What Churches Should Look for in a Missionary

From the Crossway blog . . . 

Select with Care

Given the seriousness and obligations entailed in sending out missionaries, we should carefully select whom we would send and support. Local churches should take an active and thoughtful role in encouraging and equipping members to go to the nations. I know some may think they lack the expertise to train up missionaries. But if you know how to train up healthy members in your own church, you actually do know most of what’s needed to train up a missionary. Here are three things to assess.

Assess Character

First, who better than a local church to assess the character of would-be missionaries? So often missionaries work in contexts without regular daily oversight. Much of what they do is relational, unstructured, and self-initiated. We need to send people who are self-starters yet faithful and willing to submit to authority. As we talk with members of our churches about going to the nations, we—not some parachurch sending agency—should be the ones to evaluate their character and help them grow as needed.

We need to be willing to ask awkward questions, say hard things, and exercise discernment in our evaluations. Often small character flaws can become big problems. Be willing to ask yourself whether these individuals are faithful. Will they complete a task they are given, or do they need a lot of prodding and hand-holding? Are they trustworthy with money, time, responsibilities, and the truth? Are they people we would trust with significant responsibility in our own church?

The apostle Paul gives us two helpful lists of character qualities for elders in 1 Timothy 3:1–7 and Titus 1:5–9 that should, in some measure, characterize everyone we send as missionaries, whether elders or not. Yes, we want to be realistic and allow room for growth. But unless a missionary team wants to take on someone who needs significant character development, we should have the courage to tell a person, “Not yet.” We should never abdicate that role to parachurch organizations.

Transmitting the gospel takes care and thought.

Assess Fruitfulness

Second, we need to be willing to assess a person’s fruitfulness. I realize that gospel fruit comes from God and that a person can be faithful without visible fruit. But this is where evaluation inside a local church can be so helpful.

Let’s say I have two couples in my church who want to be sent overseas as missionaries. They both live in the same community and have similar circles of Christian friends. Yet one couple is always having folks into their home and has significant relationships with internationals. And it seems like every other non-Christian who spends time with this family ends up being converted. By contrast, the other couple never seems to build deep relationships with people. They try, but somehow it never works out. They attempt to share the gospel, too, but nobody wants to have a second conversation with them. They initiate discipling relationships, but folks don’t really seem to grow. In fact, most of these relationships just die out as folks seek out other opportunities for discipling.

Both couples may love God. Both may be doing the best they can. But I will strongly encourage my church to spend money sending the first couple overseas, not the second. A trail of conspicuous fruitfulness in other’s lives is one of the grand marks of a good prospective missionary. And, generally, it’s a church that can best observe this kind of trail over time.

Missions

Andy Johnson

With practical, biblical wisdom, this book casts a vision for the local church as the engine of world missions—for the joy of all people and the glory of God.

Assess Bible Knowledge

Third, along with seeing fruitfulness and character, we want to send people who stand out in their knowledge and understanding of the Bible. We can debate how much formal theological training missionaries should have. But how much theological understanding should they have? Everyone who wants to see the gospel accurately transmitted and sound churches established should care about the latter. Take a cue from 1 Timothy 4:16 or Titus 1:9. Doctrinal instruction is essential. The reasons for this are (I hope) fairly obvious. Transmitting the gospel takes care and thought. We always want to make sure we are faithfully explaining and summarizing truth from the Bible. But communicating the gospel in a new culture we barely understand, in a language we are still mastering—that takes even more thoughtfulness and theological care. Planting biblical churches cross-culturally requires a deep, clear-headed, and biblical understanding of what a church is and does.

If you carefully read Acts and the Epistles, you will notice that heresy, confusion, and syncretism most often occur at the edge of gospel expansion. Therefore, that is where we need our best-equipped people. Such work is not for every Christian who simply loves to share his or her faith. We need to make sure those we send possess deep theological knowledge so that what they teach can be reproduced in the lives of their hearers with accuracy until Christ returns.

