Table of Contents
- The Primary Call
- The Missionary Call
- Exhortations from the Bible
- Old Testament and missions
- New Testament and missions
- The First Missionary
- The Command
- The Story of Mary Slessor
- Practical Steps
- When does God call people to long-term missionary service?
The Calling of a Missionary
What is a missionary call? How does one recognize that God is calling him or her into an international mission field or to local mission? Before we can answer the above questions, we must firstly define what is the meaning of the word “Missionary”.One person defines a missionary is someone sent by Jesus Christ just as He was sent by God.
Here the great controlling factor is not the needs of people, but the command
...of Jesus. Another definition for a missionary is any Christian who crosses cultural boundaries to further the building of Christ’s church and the expansion of God’s kingdom. In a sense, Jesus Christ was our prime missionary example in that he crossed from the kingdom culture and lived his life for three and half years in a new culture known as earthly kingdom. The Primary Call Every Christians have an initial call from God i. the calling to accept the salvation of God.
This is the main call of every believers in Christ. If a person does not have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ as his Lord and personal Saviour, then he can’t proclaim the Good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. How can he proclaim what he himself has not experience. An example in the Bible can be said of the Apostle Paul. He had to have an encounter with Jesus Christ before he was
commission to be an Apostle to the Gentile. (Acts 9:1-22) Similarly he or she is then commanded by Jesus Christ to share the good news of this salvation to the unbelievers.Such proclamation can be done locally or abroad as the directed by God.
The Missionary Call However, before a person can accept the missionary call, one must have a clear understanding of God’s redemptive mission on earth. In the Bible, there are a lot of scriptures to back up God’s mission endeavor. In the book named “ The Condensed World Mission Book” the editor Jonathan Lewis quoted John R.W Stott as saying this“ Without the Bible world evangelization would be not impossible but actually inconceivable.It is the Bible that lays upon us the responsibility to evangelize the world, give us a gospel to proclaim, tell us how to proclaim it, and promises us that it is God’s power for salvation to every believer. It is moreover, an observable fact of history, both past and contemporary, that the degree of the church’s commitment to world evangelization is commensurate with the degree of its conviction about the authority of the Bible. Whenever Christians lose their confidence in the Bible, they also lose their zeal for evangelism.
Conversely, whenever they are convinced about the Bible, they are determined about evangelism. Exhortations from the Bible The Bible is full of explicit as well as implicit references to God's will for world evangelism. Most evangelical believers are familiar with the Great Commission: "Go ye into all the world. " However, there are 195 references to calling in the New Testament, 73 having strictly theological meaning. To back up, here are some scriptures
that show God’s redemptive mission as found in the Old Testament and New Testament for reflection.
Old Testament and Missions
- Genesis 12:1-3 (repeated in Gen.18:18, 22:17-18, 26:24 and 28:12-14)
- Exodus 19:6 -- Israel was to be a "kingdom of priests" Numbers 14:21 -- glory of Lord fills the whole earth
- Deuteronomy 4:6-8 -- show your understanding to the nations
- Deuteronomy 10:19 -- "You are to love those who are aliens"
- Deuteronomy 28:10 -- "all the peoples on the earth will see that you are called by the name of the Lord"
- Joshua 4:24 -- "so that all the peoples of the earth might know"
- 1 Samuel 17:46 -- "the whole world will know there is a God in Israel"
- 1 Kings 8:41-43, 59-60 (also in 2 Chronicles 6:32-33) -- "so that all peoples of the earth may know your name" (Solomon's prayer at dedication of Temple)
- 2 Kings 19:15 -- "Hezekiah prayed . . . O LORD, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. '"
- 1 Chronicles 16:31 "Let the earth be glad; let them say among the nations, The Lord reigns! '"
- 2 Chronicles 6:33 -- "so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you"
- Psalm 2:7-10 -- "You are my Son .. . I will make the nations your inheritance"
- Psalm 7:7-8 -- "Let the Lord judge the peoples"
- Psalm 8:9 -- "How majestic is your name in all the earth! "
- Psalm 18:49 -- "I will praise you among the nations"
- Psalm 22:26-28 -- "all the families of the nations will bow down"
- Psalm 19:1-4 -- "their words to the ends of the
world" Psalm 22:27 -- "All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord"
his glory among the nations"
one another: Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory."
banner to the peoples. "
the lips of the peoples, that all of them may call on the name of the Lord. "
number of all the tribes and nations which the ancients thought existed on earth
"The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: All nations will be blessed through you." (Genesis 12:3; 18:18; 22:18)
The First Missionary Besides the above scriptures, the stories from Biblical characters also clearly illuminate God’s mission on earth.One such example is from the life of Abraham. Abraham, the Great Patriarch of the Bible. He could be the first missionary to be sent out by God when He called him to leave the city of Haran (Gen 12:4)
and to go and dwell in the land of Canaan.
