Latest / Pastor John Piper's answers / The Next Generation of Missionaries

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The Next Generation of Missionaries · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Well, we love to focus our attention here on the podcast on international missions.
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  I know this is a high priority for you, Pastor John, which
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  is evidenced in where you speak and invest your life and everyone here. A
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  desiring God has high respect for frontier missionaries laboring in the remotest parts of the
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  world. So how do global missions and the local church work together? That's
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  the question today. Hello, Pastor John. My name is Jack, a
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  seventeen year old high school student in the US with a passion for world missions.
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  Awesome. My question is this, given the recent decrease in long term
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  career missionaries and recent increases in church support for short term missions, who should
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  the local church be partnering with today to promote biblical missions? In other words,
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  what do you think is the best blueprint for biblical world missions in a
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  local church today? I really want to speak to this question because I think
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  God is doing something very unusual in our day with respect to frontier missions.
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  And by frontier missions, I mean missionary efforts that attempt to get to places
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  and peoples or language groups that don't have any ordinary access to the Gospel and
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  they don't have any Christian churches that could build up such a movement of gospel
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  spreading everywhere. They look. Everywhere the people in those groups look, they
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  see unbelievers like themselves, and most likely they'll be born, they'll live,
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  they'll die without ever knowing a Christian or hearing what God has done in Jesus
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  to save sinners from destruction. And it seems to me that God is awakening
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  his people today in a fresh way to this unfinished mission Jesus gave us.
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  It seems to me that alongside historic mission agencies that have been doing great work
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  for a long time decades, God is raising up new conferences, new mission
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  organizations, new online ministries, churches with the kind of biblical theology and ecclesiology
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  and cultural strategies that are freshly empowering in advancing Christ's global mission at the present
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  time. When I say biblical theology, I have in mind reformed theology that
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  puts a high premium on the sovereign grace of God in saving sinners who would
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  never turn from their traditional religion to Christ. Apart from God's work of unconditional,
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  omnipotent regeneration, they must be born again. It's a sovereign act of
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  God. God is gloriously sufficient in His grace to save the hardest of sinners
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  in another religion. And when I say ecclesiology, I mean putting a high
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  premium on planting biblical, healthy churches among peoples of the world that can carry
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  on the mission for decades if needed, before Christ comes. I'm going to
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  mention a few of these newer works that I alluded to, because I think
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  that that's what Jack is asking for. Where should we look for partnerships?
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  But first let me name some assumptions that I have in seeking to answer the
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  question about long term career missionaries compared to short term missionaries. Five assumptions.
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  Number one, all human beings, apart from the saving grace of God in
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  Christ, are under the just wrath of God and are perishing and will spend
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  eternity in hell if they are not reached with the saving message of the Gospel.
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  That's assumption one massive assumption that gets minimized in so many kinds of churches
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  and theologies that don't like to talk about that truth. Number Two, there
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  is no other way for people to be rescued from the wrath of God than
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  by the provision that He himself has made in sending his son to bear the
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  punishment of sinners and absorb the wrath of God and cover the guilt of the
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  lost, and free us for forgiveness and justification by faith alone in Jesus.
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  There's no other way for people to be saved than Jesus. Number three.
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  Therefore, they must hear the good news, and we must take it to
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  them so that they can hear. We have news. I love this word
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  news. It's not first an ideology. It's news, spectacular, breathtaking,
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  glorious news about what God has done in his son Jesus Christ in history to
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  rescue sinners from all the peoples of the world. The task of missions is
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  to take this news to all the unreached of the world, all the peoples
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  and languages of the world, whatever the cost. That's number three. Number
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  four. It is essential to the missionary task that biblical worshiping, obedient,
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  soul winning, healthy churches be planted so that the ongoing Christian life can be
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  lived out over the decades. The way is described in the New Testament,
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  and so the work of evangelizing the local people group can be carried on even
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  when the missionaries are not there anymore. Churches that's number four. Number five,
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  translating the Bible into indigenous languages is crucial if such churches, the ones
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  that I just described are going to flourish virtually in the long run. We
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  all know how precious and utterly crucial it is for growing in Christ that we
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  immerse ourselves day by day in the Bible. That's why the Bible is needed
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  in the people's heart language wherever the mission goes. Now, so much more
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  could be said besides those five assumptions, but because of those alone, I
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  would say short term missions has a secondary place of value in recruiting, motivating,
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  supporting what is primary. But what is primary the primary effort of the
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  local church, the primary investment of our resources for missions, the primary challenge
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  of the pulpit, the primary strategy for finishing the mission of Jesus is to
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  raise up and send support and nurture hold the rope for career missionaries. If
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  churches are to be planted, and the Bible is to be translated, and
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  an ongoing movement of evangelism is to be sustained, short term missionaries are probably
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  not the main means by which that's going to happen. So Jack asks who
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  should we be partnering with. Now you've already heard where I'm coming from theologically,
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  so that governs what I'm going to suggest here. And please understand that
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  there are dozens of movements and agencies and ministries that are faithful and that can
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  help you and your church become a launching pad for the kind of missionaries I'm
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  talking about. But I would mention I think four particular agencies or groups that
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  you should pay attention to. Number one, Reaching and Teaching International MINISTRIESTIM dot
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  Org is ascending agency that shares these convictions. Number two Radius International not a
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  sending agency, but a remarkable training organization preparing the kind of missionaries I'm talking
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  about. Number three Radical, the Ministry of David Platt, which waives the
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  banner for the unreached of the world and teaches and inspires and trains for the
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  sake of sustainable radical commitment to planting the church globally. And four two conferences.
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  One the Missionary Conference this fall Jacksonville October sixteen to eighteen, twenty twenty
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  four, and the Cross Conference, a missionary conference for eighteen to twenty five
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  year olds in Louisville next January. January two four, twenty twenty five.
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  I'm going to be at both of those conferences, and I would love to
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  see you Jack and lots of others of you who are listening at those conferences.
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  God is up to something amazing in our day. It's thrilling to be
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  a part. Be sure is about eleven thousand students attended the Cross Conference this
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  year in twenty twenty four. Amazing momentum and amazing to think of all the
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  gospel reach represented in a room full of the next generation of missionaries, of
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  young men and women with international missions on their mind. The topic of international
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  missions is complex. There's a lot of different ways to do it, requires
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  a lot of different people in it, and it's made complex because there's at
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  least three different ways the church works internationally. You don't have to go to
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  frontier missions to be a part of the work. For that see APJA eleven
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  eighty nine. That's the episode that comes to my mind if you want more
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  on just what kind of a role could you play in international missions if you're
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  not a frontier missionary. Maybe there's other roles, certainly a sending role from
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  a local church in the States. But look at that episode. Episode number
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  eleven eighty nine. Go to askpestro John dot com and just search for the
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  number eleven eighty nine. I think that will encourage many of you as well.
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  Thank you best, John, and thanks for joining us TODA day up
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  next. Is my joy in God commanded or is it supposed to be a
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  spontaneous experience to be genuine? That is a great question. Is joy commanded
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  or is joy a spontaneous experience of God. I'm Tony Rinky. We'll see
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  you on Monday.