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Missionaries Are Sent—Not Abandoned · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome to Reform thinking, it's great to have you with us again.
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  Yeah, good to be back. So today we're opening up our
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  sources to well, to try and get our minds around what scripture
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  demands of us on topic that I think for many of us, it sort of
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  sits in a category of things we assume we have handled.
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  Things we assume we're doing correctly.
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  Right. We assume we're doing it
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  correctly, but we might actually be neglecting some really
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  central parts. We're talking about missions.
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  But not just the idea of missions, not just the going.
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  No, not at all. We're talking about the
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  machinery behind it, the the sending, specifically the
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  relationship between the local church and the missionary on the
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  field. It's a vital topic and honestly,
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  it's one of those areas where our ecclesiology, our doctrine
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  of the Church, really gets tested.
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  How so? Well, we can have the
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  Westminster Confession on our shelves.
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  We can hold to a high view of Scripture in our pulpits, but if
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  our actual mission strategy looks like we're just, you know,
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  outsourcing the Great Commission.
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  Outsourcing. That's the perfect word for it.
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  If we're outsourcing it to a third party vendor, then we have
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  a theological problem. A big one.
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  It makes sense, though, why we do it.
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  We live in a world of specialization, right?
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  If my car breaks down, I don't try to fix it myself.
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  I call mechanic. Sure.
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  If I need a website, I hire a developer.
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  Yeah, and I think the default setting for many churches has
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  become similar. We want to see people saved in
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  country X, so let's find an agency to do that.
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  For us and the sources we're looking at today are going to
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  challenge that mindset aggressively.
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  They certainly are. So for you listening, we're
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  looking at 2 main texts today. First is a chapter called Don't
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  Hand Them Off by Mark Tatlock and Chris Burnett.
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  It's in the book Biblical Missions, Principles,
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  Priorities, and Practices. And then to help us land the
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  plane, you know, get really practical.
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  We're also pulling from Tom Pennington's work supporting
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  your church's missionaries. The thesis that comes out of
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  these is, well, it's provocative.
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  It argues that while agencies do have a place, the local churches
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  basically abdicated its throne. Handed over the keys.
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  Yeah, we've handed over the keys to the spiritual supply line.
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  Yeah. And the result is this huge
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  disconnect that ends up hurting the missionary and actually
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  weakening the church back home. That is the absolute core of it.
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  Missions is frontline ministry. I mean, it is spiritual warfare
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  and you cannot fight a war if your supply line is broken.
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  Or if you've delegated it to someone who doesn't really know
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  the soldiers on the front. Exactly so the mission for this
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  discussion for us is to reclaim that authority and that
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  responsibility that belongs to the local church in the life of
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  the missionary. OK, before we dive into the the
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  heavy theology of Acts 13, which is where we're going to spend a
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  lot of our time, I want to set the stage with a story.
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  It's an anecdote that Tatlock and Burnett bring up, and it
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  just frames this whole conversation perfectly.
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  It's the story of the rope holders.
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  Right from the Particular Baptist Missionary Society,
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  1792. This is basically the birth of
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  the modern missions movement. So you've got these two key
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  figures, Andrew Fuller and William Carey.
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  Everyone knows William Carey. Father of modern missions?
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  The guy who went to India? Yes.
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  But the story goes that when they were all deliberating this
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  huge undertaking they're sitting around in Kettering, England,
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  the task just seemed impossible. India was this massive, daunting
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  Pagan world. And Fuller describes it using
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  this analogy of a mine. A deep, dark, unexplored mine.
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  Yeah. Imagine a pit that no one has
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  ever gone down into. It's dark, it's dangerous.
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  You have no idea if there's gold down there or if the air is
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  poisonous. Carrie looks at the group and he
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  says I will go down. I will descend into the pit, but
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  I will only go if you promise to hold the rope.
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  And that's the moment Fuller and the others standing there at the
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  mouth of that pit, they took an oath.
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  Was the oath. They said that as long as they
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  live, they would never, ever let go of the rope.
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  That image, it just gives me chills every time I think about
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  it. It completely changes the
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  dynamic of missions it does. The guy in the pit is doing the
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  work, you know, the digging. But his life, his very survival,
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  depends entirely on the grip strength of the guys at the top.
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  IF. They get distracted if their
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  arms get tired if they decide to just walk away and do something
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  else. He falls or he's stranded.
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  And that's the analogy we need to keep in our heads for this
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  whole deep dive. The whole premise of our sources
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  today is that the local church is the rope holder.
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  Not the mission agency. Not the agency.
