A Point of Practicality

Making it our aim to plant healthy reproducing churches in unengaged unreached people groups is the only way to assure the completion of the Great Commission.  Any other aim will always come up short of full completion.

In one way this fact is obviously true because the mandate is to save some from every people group, not just to save as many as possible (see the post "A Matter of Obedience").  Preaching to the Southern Baptist Convention, David Platt illustrated this point by asking the audience to imagine a company of rescue teams sent out to help victims of several towns hit by tornadoes.  When the whole company reaches the first town, they find more devastation and victims than they could ever help.  He asked, would it make sense for the company to send teams on to other towns, knowing that doing so might mean that some victims at the present location would not be reached in time?  He pointed out that getting to other towns would require travel time, time that could have been used in rescuing people.  He added that some of the other towns were even known to resist help from others even to the point of attacking and killing outsiders.  So would it be logical for the company to send teams to those other towns instead of focusing on the first one?  His answer was NO, unless the commander had ordered them to save some from all the towns, not just save as many people as possible.  That is precisely what our Commander has ordered us to do.

Think of a large farm with various fields, some with grains, some with berries, and some with trees bearing different fruits and nuts.  In a particular year, the harvest is so plentiful that the workers cannot get the whole of any one field harvested.  So the owner sends the laborers into the various fields to get as many from each field as possible because he wants at least some of each variety.  Such a situation is comparable to what the Lord has ordered us to do.  (Of course, another solution is more laborers--the subject of a different post.)

There is another point to make.  Practically, we don't know for sure that sending workers to UUPGs will lessen the number saved.  One of those groups might turn out to be particularly responsive.  One of those groups might prove to be the key to reaching many other groups.  We can't know for sure how the Lord of the harvest has planned it all out, so it is best if we do it His way, not the way that seems best to us.

Another comparison for our task would be to the taking of a long, multiple-choice test (one like students take for getting into a university or graduate school).  A strategy recommended for the best results is to avoid taking too much time with any one question.  It is better to go completely through the test answering the questions that one knows the answer to and then go back to the ones that require figuring out.  In that way, the student answers as many questions as possible with the added bonus that sometimes the answer to a later question might help answer an earlier one.

Unless we get the gospel to all the people groups as the Lord has commanded us, we will not know how He has provided for things to work out.  There may be another Billy Graham or Hudson Taylor in that next people group to be reached.  The way to reach the most people is to do what He has commanded--make disciples of all nations, i.e., people groups.

Let's continue to pray for all those who are embracing unengaged unreached people groups.  Let's pray that many more will join them.

A Matter of Obedience

Why must we give ourselves to missions?  Particularly, why must we focus on the unengaged unreached people groups of the world?

To believe in Jesus is to believe in missions.  Someone has said, "God had only one Son and He was a missionary."  (I believe I have seen the quote attributed to David Livingstone.  If I am wrong in the quotation or the attribution, please correct me in the comments.)  The idea is that Jesus was sent by the Father from heaven to earth to live among us and reveal His will by teaching His word and doing His work.  Since "sent" is the meaning of the Latin term from which we get our words "mission" and "missionary," Jesus is the original missionary.  His incarnation is the model for our ministry.  As He came to us, so we must go to others (John 20:21).  If missions does not matter much to us, then Jesus does not matter much to us.

But even in missions there is a work that is essential for obedience to the will of our Lord.  If we are not careful, we will miss the crux of what Jesus commanded us.  It is not a matter of how many souls can be saved out of different cultures; it is a matter of all peoples being represented around His throne at His coming (Revelation 7:9).  The Great Commission (as shown in some of my earliest posts) directs us to make disciples out of all the people groups of the world.  The focus is on people groups, not individuals.  Our task is not to save every person in the world, a goal that we know will not be achieved since only "a few" find the narrow road and enter by the small gate (Matthew 7:13-14).  Our task is to get the gospel to all the peoples (tribes, languages, ethnic groups) of the world.  This task is the one Jesus has assured us we can and will complete.

Getting the gospel to other people groups is why God allowed persecution to scatter the first disciples to Samaria and Antioch (Acts 8:4; 11:19-20).  Getting the gospel to other people groups is why the Holy Spirit sent Barnabas and Saul on the first mission trip (Acts 13:1-3).  Getting the gospel to other people groups is why Paul was compelled to preach the gospel where "Christ was not known" (Romans 15:20).  It was not just a matter of geography but more a matter of ethnology.  Years ago, the book Peace Child demonstrated how God has placed a gospel "key" in every culture, some practice or belief that provides an opening for understanding His salvation.  This provision is our clue to solving the mystery of His will.  He wants the gospel to penetrate all cultures, all people groups.

