This is a question we must ask ourselves. Is the mission field not far enough away? Could you imagine telling someone that you turned down a very good paying job because it was too close to home? Or would you not go to a grocery store because it was too near to your home? Or would you reject a church solely because it was not far enough away? These questions would, or rather should seem ridiculous. But in our day that is in essence what we say about stateside missions. We are living in a very unique period in time. We may be seeing God giving us here in America a unique opportunity for the last great harvest of souls. What we have happening is that God is sending the mission field to America. Never before have we seen such an influx of foreigners in both numbers and variety. Now it is sad enough that many churches do not feel “led” to help plant churches in America for “Americans”. That is a travesty in itself. Some pastors feel that “bless God if he wants to plant a church then he should just get a job and support himself”. Yet the same pastor would not consider getting a secular job to help support himself as he needs the time to be able to minister. He knows the time required for the ministry. Many pastors walked into a church with a salary, albeit low, and had the flexibility to minister. But the local home church planting story is a sad one all by itself. But we are now experiencing a new travesty. Souls are coming to America by the millions. It is estimated that there are around 20 million Mexican nationals in America. Let alone the millions of other Spanish speaking immigrants, European immigrants, Asian immigrants, Mid-Eastern immigrants, and many more.
These are the very people we are sending missionaries to reach in other countries. These immigrants seem to be the victims of bad timing. Had they been in their native country they would have been the object of video presentations, prayer cards, countless millions of dollars of missions money spent to reach them, and most important lives dedicated to reach them. But due to “bad timing” they are in the wrong place at the wrong time. You see, they are not far enough away. A pastor once said that one reason they wanted to support “foreign” missionaries is because his people enjoyed getting prayer letters from far away places. But is the issue a far away place or a far away people? They are all the same. It is not a matter of the geographical location of the man, woman, or child but the spiritual condition of the man, woman, or child.
These immigrants oftentimes do not speak the English language and must be reached by those who do speak their language. Some will say “bless God they are in America let them learn English”. That’s all well and fine in the aspect of assimilating into a culture, but is our first focus to make them Americans or to help them become Christians? When working with foreigners the topic of their legality often comes into play. The problem of illegal immigration is a legitimate issue. But so is the topic of any illegality. Any illegal activity is wrong. In my experience I have made a point to lead them to Christ first then teach them what God says about living an honest Christian life. It is hard to tell someone to live like a believer when they are not a believer. But let me pose the following question. When and if you witness to strangers do you do a background check first? I mean after all they may be a child molester, maybe a thief, perhaps even someone who just fudges a bit on their taxes. I would think we would want to win drunks, thieves, fornicators, etc. to Christ. After all God tells us in His Word that we ourselves were those.
I Cor. 6: 9-11 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
I think that we oftentimes forget from where God saved us. Some will say that “I never did those things”. Well the truth is you were still a sinner destined for hell. So will we now make comparisons as to who is worthy to hear the Gospel based on our view of severity of levels of sin? The Great Commission did not make a caveat to who we should reach. We are commanded to go and reach everyone we can.
Mt 22:9 Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage.
The verse did say “as many as ye shall find” did it not?
Mt 28:19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
It also said to reach all nations. So is a nation a people or a place? Is there a limitation?
Ac 1:8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
We oftentimes hear the previous verse used to justify where we will send people. We often hear differing descriptions of what our Jerusalems, Judaeas, Samarias, and uttermost parts of the earth are. I have heard of pastors telling missionaries seeking support that they cannot have them in because they already have one missionary in that country. That was a country with tens if not hundreds of millions of inhabitants. So is one enough? Well then lets carry this thought over to the home and foreign mission field in America? How many are enough? We already know that we do not have enough fundamentally sound churches in America for “English” speaking people and we know that in many cases we do not feel a need to financially support those endeavors. Sadly this is also the case for reaching the foreign mission field that has come to us.
