Missions-a Hand Book for Missionaries

By Rev. Dr. Gabriel Oluwasegun

In this book, the author discussed the fundamentals, reasons, purpose and practice of missions. The book presents a practical guideline to Church Leaders, Missionaries, missions outreach organizations, Bible colleges, Seminaries, biblical students, theologians, etc., on how to be involved in Missions. It highlights; with historical data, the contemporary issues in the missions' fields of the world, the operational strategies and tactics to employ, the essential preparations to make, the problems to anticipate and how to overcome them by any individual, church or missionary agency, that is venturing into missions.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jun 11, 2018
• ISBN: 9781543937220

Book preview

Oluwasegun

PREFACE

MISSIONS IS A MUST!

…Thrust in thy sickle and reap for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe (Revelation 14:15).

Mission is any deliberate effort by a Christian or group of Christians to take the gospel of Jesus Christ across culture to a group of people who have never heard it. The great commission signifies the beginning of a mission work in the life of the early Christians and this commandment is still binding on every Christian today. It takes both physical and spiritual efforts of every Christian for this mission to be fulfilled.  The urgency of this assignment cannot be over emphasized in our contemporary time because:

      Christianity is growing, but not as fast as Islam. There are roughly 2.4 billion Christians in the world, and roughly 1.8 billion Muslims. Hindus will soon cross the 1billion mark.

      At least 2 billion have never heard the Gospel in a form to which they could meaningfully respond.

      One in four people globally; the majority of them in Southeast Asia, has never heard the gospel message for the first time.¹

      According to Haggai International, out of the current world’s population of 7.5 billion people:²

i.      2.4 billion (33%) profess to be Christians

ii.      Over 5 billion are of other religions or profess no religion, and

iii.      2 billion of these have never heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

iv.      The Church today is worth billions of dollars in assets, but over 85% of the Church’s resources are either spent on the Church herself or in areas where the gospel has already reached.

The responsibility of establishing Christ in the lives of men and amongst ethnic nationalities of the world has been given to the Church. This assignment/responsibility was explicitly given to the disciples in Matthew 28:19-20 and Acts 1:8. The components of this assignment include:

      Go.

      Teach all nations.

      Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.

      Teach them to observe all commandments of the Lord.

This assignment is generally referred to as the Great Commission. The great commission is the beginning of a mission work in the life of the early Christians and this commandment is still binding on every Christian today. It takes both physical and spiritual efforts of every Christian for this mission to be fulfilled. The goal of the Church is to let every land hear the gospel. The fulfillment of this injunction has a biblical taproot, and a key reference biblical methodology passage of note is Acts 13:1-4.  Here two missionaries who were set apart by the church, were commended to God in prayer, and released and sent off to take up their missionary task. There are two lines of application which should occupy our attention from the above bible passage; the divine sender and the human agents in the sending.  We need

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¹ Fact Check in IMPACT, A publication of Haggai International, Issue 6.4, p9

²www.haggai-international.org/WiWtrends

to be aware that:

      In initiating planned, purposeful efforts to fulfill the Great Commission, we should be concerned to carefully follow the leading of God.

      We also need to be aware that the local Church is the proper human agent to be involved in the planned, purposeful setting apart and sending of missionaries to other regions.

The enormity of the task of   preaching the gospel to the least evangelized nations on earth and the sustenance of ongoing missionary effort among various nations require continuous pulling together of finance, prayer, human and material resources from God’s people to impact the nations with the gospel. Under the New Covenant as well, God has given us specific directions regarding the way we should do His kingdom work of going out preaching the Gospel and seeing churches established to the ends of the earth. He has guided us both by direct commandment, and by Apostolic example. And thus, we should seek to carefully follow His directions when it comes to the methods of doing missionary work.  We need to be aware that in a real sense we all as Christians should be active in appropriate ways in furthering the work of missions, firstly where we are located, and then in ever widening circles out from where we are, i.e.: …and you shall witness to me in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth Acts 1:8b).  All of this may rightly be viewed as missions in its broadest scope and as the fulfilling of the Great Commission. We must never lose sight of this broader scope.