A Joy and Privilege to Partner

As long as your church provides for the material needs of missionaries, those missionaries are in some ways accountable to your church, and you are responsible for them. That’s the essence of the partnership in the truth that John writes about in 3 John 7. The same idea is stated negatively in 2 John 10, where John tells us to avoid those who teach falsehood and “not receive {them} into your house or give {them} any greeting.” We want to consider carefully whom to send. We want to prepare them well through fruitful and faithful work. And we want to send, support, and love them once they are far away. It’s a joy and privilege to partner in work like this. It’s what a healthy church does.

May both those sent and those who send embrace these relationships for one another’s good, for the joy of the nations, and for God’s greater glory.

This post is adapted from Missions: How the Local Church Goes Global by Andy Johnson.

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Andy Johnson (PhD, Texas A&M) serves as an associate pastor at Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, DC.

10 Things You Should Know about Missions and the Local Church

1. The mission of missions is primarily spiritual.

I hope we can agree that the church should especially care about eternal suffering. The church is that unique gospel community chartered by Jesus Christ himself. Consequently, it should especially labor to fulfill its unique mission to guard the gospel, proclaim the gospel, and disciple those who respond in repentance and faith to the gospel.

God intends not only that his mission would go forward but that it would go forward on his terms.

If our churches fail at that mission, no matter what other good things we do, we will have failed in the unique mandate that Christ has given us as churches. It is good to do other good things, and our churches may make different decisions about engaging in good works and social action. But it is the stewardship of the gospel that remains utterly unique to the Christian church. We must keep first things first. That is the priority of Christian missions.

2. The mission belongs to God, for his glory, on his terms.

God intends not only that his mission would go forward but that it would go forward on his terms. He means to get glory by showing that the mission is his and that his power sustains it. Any effort on our part to change or broaden the mission, or to substitute our ideas for God’s, runs the risk of trying to rob God of his rightful glory. And trying to rob an all-knowing and all-powerful God of the thing he is most passionate about in all the universe is breathtakingly stupid and ultimately pointless. God says:

For my name’s sake I defer my anger; for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you, that I may not cut you off. Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction. For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another. (Isa. 48:9–11)

3. Global missions is primarily through the local church.

In one sense the commission to missions was given to every individual Christian. But in another sense it was given primarily to local churches. Each of us individually is called to obey Christ’s command to make disciples who know and obey his Word. But how does he intend us to do that? His Word is clear—normally we are to pursue obedience, build up disciples, and plant other churches through the local church. The local church makes clear who is and who is not a disciple through baptism and membership in the body (Acts 2:41). The local church is where most discipling naturally takes place (Heb. 10:24–25). The local church sends out missionaries (Acts 13:3) and cares for missionaries after they are sent (Phil. 4:15–16; 3 John 1–8). And healthy, reproducing local churches are normally the aim and end of our missionary effort (Acts 15:41; Titus 1:5).

4. The Bible says a lot about how to approach missions.

It would be cruel for God to know what he wants, but then leave us to figure it all out. God would never treat his children that way. Throughout his Word, God has given us a treasury of instructions on the global mission of the church—what it is and how to approach the mission in faithfulness and joyful confidence. We love and honor him not merely by working toward the final goal he’s given—worshipers from every language, tribe, people, and nation—but also by using the means he has decreed. And he has told us that his global mission will advance through holy lives, faithful prayer, gospel proclamation, and healthy reproducing churches.

5. The local church can equip missionaries.

The role of the local church is not merely to assess but also to actively equip missionaries. We may not know a lot about specific cultures, learning languages, or even historical issues that shape a people’s attitudes toward the gospel. But the local church is the perfect place—God’s appointed place—to grow Christian character, encourage general fruitfulness, and transmit sound Bible doctrine. We shouldn’t let a few things we might not know keep us from faithfully and assertively stewarding the responsibility for missions God has given churches. Churches are where faithful missionaries are made. If our churches do a good job in our basic responsibilities, then we have all we need to raise up godly missionaries.

6. The church should support those it sends.

Not only should our churches send missionaries wisely, but we should support them appropriately. And our support for workers should be as ample as God’s Word enjoins. As we commit to send or support missionaries, we should expect our giving to be serious, significant, and sacrificial. Whether we give directly to missionaries or through some cooperative sending agency, our goal should be workers amply supplied so that they lack nothing.

