A Missions Minded Church

I was in the office of a well known college president some years ago, after I had done some institute work overseas. He said to me, “I believe you could help me plant institutes all over the world, couldn’t you?” I said to him without any hesitation, “No, I could help you plant churches all over the world.” I never had another conversation with that man. The Biblical mandate of getting missionaries to the field must not take a back seat to other projects. These projects are not necessarily wrong, nor is it unbiblical to support them. What is wrong is to sacrifice the things we are commanded by God’s Word to do, in order to do the things that we want to do.  It is not difficult to do the things that make us feel good, give us prestige, and validate our own agendas. Many of those things are permitted within the scope of Bible teaching, but they may not all be commanded.  When it comes to missions we are commanded to conduct ourselves in such a way that souls will be won to Jesus Christ, and churches will be planted with those who have been won to Christ. Authentic churches are to train their workers and reproduce themselves wherever they are. The field is the world. Men often have a blurred vision when called upon to distinguish between Church building for the glory of the Lord and kingdom building for the glory of a man.  We do have a Biblical Mandate. Having a mission’s conference and supporting missionaries is not all there is to having an authentic mission’s minded church. Continue reading →