Audio Transcript:

Welcome to Missions on Point, the Propempo perspective on church and missions.

Thank you for joining us for episode 193 of Missions on Point.  The Propempo perspective comes from the Greek word Propempo, meaning to send forward, encouraging churches to send forward qualified workers to take the gospel to the ends of the earth.  The work of missions though is not limited just to those that are sent.  Missions is not just for the missionary, it’s for the entire church.  How can they go and preach the good news unless they are sent, unless the church gets behind them, fully equips them, sends them forward, and does all it can to ensure that those workers remain on the field for long-term fruitfulness?  All Christians must be fully convinced in their own mind about how they individually and in partnership with their church are seeking to obey Christ’s call to go to the nations. 

We are beginning a new series today about the various missions paths that different members of the body of Christ can travel.  Every believer has a role to play as the church collectively seeks to be faithful to the Great Commission that God has given us.  Everyone has a missions path to follow.  Which one is yours?  If you don’t know the answer to that question, then today’s podcast is especially for you.  Today we explore what it means to be an inquirer of missions. 

Maybe you have recently been inspired by a sermon that your pastor preached that called on believers to consider their part in global missions.  Or maybe you have been increasingly impressed in your own study that the Bible regularly portrays God’s intention to spread his glory over the whole earth through the church’s work in crossing cultures with the gospel.  And now you’re asking, “what’s my role?”  Or maybe even more prior to this, maybe you’ve only heard of missions.  You know that there are missionaries, but you don’t know much about missions.  The concept seems as foreign to you as the lands that missionaries travel to.  Missions seems like it is for someone else, you may have thought, but at least you should know the basics.  Well, don’t worry, you’re in good company and you’re in the right place.  You need to inquire.  There are a lot of questions you can be asking about missions, and perhaps many that you don’t even know you could be asking.  I’d like to offer to you six steps that the missions inquirer can take to gain a solid foundation on this all-important Christian concern.  Here are six steps for the inquirer missions path.

The first step is the one that you are already taking.  The first step is that you need to inquire.  Inquire.  Ask good questions.  Such as, what is missions?  And why should I care?  We need to know what we’re talking about first, before we can evaluate our role in it.  Let’s get some good biblical definitions and biblical motivations to begin with.  Along with a basic definition of missions, we should also ask what is the goal of missions?  And without giving away a fuller answer here, we can easily summarize that goal as God’s glory seen in the person and work of Jesus Christ, his justice and holiness matched with his grace and forgiveness of believers from all peoples of the earth.  Profound statements like this should lead us to ask even more questions.  Like, how do we know this about God's glory and missions?  We should be continually driven back to God’s word to understand the foundational truth about God and missions.  That’s the first step, simply inquire.

Second, we must explore.  Let’s ask some deeper questions.  Don’t be satisfied with just the basics.  Ask questions like these: Is missions just a side issue?  What is the place of missions in God's purposes?  What is the place of missions in my church? And what is the place of missions in my life?  These questions will help to orient you to the centrality of missions in God’s purposes, and the centrality of you and your church in God’s purposes for missions.  We cannot say that missions is a side issue because the Bible makes God’s heart for all nations abundantly clear.  Explore more about missions as your second step. 

Number three, learn.  Become a student.  The study of missions is not just for those pursuing a degree.  Begin with asking, what is the primary task of missions?  Do you know? How would you answer that question?  That’s a really important question to ask because it determines much about how we will spend our time and energy in seeking to do missions.  What is the primary task of missions?  Next, what is the status of missions today? And how should we measure missions?  Let’s focus our understanding of missions so that we don’t just conceive of it as any and every activity.  And let’s make sure we are being objective with the task before us.  But also, as a learner, we should begin to ask questions that are practical.  What can I do to advance the cause of missions? How can I help my church get more involved in missions?  And how much does missions cost?  A learner gets deeper into questions of missiology, and practice, and also a little about missions history too.  Learn about missionaries of the past and about current missionaries as well.  Be a learner. 

Inquire, explore, learn and fourth, connect.  You can start getting involved, and you must begin somewhere.  How do you relate to your church? And what options are out there?  At this point you may be brimming with excitement.  And that’s good, but don’t get too far ahead of yourself.  Can you just start doing things?  Be careful, because you don’t want to go too fast and you don’t want to go it alone.  You need to connect with your church, first.  So, one of the most important questions you could ask is, what does it take to go to the mission field?  Missionaries need to be sufficiently trained, and they also have to be sufficiently sent too.  Both the missionary and his sending church need to be ready for the mission.  So, what should you do next? 

After you connect well, next it’s time to commit.  That’s the fifth step.  What's involved in a personal commitment to missions?  Who should I tell about my commitment to missions?  How does my commitment to missions relate to my family?  How does my commitment to missions relate to my church?  How can I encourage my friends to commit to missions?  What if I want to change my commitment to missions?  And furthermore, how long do I have to commit to missions?  Commitment is an important step for you to take, because you are building on the foundation of what you have learned about missions so far.  The fruit of your inquiry into missions as you explore, learn and connect with your church is that you must make a prayerful commitment to missions.  Missions is hard work, and it takes a lifetime to fulfill.  So, take time to consider what a commitment would look like and how it would affect your family and your church.

Our sixth step here is to grow.  Grow in your heart and understanding of missions.  Consider: what is next to grow in my understanding?  What can I learn about missions from the Bible?  How can I pray better for missions? And how can I pray better for missionaries?  Furthermore, what can I do to help missionaries?  You’ve already begun to gain an understanding of missions.  You are already sharing a small part of God’s heart for his glory spread over all the earth.  Your excitement and involvement have begun.  But don’t stop there.  Everyone can continue to grow in their understanding of missions and their own involvement.  In fact, you may want to stick around for the next missions path which is focused on personal involvement. 

This is the first missions path though that everyone can walk down.  Inquire.  With these six steps to take as you walk down this path.  Inquire, explore, learn, connect, commit, and grow. 

If you found these six steps of the missions inquirer to be helpful and if you found the questions that we have asked as we’ve taken these steps to be thought-provoking and you would like to get more thorough answers to them, then I would encourage you to visit our website at Propempo.com.  There you will find our missions paths under our services.  You can find answers to all of the questions we asked today and so much more, such as further resources that you can pursue.  I would like to also draw your attention to another new feature there where you can compile your own custom-made PDF.  You can select from a variety of collected question sets or choose your own.  Whatever your questions are about missions, you can find some help there, and you can get them all compiled into one downloadable pdf. 

Most importantly, today we want you to inquire about missions more.  You were not meant to only be a recipient of the gospel.  If you have received God’s grace, and you are meant to do your part to actively tell others about the good news of Jesus Christ, especially for the purpose of the grand task of global missions.  Inquire today about how you can be used by God to help advance the gospel to the ends of the earth.  And may God be glorified as the church fulfills its design to go into all the world and preach the gospel.

Thanks for joining us today on Missions on Point. We trust that you'll find more help and resources on our websites at Propempo.com and missioserve.org. We are so thankful for those who support us, enabling us to produce this podcast. Now to God be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus forever and ever. Amen.