Here we see Abraham was specifically called by God to uproot himself and his family and to be planted in another culture among the Canaanites. God’s mission for Abraham was that he would bless him and make his descendants into a great nation and they in turn would be a blessings to the other nations.Likewise, believers of Jesus Christ are also commissioned by him to go to the nations to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to make disciples. (Matt 28:18-20) Interestingly, the word “nations” in Greek is ethnos and from Thayer’s definition it means a tribe, nation or a people group. Based on Thayer definition, a nation can be made up of many people groups within itself.
For example, in Malaysia, we can have a number of people groups such as the Iban, the Melanau, the Kenyah, the Malays, the Chinese, etc and though they differ with each other in term of languages and cultures, nevertheless they are all Malaysian by citizenship.Thus going to a “nation” does not necessary mean going to a nation outside one’s nation e. g. going to China for instance. It may mean reaching out to one of the tribe in one’s own nation and be a missionary among them.
The Command So a true disciple of Jesus Christ, if he wants to obey the Master in fulfilling the Great Commission (Matt 28:18-20) must be able to discern where and when God is calling him to work in the harvest field. Is it to another country or among the tribes in his own country? Supposing if one is called to be a
missionary to another nation or a particular people group, how does he know it?What are the signs to look for and what are the practical steps he need to take? The story of Mary Slessor Here is another example in the year 1876 when a Scottish woman by the name of Mary Slessor obeyed the missionary call to go the mission station at Duke Town at the slave coast of the Calabar River in Africa. Mary was then 29 years old and came from a poor family. Her harsh family condition had helped to prepare her for the tough and dangerous life in Africa.
The missionary call to go the Calabar was tugging her while she was serving God faithfully in Scotland.After many years of hard missionary works in Africa, Mary Slessor was affectionately known as “ White Ma ” to the various tribes such as the Okoyong and Azo. She was able to bring transformation to these cannibal tribes into a civilized communities through the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Practical Steps. Here are some practical steps that one can explore:
- Read everything about missions and missionaries that you can get your hands on.
- Get involved in the missions mobilization and education program of your local church
- Go hear every missionary speaker that you can.God sometimes chooses that time to clarify His calling to young people.
- Talk to your pastor. oVerbalizing your thinking with him and enlisting his prayer support may help you sort through various issues.
- Throw yourself into active ministry through your local church. oLearn to minister effectively in your own culture before you attempt cross-cultural ministry.
- Go on a short-term missions
trip. A rural mission trip will give you a taste of life on the mission field and a good opportunity to sense God's leadership.
She called it the 3 C’s. According to Merle Dye, the 3 C's that are vital to knowing and following God's will are:
- Conviction: This comes from Bible study, prayer, hearing messages, reading mission material, and focusing on God's plan for the world and my part in fulfilling it. Counsel: Share your thoughts with godly leaders and friends for prayer and suggestions.
- Contact a mission agency, go on a short term exposure trip, talk to missionaries. She said to keep marching ahead as doors continue to open.
Her caution was not to mix the order above, i. e. , don't look at circumstances before the inner conviction and Godly counsel. Also, attend mission conferences, talk to missionaries, subscribe to missions magazines and read missionary biographies. Get in touch with missionaries who serve in a country or inistry in which you have an interest and then pray for them. When does God call people to long-term missionary service? Dr.Terry Read, missionary and missions professor has this to report in response to the above question:
- 20% felt God calling them after listening to missionary speakers
- 21% were called as a result of a missions education service in their local church
- 19% were called because of
their own family's missions vision and conversations
So from all that have been written, we can concluded that every believers are called to preach the gospel and some will be involved in international cross cultural missionary works while the others may be localized missionary work in one’s own country. Nevertheless, all believers are part of the missionary community that reach out to a lost and dying world with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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