I feel it is important to follow-up the previous post with a discussion of what is the missionary task. What is it that missionaries are actually suppose to do.

First, you need to know my biblical assumptions from which I base my position:

The word "apostle" in the Greek NT means someone who is sent out or sent on a mission. It is from this term we derive our modern day word, "missionary". A missionary is one who is called, set-apart, and sent out, Acts 13:1-1-3. This designation is used once with Jesus, our Lord, Hebrews 3:1; twice with Peter, 1 Peter 1:1 & 2 Peter 1:1; and then 15 times with Paul. I'll let you look up all 15 references if you so desire. If apostle means for us today, missionary, and if the NT uses this term with Paul 15 times, more than with anyone else, could it be that God intended that we look at the life and service of the apostle Paul for our model of missions and what it means to be a missionary. I recognize that some care needs to be considered that we do not over apply this position, however, if we are going to choose someone to model our mission practices after, Paul seems the logical and biblical choice.

As Paul and others traveled on their "missionary journeys" as we have designated them, it is interesting to note that Paul, in almost every situation left behind, new believers, new churches, and developing leaders. This was his focus and his passion, Romans 15:20-22. Yes, he did return from time to time to visit the new churches started, but his drive was to keep pushing against lostness and going where Christ had yet to be preached. Why is this important? This point is critical to our perspective on missions today because in no case do we see Paul leaving behind an orphanage, or a school, hospitals, or anything else other than new believers, new churches, and developing leaders. He taught these new churches that they were responsible to care for the widows, the orphans, and those in need in their communities, not outsiders.

The Great Commission has been and continues to be the premier passage for missions and the missionary task. I would wholeheartedly agree with this interpretation and practice. However, if it is, then let's be honest in our fulfillment of what our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ commanded us to do. He stated, "Go and make disciples, baptize them, and then teach them to do all I have commanded". If this is a missions verse, then a lot of "missionaries" and volunteer mission teams are falling short of this goal. Let me refer you back to my first blog on missions and ministry. Too many, I'm afraid to say, are calling what they are doing missions, when in fact it is good Christian ministry or stops with evangelism, but has little to nothing to do with fulfilling the whole missions task as described in Scripturre. This is not saying that what they are doing is bad or even a second class effort, but it does increase the level of confusion when we say that anything done outside the boundaries of our local church is called missions.

I believe that it is impossible to completely fulfill the Great Commission without including church planting and leadership development. True, these terms are not found in the passage itself, but if we look at Paul's example and what he did and what he did not do, it does not seem to be much of a leap in interpretation to make this claim. If this is not true, then we are encouraging evangelism without connecting new believers with the body of Christ, the church? If this is not true then we are going to baptize new believers outside of the support and fellowship of the church? If this is not true then how, when, and where do we teach new believers how to observe all that Christ has commanded for them to know and do? Many church growth experts throughout the past 30 to 40 years have also stated that church planting is a natural outgrowth of evangelism and fulfilling the Great Commission, but somewhere along the line we either forgot or ignored this critical point and the impact has massive.

For example, Dr. Elmer Towns in the early 80's wrote:

“The Great Commission implies that church planting is the primary method to evangelize the world. To reach lost people in every culture of the world, a church must be established in every culture to communicate the gospel and nurture those who are saved. In a simplistic observation, one of the reasons why so much foreign missions work is fruitless is because great effort is spent on winning people to Christ apart from identifying them with a New Testament church.”

He goes on to say:

“Since the purpose of the Great Commission is finalized when a New Testament church is planted, those church planters who establish a church are not doing something that is spectacular or overwhelmingly unique. They are simply carrying out the command of Jesus Christ.”

Dr. Ralph Winter in years past has aptly stated:

“Planting new churches is the most effective evangelistic methodology known under heaven.”

When I study the NT and look at both the Word of God and the Works of God, I see missions as those efforts focused on evangelism - discipling new believers, church planting, and leadership development so that all of these multiply pushing the gospel message to the next arena of lostness. There is a vital place for Christian ministry, however, minsitry alone cannot and should not replace Christian missions. If we allow this to happen, temporal needs are met while spiritual needs go untouched.