7. The church can care for missionaries by keeping in touch.

The foundation of a congregation’s ability to care for its missionaries is regular communication. We can’t meet needs we don’t know about, and it’s hard to meet pastoral needs if relationships atrophy. Thankfully, it’s probably never been easier to keep up relationships from afar. With email and Skype, there is generally no reason to fall out of touch with workers. But it still takes effort. Busyness, time-zone differences, and sometimes security concerns can push these calls off the agenda. Church leaders should consider setting a regular monthly time when they will call each supported worker. In addition, they might find another member of the church who is willing to keep in regular contact with each missionary and occasionally report back to the congregation.

8. Hospitality goes a long way.

One of the best ways to care for missionaries is literally to do what the Bible says to do: show hospitality to them (3 John 8). I wish biblical application were always this straightforward. Hospitality is important during brief visits, but even more important during the months-long returns most missionaries make from time to time. During those longer visits home, consider what your church can do to offer free housing to the workers you support. Plan and budget ahead for this. And don’t stop with housing. Look for ways to help them be a meaningful part of the congregation. We want our workers to be able to rest, be refreshed, and reconnect with friends and church leaders. They won’t be able to do this if financial concerns force them to live far away with relatives or with another church more willing to provide the housing they need.

9. Short-term help isn’t always helpful.

Supporting workers well also means being sensitive about how, when, and whether to send short-term teams to work with them. It’s worth noting that not all short-term teams are a help. Sending people at the wrong time or with the wrong skills, or just sending the wrong kind of people, will not help your long-term workers. The best way to make sure short-term work is genuinely helpful is to send teams that your overseas workers request. Make it clear to your long-term missionaries that receiving short-term teams is not a condition of your support. Rather, give them the freedom to direct who should come, when they should come, and even if they should come or not. Anything else is likely to lead to short-term projects that serve your own ends, but at the considerable expense to the workers you claim to want to help.

Missions

Andy Johnson

With practical, biblical wisdom, this book casts a vision for the local church as the engine of world missions—for the joy of all people and the glory of God.

10. Long-term vision is key to a good partnership.

Your church should work to cultivate long-term overseas workers from your own congregation. At the outset of a partnership, why not articulate the explicit goal that some of your own members will uproot their lives and plant them long term in another culture for the sake of the gospel? Even more, if possible, why not aim to eventually staff an entire missionary team from your church or in partnership with other like-minded churches. Having a team that is on the same theological page right from the start won’t solve every problem, but it will certainly avoid many.

Being long term focused may also mean doing short-term trips with the long-term mind-set. Rather than just providing “missions experiences,” consider trips that support the work of existing long-term teams to whom you are committed. See your short-term work primarily as a way to support your longterm partners in whatever ways they need, and secondarily as a way to raise up your own members to join the work long term. Workers on the mission field generally need more boots on the ground—day in, day out—not just friends passing through.

This article is adapted from Missions: How the Local Church Goes Global by Andy Johnson and is part of our 10 Things You Should Know blog series.

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Andy Johnson (PhD, Texas A&M) serves as an associate pastor at Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, DC.

Embracing Mission

When individuals really embrace mission they may use their gifts anyplace in the world!

Free book offer at Christian Audio.

Chan and Platt Reflect from the Korean DMZ

What will it take for us to gain a sense of urgency for the gospel?  

Just a few hours ago David Platt and Francis Chan were standing at the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ)—a strip of land serving as a buffer between North and South Korea. They recorded this short, candid video reflecting on the realities of a closed country with little or no access to the gospel.

They offer a challenge for church to be more active in helping North Korea rather than simply observing the situation like a tourist. Let us pray more fervently for Kim Jong Un and the people of North Korea, and act with greater urgency to bring them the gospel.

Ben Peays is the executive director of The Gospel Coalition and a PhD candidate at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.

I AM A MISSIONARY

Some friends made this video. A missionary is not just someone who will go across the world to share the gospel but who will go across the street to share the gospel!

Whose Plan Are You Following, part 3

Paul Fleming did not die from the poison of his anti-malarial medication! Instead, God brought together through him a cross section of ordinary Christians to help spread the gospel and to form New Tribes Mission (NTM).

