Where We’ve Been and Where We Are
For years we have been hearing about the rapid decline of U.S. missionaries on the field. The pre-Baby Boomer generation that went to the field in the 1950’s and 1960’s is either retiring or dying. Far more have been coming off the field than are new ones going to the field. Baby Boomer Christians did not go to the mission field in the numbers of their parents’ generation even though there were far more people in the Baby Boomer generation.
Meanwhile, the church in America, particularly the evangelical church, saw quite a revival in the 1970’s and 80’s. Now, in the new millennium, high technology worship services and mega-churches are the rage. Christian book stores are packed with far more Christian fiction, psychology, and self help books than they are with discipleship material. Then, among the scant discipleship material, where is there any mention of developing disciples for the mission field?
Go to your nearest Christian book store and look for yourself. You won’t find it.
Most likely, if you search through your own church’s discipleship programs, you won’t find any part that is trying to develop missionaries from your congregation.
The church in America is financially richer than it has ever been. The cost of sending missionaries to the field is not the problem. So why aren’t we sending more missionaries out from our churches? What’s the problem?
The problem is two-fold. One: Pastors and lay leaders have no real interest in this kind of discipleship. Two: Pastors and lay leaders who may have an interest, have no idea where to start.
The goal of this book is to give those of you in the second category a way to get started. And now you wonder, Does it really work?
I prefer to rephrase the question, Does God really use such a program to raise up missionaries?
Where I’ve Been
All the stories from the previous chapters come from sixteen years of service in a rural church that grew from five hundred to eleven hundred during that time. The first ten years, I was the youth and Christian education pastor. The last six, I was the missions and youth pastor. It took my first five years to develop the summer missions program into the multi-level format presented in this book.
As 2012 begins, there have been eight pastoral staff and ten missionaries that have gone out into our Judea, Samaria, and the remotest parts of the earth from this program. Five others are pastors’ wives. Three others have become deacons. A fourth is the chairman of the deacons. Two of those five have moved up to serve on the elder board in that church. And this does not count others that are currently in various stages of training for pastoral and mission ministry. Nor does it count the many others that are leading or are actively involved in ministries in that church and in churches across the country. The tree is still bearing fruit.
Where I Am Now
In 2004, I became the lone pastor of my little church here along The River. This church had never done a summer mission trip before. We did our first trip that summer. Four adults and seven youth went to the Navajo Reservation. Two of the youth were saved during the preparation process. On the trip, we saw God do great things and accomplished our Level 1 goals. In 2005, I led two teams: One back to the Navajo Reservation and the second was a Level 2 to Mexico. Again, we saw God do great things as we accomplished our discipleship goals on both trips.
In 2006, we had two teams again. A Level 1 to West Virginia and a Level 3 to Kosovo. I only led the Kosovo team. The West Virginia team was led by an elder that had been on both of the Navajo trips.
The Kosovo team’s ministry was to put on the first ever Bible camp in that area. The team consisted of four adults, three college age young adults, and four high school students. None of the people invited by the missionary would be Christians. They all were ethnic Albanian Muslim Kosovars.
The invitation was to come to camp to have fun and learn what Christians believe. The team’s responsibility was to first build outhouses, a rudimentary shower, and set up the tents we would teach and sleep in. Then, when the campers arrived, run every aspect of the camp: three Bible lessons a day, English lessons, singing around the camp fire, games and activities. We also helped in the meal preparations.
A Christian Bible camp for Muslims? Would anyone show up to such a camp? The missionary didn’t know. He hoped so. Two Christians from Albania arrived to be our translators. We all prayed God would send people and that they would have open hearts.
The next day, two dozen people, from grade school to gray heads, showed up. The majority were teenagers. The teens were fairly proficient in English. Those younger and older knew little or none. So English lessons were made available for both groups.
Meal time, games, and other activities were great relationship builders. The English lessons and singing around the camp fire did so as well. Americans taught Kosovars English songs and Kosovars taught Americans Albanian songs.
Every team member taught at least one, if not two or three, Bible lessons.
The first two days of lessons were politely tolerated. But the Holy Spirit was at work. Discussions about spiritual issues took place late at night in tents and around the camp fire.