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  The agency might manufacture the rope, they might provide the
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  pulley system. They might help you get a visa
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  to even get to the mine, but the church holds the weight.
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  So if the church thinks, oh the agency has this covered, then
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  they have in effect. They've let go of the rope, and
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  when you let go of the rope, the minor is in serious trouble.
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  OK. Let's unpack this biblically,
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  then. This isn't just some nice
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  sentimental story, it's grounded in how the New Testament church
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  actually worked, and the source material takes us straight to
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  Acts chapter 13. Acts 13 is the pivot point.
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  Up until this chapter in Acts, the focus has really been on
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  Jerusalem and the dispersion from there.
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  But now the camera shifts. It shifts to Antioch.
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  And Antioch becomes the Launchpad.
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  The Launchpad for global missions.
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  So let's look at the situation there.
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  Acts 13, verses 1 to 3. It lists the leaders who are
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  there. You have Barnabas, Simeon, who
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  is called Niger, Lucius, Cyrene, Menan and Saul.
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  And you notice these are not just random church members.
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  No, these are the heavy hitters. They.
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  Are the prophets and teachers? That's crucial observation the
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  authors make. The church at Antioch had what
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  you might call a deep bench. They had serious leadership.
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  And what are they doing? It says they are ministering to
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  the Lord and fasting. Notice the God centeredness of
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  that activity. They aren't in a conference room
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  brainstorming A5 year strategic plan.
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  Right, no whiteboards and SWOT analysis.
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  They're worshipping and it's in that context, the context of
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  worship, that the Holy Spirit speaks so.
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  Apart from me, Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have
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  called them. And you just have to pause there
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  and think about who Spirit asked for he.
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  Asked for their best. Their absolute best.
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  Barnabas and Saul were pillars of that church.
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  I think sometimes in the modern church there's this subtle
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  temptation to send the people who are, for lack of a better
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  word, expendable. Or maybe the people who are just
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  really enthusiastic but don't quite fit into the local
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  ministry structure. Yes.
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  Oh, you're really eager and you've got a lot of energy.
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  Great. Why don't you go to the mission
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  field? He's.
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  A bit of a loose cannon, so let's just aim him at another
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  continent. Precisely.
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  But the Antioch model is the polar opposite of that.
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  They sent their proven leaders. They sent the men who were
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  already doing the work of ministry right there.
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  Tatlock and Burnett make that point very clearly.
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  These men were already active, already ministering before they
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  were exported. You don't export what you don't
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  have. If a man isn't a disciple maker
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  in his home city, putting him on an airplane doesn't magically
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  turn him into one it. Turns him into a tourist with a
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  support account. That is a stinging, but often
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  true reality. OK, so this is where the source
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  material draws A distinction that I think we need to clarify
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  for you. It's the difference between the
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  church and the para church. A critical distinction.
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  We're not saying, and the authors are not saying, that
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  missions agencies are bad. No, not at all.
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  But they are defining the lanes, they're defining the role.
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  So what does para church even mean?
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  Well, para just means alongside para.
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  Church organizations exist to come alongside the church.
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  They exist to assist. So they might handle logistics.
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  Right. They can help you navigate the
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  red tape of international law, visas, specialized training,
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  maybe language acquisition. That stuff is good, and it's
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  necessary. But the text argues that the
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  agency must never, ever usurp the church's role.
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  And that's the problem that's been identified, because
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  churches often lack the logistical expertise.
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  I mean, we don't know how to get a residence permit in a closed
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  country. We tend to hand over the
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  spiritual oversight right along with the logistical tasks.
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  We confuse the logistics with the calling.
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  You think, well, the agency accepted him into their program,
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  so he must be qualified. And that is the fundamental
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  error. An agency sees a snapshot.
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  They see an application form, they see a few references.
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  They might do a weekend interview.
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  But who knows the candidates actual character?
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  Who knows how they handle a traffic jam or a difficult
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  neighbor or a conflict in the church nursery?
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  The local church. Only the local church.
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  Only the local church. The authors asked some really
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  piercing questions for a church to consider.
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  Is this person genuinely striving for holiness?
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  How do they handle pressure? Are they trustworthy with money,
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  with their time? With their word?
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  An agency just can't answer those questions.
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  Not in a meaningful way. Only the people who are living
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  life alongside them week in and week out can answer that.
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  This brings us right to the topic of qualifications.
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  Since we are coming from a Reformed perspective, we care a
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  lot about church order, about biblical offices, and the source
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  makes a very strong case that if a missionary is going out to
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  plant churches, he needs to be a whole lot more than just
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  willing. He needs to be qualified,
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  biblically qualified. Specifically, he needs to meet
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  the qualifications of an elder that you find in First Timothy 3
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  and Titus One Let's. Walk through the logic of that.