Though Fleming was still very weak from malaria, he immediately began to show films of their work in British Malaya. Gradually he gathered around himself a group of men, many of whom had been led to the Lord through Paul Rader’s ministry. In 1942, NTM came into existence, and in the late autumn of that year, the first group of 10 adults and six children sailed for Bolivia. In 1943, the first issue of Brown Gold, NTM’s publication, was printed.

Paul Fleming once wrote: “Missionary work is often in the horse and buggy stage just because we do not use what is available in our day to hasten the advance of the gospel in the remote, untouched parts of the world.” Though they faced setbacks and even death, NTM became a pioneer in using aircraft for transporting their workers to remote tribes.

Today NTM is still moving to reach the last tribes with the gospel in Southeast Asia where Paul Fleming first had the vision and in many other parts of the world.-AL from, “The Story of New Tribes Mission” by Ken Johnston, 1985

Pray for the Holy Spirit to grant discernment to those whom He has called to extend His Kingdom to the remaining unreached tribes.

Whose Plans Are You Following, part 2

Part two of a short biography of missionary Paul Fleming who had too many things on his own agenda to listen to the Lord. This is from the Global Prayer Digest, from the US Center for World Missions. 

He married his fiance, Cherrill Harter, and they left for the mission field in 1937. They planned to go to Sumatra, Indonesia. But when they arrived in Singapore, Paul met Dr. Robert A. Jaffray, a missionary statesman with the Christian and Missionary Alliance, who said he could not rest until he had made every effort to go where the gospel had not been preached. Carrying this burden, Paul and Cherrill went instead to the unreached areas of British Malaysia.

Converts were won and a small Bible school started. It was reported that Paul Fleming must have won 3,000 to Christ in the three years he was in British Malaya. Illness, however, stopped their work. The Flemings returned to the U.S. and discovered that Paul had been poisoned by his malaria medication. The doctors expected him to die, and Paul was nearly crushed to think that his service for God was over and his hopes of seeing the “last tribe” reached were dashed.-AL

Pray that believers will understand that God has a purpose for their lives, and they need to heed His voice.

Whose Plans Are you Following?

Proverbs 19:21 "Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails."

Today I begin a short biography of missionary Paul Fleming who had too many things on his own agenda to listen to the Lord. This is from the Global Prayer Digest, from the US Center for World Missions.  It’s very easy to allow our plans and ambitions to get in the way of what the Lord really wants for us. Do you have any “non-negotiables” that can get in the way of the Lord’s first choice?  Pray that we will allow the Lord to be Lord over all aspects of our lives, so that His purpose will prevail. 

Pray that Christ followers will obey the great Commission of Jesus and be available to go into all the world and preach the gospel to unreached people groups. Not our will, but His will be done!

Paul Fleming loved sports, especially track. But his mother, Erma, never seemed to be very excited when he brought home his ribbons and trophies. When Paul asked, “Mom, don’t you care?” she replied, “Paul, there’s only one race I want you to win and that is the race for Jesus Christ.”
Paul was born in 1910, and accepted the Lord as his Savior when he was 10 or 11 years old at the Church of the Open Door in Los Angeles. Paul’s parents’ example guided his development before and after his conversion. His mom lived with a burning desire to see each of her four children living to reach a lost world. Mrs. Fleming often visited the neighbors, introducing them to the Lord. She could also be counted on in times of sickness and grief.
Through the evangelistic ministry of Paul Rader, a former football player and heavyweight prizefighter, Paul Fleming dedicated his life to the Lord. When Paul Rader suggested that he come to live and work with him in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Paul was thrilled. He wrote, “I was able to be with a man whom I became more and more convinced really loved the Lord and loved people.” He stayed in Rader’s home, helped raise chickens on the farm, and had charge of the boys’ work. After the thrill subsided, Fleming went back to California to work for Durkees Foods. But now, he was really miserable.

Pray that those people you know who are disobeying the Lord will be discontent until they change their ways.

David Platt Warns Unconverted Believers: 'Slay Yourself'

Have you ever met an unconverted believer? Or watched blood transform into Kool-Aid at church? David Platt has.