The scope of Jesus’ last command is global. He said, Make disciples of all nations. We can’t separate the first part from the second. All that a person needs to begin with in mission work is a knowledge of the fundamental truths of the Gospel and how to give them out. The one and only thing to do is to preach the Gospel. Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature, was commanded by Jesus. Preach it everywhere, in the bazaars and market places, on the street corners, in halls and homes, anywhere, everywhere, but preach, preach, preach and preach the Gospel, for the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation.

But just because you are a Christian doesn’t mean you’re a missionary. We are all commanded to be disciples, witnesses, disciple-makers, and baptizers: this is the commission in Matthew 28:19-20. Sometimes this is due to circumstances and sometimes it is intentional. But being a missionary – crossing cultural boundaries, learning new languages, enduring culture shock, etc. – isn’t the same as being a witness.

Being a missionary means intentionally seeking out and reaching out to people who don’t have Christians around them at all. There are many pockets of such people within our Christian villages, towns, cities and communities. But there are even larger pockets in places that are largely non-Christian, for the obvious reason that there are no (or few) Christians there.

It takes a different set of skills, talents and giftings to be a missionary – more than simply being a witness. At the most fundamental level we look for people who aren’t afraid to speak up for Jesus, and who have shown the desire to strike out and make disciples. They are willing to take a risk: more than simply being willing to speak up if their Christianity is threatened, they are willing to speak out and risk making a fool of themselves. But beyond that, there are additional skills: being a self-starter, being accountable to others, living a life of purity in the midst of temptation being able to endure when no fruit is immediately to be had, listening to the Holy Spirit, being obedient, even when it seems crazy, being able to raise the funds required (which shows skills of organization, communication, follow-up, etc.), an appreciation for other cultures, a willingness to leave what is comfortable and go into the uncomfortable, a willingness to learn another language and culture, not just work through interpreters, cross-cultural friendships, boldness, humility, and so on.³

The advance of God’s kingdom through the spread of the gospel to every nation, tribe, people, and language is the challenge that confronts us (God’s people), in this generation. Some places, cities and countries have heard much of the gospel message but still need a change of heart. Yet every tribe, language people should be adequately represented before God on the last day. (Rev. 7:9)⁴.

Although tremendous progress had been made in the past centuries, the task ahead remains very formidable in this millennium. Christians are faced with many challenges in missions. The increasing world population, its diversity, and the realization that millions have not yet heard the Gospel even for the first time, and our awareness of the unreached people groups in the 10/40 windows of the world and even within Nigeria and the West Africa sub-region, etc., are some of the challenges ahead of us. This millennium is the era for missions, and any Church or any believer that does not fit in, will make itself or him/herself to become obsolete. Every Parish (Church) should set two things; a mission group (team) and a Mission Field and until this is done you have not started.

This is the time when all barriers that hinder collaboration and network of resources for gospel efforts to the remaining unreached nations must come down.  We as the body of Christ

on earth today have been given the command to evangelize

this generation for Christ. How are we doing? How far do we have to go before the job is completed? What strategies do we need to adopt to make sure we fulfil the great Commission? What is our role as individual and as a Church?

In this book, the author discussed the fundamentals, reasons, purpose and practice of missions.  The book presents a practical guideline to Church Leaders, Missionaries, missions outreach organizations, Bible colleges, Seminaries, biblical students, theologians, etc., on how to be involved in Missions. It highlights; with historical data, the contemporary issues in the missions’ fields of the world, the operational strategies and tactics to employ, the essential preparations to make, the problems to anticipate and how to overcome them by any individual, Church or missionary agency, that is venturing into missions.

____________________________________________________

³https://justinlong.org/look-for.php

⁴Christianity As A World Religion – ýwww.hillcrestbaptist.ca/gospel

SECTION 1

WHAT IN THE WORLD IS GOING ON IN MISSIONS?

When we refer to missions in English language, we usually have in view more specific efforts which involve the sending of missionaries to more distant locations than the place where we are presently located, whether still within our own nation (home missions) or to other nations (foreign missions). Mission is any deliberate effort by a Christian or group of Christians to take the gospel of Jesus Christ across culture to a group of people who have never heard it.