Additional Bible lessons were added to our time around the camp fire the last two nights. The first night explained how Christians do not believe in three gods, which is the common Muslim misunderstanding. Using the Old Testament alone, since Muslims respect it more than the New Testament, they were shown how our one true God manifests Himself in the three persons of the Trinity. He is holy, just, and will punish sinners. Man is a sinner and headed for judgment. Yet, out of His love for man, God promised, through the prophet Isaiah, to provide a deliverer, born of a virgin, who would be God With Us, and would willingly offer Himself to die for our sins.
We ended that first night with the question every reader of the Old Testament has, Where is this promised deliverer?
The campers had twenty-four hours to ponder the answer and wrestle with the Holy Spirit.
The second and last night around the camp fire reviewed the characteristics of the promised deliverer. Has anyone yet fit the description? Then we showed from the New Testament that Jesus perfectly fulfills the promised deliverer. The gospel was explained using the illustration of the judge who comes down from the bench to pay the criminal’s fine. The criminal must decide whether to accept the judge’s payment in his behalf.
Jesus, God in the flesh, is the judge who has paid the penalty for us all by dying for us. The question God wants you answer to is: Do you want to accept the payment God has made in your behalf?
To the team’s surprise, immediately, around the campfire could be heard several softly spoken answers: Po. Po. Po.
“Po” is Albanian for “yes”.
In three short years, a church of seventy people, which had never sent out a mission team before, had a team ready to run such a camp in a Muslim land for curious Muslims. You see, your church does not have to be a big church to see God do big things in becoming an Acts 1:8 church, making Acts 1:8 disciples.
Postscript to the Kosovo trip: The missionary reported six months later that several of those at the camp that answered, “Po”, are definitely saved and are growing in their faith. Did the summer mission team make a spiritual impact for Christ? Did some really get saved?
Yes.
Where Do You Go From Here?
An Acts 1:8 disciple is one who makes more Acts 1:8 disciples. That means the pastors of churches must be committed to making disciples for all of the Great Commission. The lay leaders of the churches must be committed to making disciples for all of the Great Commission. Such commitment will then permeate throughout the congregation, thus creating a church committed to making Acts 1:8 disciples. The result will be that the local church will produce a steady stream of lay leaders, pastors, and missionaries.
The next thing I am going to say is going to sting a little. But if we agree that local churches are to be making disciples for all of the Great Commissions, then, it must be said. While pastors are the object of scrutiny, these statements are true for lay leaders and the whole congregations as well.
The Church of Jesus Christ does not need more pastors that are only interested in Partial Commission Discipleship, who are only interested in building up or maintaining their local congregations. The Church doesn’t need more pastors who show little interest in reaching the whole world with the gospel. The Church doesn’t need more pastors who give lip service to missions, but don’t walk the talk. The Church needs pastors (and lay leaders) who will lead their congregations in reaching both their Jerusalem and the world beyond their Jerusalem.
Now to be fair to the pastors out there, we must realize they are the products of their education which did not have a shred of training in Bible college or seminary regarding making Acts 1:8 disciples. That’s because, as I write this, there are no schools offering a class on how a pastor can develop a disciple for cross-cultural ministry. Therefore, since the pastors have not been trained to make Acts 1:8 disciples, the lay leaders have not been trained to do so either.
So, everyone has had an excuse. It’s not an excuse God accepts, but still an excuse.
You now have in your hands a “how to” book to start developing disciples for beyond your Jerusalem. Now you have no excuse. You can’t say, “I don’t know how to do it.” It is now a matter of whether you will commit yourself to doing it in your church.
Years from now, I hope this book is viewed as being very elementary, if not even a crude out-of-date plan for developing Acts 1:8 disciples. The Model T was a great car in its day. Now look at all the far superior models out there today. Superior Acts 1:8 discipleship programs will come as God honors the efforts made in local churches. Perhaps you’ll be the maker of the Rolls Royce version.
If you didn’t pray about saying “yes” to Acts 1:8 discipleship after reading Chapter 1, are you ready to pray now? Let me close with what I said at the end of that first chapter.
Now, put down this book and go pray about it. Confess where you have fallen short. Confess your fears, your inadequacies. Fear and trembling in a heart that truly desires to see God glorified is what is needed.
Go!
Pray!
…and get ready to experience the hand of God on your life and on your church like you’ve never seen before.
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