Almost three years since the release of his New York Times bestseller Radical, Platt has written a sequel about the painful glory of Christian discipleship. Follow Me: A Call to Die. A Call to Live (Tyndale, 2013) explores the gravity of our Lord's call as well as the joy and satisfaction found when we leverage our lives for him. During The Gospel Coalition National Conference next month, you can hear Platt speak twice on these themes: once on "Why the Great Commission Is Great" and again on "Every Disciple Making Disciples, Every Church Multiplying Churches."

I corresponded with Platt, pastor of The Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham, Alabama, about unconverted believers, whether the gospel's a call to life or to death, creating a culture of discipleship in our churches, and more.

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There are many new books related to following Jesus (e.g., Idleman's Not a Fan, Chan's Crazy Love and Multiply, Greear's Stop Asking Jesus Into Your Heart, Stearns's Unfinished). What is the problem in evangelical churches demanding this response?

Scores of people, here and around the world, culturally identify themselves as Christians who biblically are not followers of Christ. This creates a real sense of confusion about the nature of authentic faith in Jesus. On one hand, we can so dilute Christian faith to the point where we don't actually have it. On the other hand, we can so complicate Christian faith to the point where no one can really know if they have it. As a result, I think there's a great need to come back to Scripture in the church and ask the question, What's the kind of faith in Christ that saves? And what does it mean to follow him? I think books like the ones you mention represent various attempts to answer these all-important questions.

Is it possible to be an unconverted believer?

Certainly, in the sense that demons believe Jesus is who he said he was and did what Scripture says he did (James 2:19). Though such belief doesn't save, it's common across the world today. Just about every intoxicated person I meet on the street says he believes in Jesus. Scores of people I meet around the world—including some Hindus, animists, and Muslims—profess some level of faith in Christ. All kinds of halfhearted, world-loving church attenders confess belief in Jesus. Further, Jesus seems to make clear we can all profess publicly a faith we don't possess personally (e.g., hear the cry of the damned in Matt. 7:21-23). So biblically and practically, it's very possible for one to assent to certain intellectual truths about Jesus and even participate in various church practices—completely apart from supernatural regeneration of the heart.

Many believers, you observe, have "replaced challenging words from Christ with trite phrases in the church. We've practically taken the lifeblood out of Christianity and put Kool-Aid in its place so that it tastes better to the crowds." How do you see this temptation particularly evident in "young, restless, and Reformed" circles today?

Instead of thinking about the YRR in general, I think it's helpful for each of us to individually examine the subtle tendency and temptation we face to (almost unknowingly) redefine Christianity according to our own tastes, preferences, church traditions, and cultural norms. We can so easily begin picking and choosing what we particularly like (or don't like) from Jesus' teachings, emphasizing the truths in his Word that most square with our lives and ministries while minimizing those that most challenge us. In the process, we all (including myself) begin diluting what he says about the cost of following him.

Particularly in our culture, for example, we're prone to practically ignore what he says about materialism or to functionally miss what he says about mission. In the process, we transform Jesus into our image (whether that's a "YRR" Jesus, a "nice, non-offensive, politically correct, middle-class American" Jesus, or any other version) instead of trusting him to transform us into his. So we all need to guard against the temptation to customize Jesus—especially when what he says confronts (and often contradicts) the assumptions, beliefs, and convictions that we hold dear in our lives, our churches, and our culture.

You contend, "The Christian life does not ultimately begin with inviting Jesus to come into your heart. That invitation comes from him." What happens when we get this distinction wrong?

The importance of this distinction lies in realizing God's grace is the foundation of everything we understand about the Christian life—from start to finish. If the invitation to become a Christian ultimately depends on us as sinful men and women, we will never choose him. Yet because of his grace, God takes the initiative to call—and enable—us to follow Jesus, which then transforms everything about how we understand the Christian life.