This great commission signifies the beginning of a mission work in the life of the early Christians and the commandments is still binding on every Christian today. It takes both physical and spiritual efforts of every Christian for this mission to be fulfilled.  From study of the Scriptures, there is hardly any more important word to describe the expectation of Christ from the Church. In Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus declared His authority (exousia) and charged His disciples to continue the work, before ascending into heaven.  Before our Lord’s ascent into heaven, He declared that this gospel of the kingdom should be preached in all the world for a witness to all nations (ethnic peoples) …and then shall the end come."  (Matt. 24:14).

The responsibility of establishing Christ in the lives of men and amongst ethnic nationalities of the world has been given to the Church. This assignment/responsibility was explicitly given to the disciples in Matthew 28:19-20 and Acts 1:8. The components of this assignment include:

      Go Teach all nation      baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Teach them to observe all commandments of the Lord.

This assignment is generally referred to as the Great Commission. "Faith cometh by hearing, and by hearing the Word of God (Romans 10:17). How shall they believe except they hear"(Romans 10:14). But how can they hear if they do not have someone to preached God’s word to them? Mission has suffered neglect in the past, but the voice of the Lord still runs current saying See the harvest is ripe. He is saying: Thrust in the sickle and reap… for the harvest of the world is ripe (Rev. 14:15). The goal of the Church is to let every land hear the gospel.

The fulfillment of this injunction has biblical taproots, and a key reference biblical methodology passage of note is Acts 13:1-4:

¹Now in the church that was at Antioch there were certain prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. ²As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. ³Then, having fasted and prayed, and laid hands on them, they sent them away. ⁴So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus.

These two missionaries were set apart by the Church, commended to God in prayer, and released and sent off to take up their task. There are two lines of application which should occupy our attention from the above bible passage; the divine sender, and the human agents in the sending, We need to be aware that:

a.       In initiating planned, purposeful efforts to fulfill the Great Commission, we should be concerned to carefully follow the leading of God especially when it relates to initiating planned, purposeful efforts to fulfill the Great Commission through the labors of Gospel heralds who go to regions beyond their present homes. The work that Paul and Barnabas were to do was a work that God had called them to do, and the church was told by the Holy Spirit to send these men off at God’s own time to accomplish that work. In like manner, we should be very concerned that the purposeful launching of missionary enterprises be done according to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Matters which the Holy Spirit need to provide guidance may include: who is to go, what they are to do, and when they are to go. These things are not for us to determine — they’re God’s business, and we are to get in line with and submit to the leading of the Holy Spirit in the matter.

b.       We also need to be aware that the local church is the appropriate sponsoring agency to be involved in the planned, purposeful setting apart and sending of missionaries to other regions. You will look in vain in our text or elsewhere in the New Testament to find a mission board or society designating and sending off missionaries or overseeing them. You will also look in vain for individuals sending themselves off as New Covenant missionaries and setting up their own para-church organizations to gather funds, promote and oversee the work.

There is one, and only one organization or institution on earth which the Lord has designated to be the proper sponsoring agent in launching, sustaining and monitoring of such missionary endeavors. When God; by His Spirit, gave orders to launch the first planned, purposeful missionary effort to reach the poor, lost, Gentile masses, He gave those orders to a local church and especially to her leaders. Since the goal of missions ultimately is to establish local churches made up of disciples of Christ who are led by sufficient leaderships, it stands to reason that those who do this work should be self-reproducing by local Churches with their leaders.

We find from the Bible that the living God and His exalted Son whom we serve are just as concerned with how we achieve the desired goal of extending their Kingdom, and that the resulted accomplishment is in total obedience to His divine instruction.  An Old Testament example of Kingdom work in 1 Kings 13 tells us how a prophet of God carried out his mission in prophesying against the idolatrous worship instituted by King Jeroboam, and yet was put to death by God on the way home. Why did God deal so severely with His prophet? He had accomplished the basic goal of his mission. Didn’t that count? In a real sense no. He was judged by God because he failed to carry out his mission in complete obedience to how he had been instructed.

Under the New Covenant as well, God has given us specific directions regarding the way we should do His kingdom work of going out preaching the Gospel and seeing churches established to the ends of the earth. He has guided us both by direct commandment, and