Yesterday, I mentioned that some have used the argument that no one should get to hear the gospel twice until all have heard it once.  Today, I ask you if it is right for a people group to receive a second missionary while there remains a group who has none.

Let's pray that we can see our task the way God sees it.  Let's pray that we will do our task as God wants it done.  Let's pray that we will have His heart for all peoples to hear about Jesus.

Rad GC -- Baptizing

In Radical, David Platt analyzes the Great Commission for its implications with regard to modern missions.  Today, we consider his understanding of the importance of "baptizing" in the way missions should be done.  Although he sees baptism as "the clear, public, symbolic picture of the new life we have in Christ," he puts more emphasis on how baptism "pictures our identification with one another in the church."  He writes, "Baptism unites us as brothers and sisters who share the life of Christ with one another."  The part baptism plays in disciple making is that new believers are brought into the body of Christ and see the life of Christ in action.  As they see the love of Christ shared before their eyes, they absorb this new way of life and make it their own.  Christianity is more caught than taught.

This lesson repeats the emphasis of yesterday.  The relational element is crucial.  Jesus ate, slept, traveled, worked, and laughed with twelve men every day for at least three years.  They saw not only His actions, but also His reactions.  They remembered His words and reproduced His ways.  If Jesus the Master Teacher made disciples this way, what makes us think we can achieve the same results with much less investment?  A few classes meeting a couple of hours a week won't approach the level of commitment and results that are needed.  People need a model.  The old saying goes, "What you do speaks so loud that I can't hear what you say."  Our children do what we show them, not what we tell them.

When Avery Willis taught the principles of discipleship in MasterLife, he demonstrated the power of multiplication in the number of disciples that could be made by doubling every year.  Two becomes four, four becomes eight, and so on until it becomes possible to disciple the population of the entire world in 33 years.  As he said, "Anyone can count the number of apples on an apple tree, but no one can count the number of apple trees in an apple."  But he also showed what happens when our disciple-making is half-hearted.  One-half doubled becomes one-fourth, one-fourth becomes one-eighth, and so on with continuing decline in each succeeding iteration.

I heard an evangelist say once that he liked to be around new Christians because their zeal renewed him.  He also said, "Most new believers have to backslide for six months before they can fit in to the average church."

What kind of environment do our churches offer new believers?  Let us pray that as they are baptized and brought into the body that they will find all they need to attain "the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Ephesians 4:13).  Let's pray that they will see modeled in us a passion to take the gospel to the nations.

Radical Great Commission

According to David Platt in Radical, Jesus gave His disciples a plan as well as a purpose.  He not only told them what to do but how to do it.  His plan makes it possible for any follower to impact the world.  Perhaps our failure to do so stems from our failure to do things His way.

Here is how Platt describes our approach:  "If we were left to ourselves with the task of taking the gospel to the world, we would immediately begin planning innovative strategies and plotting elaborate schemes.  We would organize conventions, develop programs, and create foundations.  We would get the biggest names to draw the biggest crowds to the biggest events.  We would start megachurches and host megaconferences.  We would do ... well, we would do what we are doing today."  Our "contemporary strategies" revolve around "performances, places, programs, and professionals."  Jesus' strategy relies on ordinary people who will think, love, see, teach, and serve like He did.

Platt shares, "The more I read the Gospels, the more I marvel at the simple genius of what Jesus was doing with His disciples.  My mind tends to wander toward grandiose dreams and intricate strategies, and I'm struck when I see Jesus simply, intentionally, systematically, patiently walking alongside twelve men.  Jesus reminds me that disciples are not mass-produced.  Disciples of Jesus--genuine, committed, self-sacrificing followers of Christ--are not made overnight.  Making disciples is not an easy process.  It is trying.  It is messy.  It is slow, tedious, even painful at times.  It is all these things because it is relational."

While I was serving in South America, we were seeing many professions of faith to our preaching.  However,  numerical church growth was hampered by the high percentage of those who "fell away" in spite of the fact that most churches required a series of classes before baptism and church membership (some for as long as six months).  My mission agency did a continent-wide study to figure out a way to "shut the back door."  They concluded that our follow-up plans were ineffective because they were too "academic."  We needed an approach that was more relational.  I guess it had not occurred to us to do it Jesus' way.

One heart revolutionized by Christ can start a worldwide revolution by touching one heart at a time.  If we are contagious, we spread the disease to others who also spread the disease.  Let's pray that we will spread a good infection.