We are now guilty of following the letter of the law versus the Spirit of the law. I chose to capitalize the word spirit in the previous use intentionally as we are not only dealing with the spirit of the law, but also with the Holy Spirit of the law. Or rather that Spirit that gave us the law to begin with. Historically we sent missionaries to reach foreigners in far away lands. We established Missions policies to reflect that. As a matter of fact many churches will not support a missionary unless he is ministering in a foreign field because of the policy. But the ground rules have changed. God has chosen, by His grace, to bring the mission field here to us. The problem lies in that God is not playing by the rules that we established. He has set before us a people that need to be reached and in many cases cannot be reached except by those who can speak their language and understand their culture. If you have not noticed they have also brought their language and culture to America. Just take a look for example at Hispanic immigrants. Wal-Mart now has bi-lingual signs throughout the stores. Many businesses are now seeking bi-lingual employees to meet the need, they are not sitting on their hands saying “bless God let them learn English”. Though their goal is different than ours they are being more productive in reaching foreigners in America than we are. For that matter the cults are doing a much better job in reaching the incoming mission field.
We must ask ourselves a question. Do we reach the foreign field or not? Do we condemn a soul only because he came to the country from which a missionary was sent from to reach him?
Did he leave his country too soon and is no longer worthy to hear the Gospel? Will we be slaves to the letter of the law or will we be servants to the Spirit of the law? I can say without any hesitation that God would have us to reach the mission field wherever that may be. Whether they be Americans in America or whether they be foreigners in foreign lands or on American soil all of them are the mission field. God never said that a soul’s need for salvation was limited by international borders. The mission field is closer than you think. Hopefully it is not a case that it is not far enough away for you. The mission field is a people not a place. The mission field is here.
Excellent article brother, though I am just now reading it over a month after you posted it. For some reason, an older article shows up on the front page of your blog rather than this latest article – therefore I have checked your blog several times but didn’t see this. Maybe you can get that fixed…. (One more unrelated “glitch” or maybe a preference – on the front article at your base URL, no comments are displayed. You have to go to the actual article page to see them. Is that an option in the blog settings or is that the only way it works?)
Have you read the FBF annual meeting “resolution” on this issue from 2005 and the acocmpanying article from Dave Barba? Very interesting. Go to fbfi.org and look for resolutions. There are plenty of Baptists out there who share this view. And I have always appreciated Dave Barba.
Meanwhile, I will add one point to your thinking on this – or at least to your article as I ‘m sure you’ve thought of it. If the concern is the foreign mission field, what better way to get more missionaries onto the foreign field than to have more churches stateside who are winning, discipling, sending and supporting those missionaries and future missionaries? Planting more sound, biblical churches in the USA is the road to America once again having our fair and full share in saturating the globe with the Gospel.
What brought about those man-made church policies about only supporting foreign missions was the fact that the USA was already “covered” supposedly. If it was “covered” (and it wasn’t, but that’s a different story), then that certainly is no longer the case, not by a long shot. As it stands now, America is one of the largest targeted mission fields for Christians in other lands. We have come a long way when those we used to send missionaries to are now sending missionaries to us. And as for man-made policies… ahem… uh… again that’s why we are where we are in the churches today. We’ve forgotten that the Church Constitution and Policy Manual God gave us cannot be improved upon (I Timothy 3:15). As you said, “God is not playing by the rules WE established.” (That one is going in my quotes file).
Perhaps part of the problem for a missionary’s difficulty in finding support these days is that there are no longer enough American churches to go around for all the missionaries! (I am putting aside and not addressing for now whether our deputation system is biblical). An America of strong churches once meant a world full of missionaries, but that day has come and gone (for now). Now we have an America full of missionaries on endless deputation and a foreign field full of people starving for the word of God. Just for example, how many churches have you called this month to receive the same answer I am forced to give missionaries calling me – “We would not be able to add another missionary at this time.” All those new church plants that SHOULD be springing up would be happy to take on a missionary for support.
Anyway, all this to say I agree completely.
PS – I am going to begin earnestly praying about when I would be able to plan a trip with you. I have prayed about it but not with the attention it deserves. I confess that I’ve been looking at the calendar, doing my calculating, looking at my schedule, figuring my budget, doing everything else about it EXCEPT just being still and knowing that God is God, the One who openeth and no man can shut. If I am to go, He will make it clear when and how. The last time I asked you and your family to pray about something with me, God really (extremely) blessed that, so you can all pray about this too. I also believe calling a corporate fast may be in order about this and about your support need (Acts 13:3). Let me know what you think about that.
See you Sunday, if not before. My love to all 13.
Bro. Mowery