We now realize that to be a Christian is to be loved, pursued, and found by God. We realize that in our sin we were separated from his presence, deserving nothing but his wrath. Yet despite our darkness and deadness, his light shone on us and his voice spoke to us, summoning us to follow him. His majesty captivated our soul and his mercy covered our sin, and by his death he brought us to life. We ultimately became his children not because of any good we did—any prayers we prayed, steps we took, or boxes we checked—but solely because of his lavish grace. We realize every single moment of the Christian life—from normal spiritual discipline to radical biblical devotion—is fueled by the God who not only pursued us by grace in the past but also empowers us by grace in the present and emboldens us with an unshakeable guarantee of grace in the future.

You write, "In the gospel, God is calling [you] to die." We're used to thinking of the gospel as a call to life, but in what sense is it also—even first—a call to death?

The initial call to Christ is an inevitable call to die, and it's been so since the beginning. Jesus came into a world where everything revolves around self—protect yourself, promote yourself, preserve yourself, entertain yourself, comfort yourself, take care of yourself—and his message was clear: "Slay yourself." The moment of salvation involves not only confession of sin but death to self—death to our every self-indulgent attempt to find life apart from God and every self-righteous attempt to find life by earning his favor. We die to ourselves and trust in Christ, identifying with the One who lived the life we couldn't live, died the death we deserve to die, and conquered the enemy (death itself) we couldn't conquer. When this happens, we identify with Paul: "I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live" (Gal. 2:20). In other words, "I've died."

Of course, the beauty comes in what the apostle says next: "Christ now lives in me, and the life I live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Just as Jesus promised, in losing our lives we gain them. This is the beauty of what we see in the first disciples in the first century, and it's my desire for every disciple in the church today: that we'd all, in greater and deeper ways, realize that following Christ costs us everything we have (a daily death to self), but that he's worth it. For in him, there is satisfaction that supersedes circumstance, love that surpasses comprehension, and an overarching purpose for living that transcends every other pursuit in this world. If we don't emphasize the weight of this call to death in the gospel, we'll never realize the wonder of the call to life in the gospel.

You observe, "Masses of men, women, and children around the world are sitting comfortably under the banner of Christianity but have never counted the cost of following Christ." Besides robust expository preaching, how can a local church create a culture in which discipleship is perceived and practiced properly?

I certainly want to accent "robust expository preaching" because it's truly the week-by-week teaching of every part of Scripture for what it says (not what we wish it did) that keeps us from the dangers of cultural, casual, customizable Christianity.

Beyond this, I can think of several other practical ways to create a culture of Christ-exalting, risk-taking discipleship in the church. Here are just three:

(1) Prayerful dependence on and desperation for God's Spirit in the church. We'll never grow as disciples or give our lives to making disciples so long as we're doing so in our own power, ingenuity, innovation, and wisdom.

(2) Healthy biblical community involving grace-driven, gospel-saturated accountability for growing as disciples and giving ourselves to making them. I'm zealous to war against the spectator mentality that sees the Great Commission as a cozy call to come, get baptized, and sit in one location instead of going, baptizing, and teaching in all nations. I'm convinced biblical disciple-making demands the intersection of biblical community and biblical mission. Our churches, then, must have an outlet for such disciple-making in a way that both nurtures community and promotes mission.

(3) Healthy understanding of both local and global disciple-making. Since wherever we live is the chief place we're going to make disciples, we must encourage one another to lead others to follow Christ in our homes, neighborhoods, communities, and cities. At the same time, we must understand there are homes, neighborhoods, communities, and cities around the globe with little to no gospel access. Not only haven't they heard, the chances of them ever hearing are slim unless something changes. And something has to change!

We must change the ways we're praying, giving, and going so that all the peoples of the world might hear Christ's gospel and exalt Christ's glory. This won't happen by simply creating a missions committee, taking a missions offering, or tacking a "missions week" onto our annual church calendar. This will happen when we infuse God's zeal for his global glory—both in our neighborhoods and among all nations—into the very fabric of our churches on a weekly basis, calling persons to pray, give, and go with a special view to those who've never heard. Local ministry is totally necessary, no question. But global missions is tragically neglected. So we must give ourselves to both—and call all followers of Christ to give themselves to both. This is the only obedient response to a King who's commanded us to make disciples of all nations.
See article here.

Matt Smethurst serves as associate editor for The Gospel Coalition and lives in Louisville, Kentucky. You can follow him on Twitter.