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  Why is that so non negotiable? Well, think about the job
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  description. The missionaries primary task in
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  a church planting context is to gather new believers to disciple
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  them, and then eventually to appoint elders who can lead that
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  new church. How can a man appoint and train
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  elders if he himself is not qualified to be 1?
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  It's the blind leading the blind scenario.
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  You can't reproduce what you are not.
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  You can't. And what if they're going in
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  support roles? Maybe administration, logistics,
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  medical work? Then what's the standard?
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  They should meet the qualifications of a Deacon.
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  The point is, the standard for going to the nation's should not
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  be lower than the standard for serving in your local church.
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  If anything, it should be higher.
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  It should be higher because they are operating without the safety
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  net of a mature church structure all around them.
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  Sending an unqualified man to appoint elders is just a recipe
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  for disaster. So the church in Antioch,
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  they've identified these men. They recognize the spirits call.
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  Then comes the actual sending process.
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  And it's not just a farewell party with some cake in the
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  fellowship hall. No, it's a solemn, serious act.
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  It involves fasting, prayer, and the laying on of hands.
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  I. Want to touch on that?
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  The laying on of hands. In our tradition, we can
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  sometimes get a little nervous about physical rituals, but this
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  is clearly biblical. What's happening in that act?
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  It's a formal commissioning. It's an act of identification.
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  The leadership of the church is publicly saying we are
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  identifying with you. Your work is our work.
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  We are sending you as an extension of this body.
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  So. It's an act of authority, It's.
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  An act of authority and an act of blessing.
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  It signifies that these men are not going as freelancers or
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  independent contractors. They're going as authorized
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  messengers of the church at any OK.
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  So they go. They have their first big
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  missionary track. But the relationship doesn't
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  just stop there with a handshake at the door, No.
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  The rope is still attached. Right.
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  And this moves us into our second segment, which connects
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  Acts 14 and the book of Philippians.
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  The source calls this the tether of connection.
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  So you jump forward in the story to Acts 14, verses 26 to 28.
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  Paul and Barnabas finish what we now call their first missionary
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  journey. And where do they go They.
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  Don't just, you know, retire to a villa in Cyprus.
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  No, they go straight back to Antioch, back to the sending
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  body. And the text says they gathered
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  the church together. This is the very first
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  missionary report, and you have to notice the content of that
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  report. They declared all things that
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  God had done with them not. What they had done, No.
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  It wasn't a slideshow of the scenery.
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  It wasn't just a list of all their hardships, though there
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  were certainly plenty of those. The focus was theological.
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  How so they? Highlighted how God had opened a
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  door of faith to the Gentiles. The whole report was framed
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  through the lens of God's sovereignty.
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  It was Soli deo Gloria. I love the phrasing that comes
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  next. It says they spent not a little
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  time with the disciples. Not a little.
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  Time that. Means a long time.
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  It does. They reintegrated.
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  They didn't just pop in for a weekend service, grab a check,
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  and then fly out again. They rejoined the actual life of
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  the body. That seems so crucial for the
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  health of the missionary. They need to be remembered to
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  the body, so to speak. They need to be ministered to.
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  They can't just be put on a pedestal and looked at a
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  spiritual superheroes it. Seems like today, the whole idea
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  of furlough or home assignment as we often call it now, it's
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  just frantic. It's a.
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  Performance tour, Yeah. The missionary has to visit 30
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  different supporting churches in six weeks.
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  They're living out of a suitcase, they're exhausted and
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  they're constantly performing. The Antioch model seems so much
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  more grounded. Because it's centered on close,
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  genuine relationship. And that brings us to the book
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  of Philippians. Antioch was their sending
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  church, but Philippi was a key supporting church.
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  And Paul's relationship with them gives us the theology of
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  partnership. In Philippians chapter 1, Paul
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  calls it a fellowship in the gospel, the.
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  Greek word there is Koinonia. It implies joint participation.
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  This is not a transaction. Paul isn't selling a service
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  that the Philippians are buying. They are full partners in the
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  enterprise. And that partnership included
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  financial support. But Paul frames that support in
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  a really interesting way, especially in Philippians 4.
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  He doesn't call it a salary or a payment.
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  No, he uses worship language. He calls their gift a fragrant
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  offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God.
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  That changes how we should view the offering plate, doesn't it?
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  Completely. When a church member gives money
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  to missions, they are not just paying a bill or keeping the
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  lights on in a jungle clinic. They are engaging in an act of
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  worship. It's a spiritual sacrifice
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  offered to God. In the communication, it went
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  both ways. Paul shared his trials.
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  He's very open about being in prison.
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  But he always frames it through the lens of the advancement of
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  the gospel, he says. What has happened to me has
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  really served to advance the gospel.
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  So it's honest reporting, but it's theologically grounded
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  reporting, yes. And because of that honesty, the
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  Philippians could pray intelligently.
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  They weren't just praying. God bless Paul.
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  They were praying for his specific situation, for his
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  boldness, for his guards. And the source argues that no
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  agency, no matter how good they are, can replace those kinds of
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  personal connections. An agency representative can
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  visit your church once a year, but they're not your family.
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  The church is your family. The missionary on the field
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  needs to know that people back home are praying for their
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  specific headache, for their specific difficult neighbor, for
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  that specific bout of discouragement they're feeling
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  this week. That emotional and spiritual
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  tether, that rope, is what keeps them on the field.
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  Without it, they're just drifting, and drifting is
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  incredibly dangerous in this line of work.
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  Well. Inevitably, in any line of work,
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  things go wrong, or at least things change, and that leads us
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  to Acts Chapter 15. The source material brings this
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  up under the heading of RE Evaluation and Strategy.
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  Right, because the dream team of Paul and Barnabas, they split up
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  and. It wasn't friendly split.
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  No, the text says it was a sharp contention.
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  It was over a personnel issue. John Mark what?
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  Was the issue with him he. Had abandoned them on the first
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  trip and Barnabas whose name means son of encouragement wants
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  to give the young man a second chance and Paul Paul the laser
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  focused apostle basically says absolutely not he's a liability
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  he's not reliable it's. Almost comforting in a way to
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  know that even the apostles had HR issues.
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  It is, but look at what happens next.
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  The church is right there in the middle of it.
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  The text says that after the split, Paul chose Silas and then
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  he departed, having been commended by the brothers to the
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  grace of the Lord. There's that commissioning
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  again, The laying on of hands, the sending.
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  Yes, the team changed. The strategy shifted.
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  Now two teams were going out instead of just one.
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  But the church was the stabilizing force through it
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  all. They handled this fork in the
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  road and they recommissioned Paul for the next phase of the
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  work. The application here for us
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  today seems vital. Missionaries on the field, they
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  face massive strategic shifts all the time.
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  Constantly the government closes a door, a teammate gets sick and
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  has to leave permanently, a visa is denied and the.
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  Source argues that the missionary should not be making
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  these massive pivots in a vacuum.
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  Right, they shouldn't be out there just cowboying it.
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  Well, I guess I'll just pack up and move to this other city and
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  try starting a business. No, you were sent by a body and
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  that body needs to be involved in the council.
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  They hold the authority they. Hold the authority.
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  If the strategy has to change, the sending church needs to
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  weigh in. They need to approve and they
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  need to recommit the missionary to the grace of God for that new
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  work. It protects the missionary from
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  their own blind spots, doesn't it?
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  It does, and it protects the Church from continuing to
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  support a mission that has drifted from its original
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  purpose. So we've covered the mandate to
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  send the tether of connection and this need for RE evaluation.
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  Now I want to move to a short but really effective letter that
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  I think often gets overlooked in missions discussions.
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  And that's the three, John. Yes, our source material really
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  leans into the example of a man named Gaius. 3 John is just a
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  gem for this whole topic. The letter is written to this
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  man Gaius, who is a church leader and John is commending
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  him for his hospitality. But not just for having his
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  friends over for dinner. He was hosting strangers, which
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  in this context meant itinerant missionaries who were traveling
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  through his area and the. Standard that John sets for this
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  hospitality is just incredible. It's in verse 6.
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  You will do well to send them on their way in a manner worthy of
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  God. Let's just pause on that phrase
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  for a second. Worthy of God, That is the
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  standard of care. What does that actually mean,
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  practically speaking? Well, the authors argue it means
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  treating the missionary as you would treat the Lord Jesus
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  himself. It brings to mind Matthew 25.
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  What you did to the least of these, my brothers, you did to
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  me. OK, but it goes even further.
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  It means providing the best. Not the leftovers, not the cast
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  offs. So not.
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  Here are some old clothes from the church, lost and found.
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  And here's a can of beans from the back of the pantry.
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  Exactly in a manner worthy of God implies high quality
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  support, nutritious food, safe lodging, sufficient fun so they
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  can get to the next leg of their trip without worrying.
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  It is a call to generosity that maybe hurts a little bit.
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  It's a call to excellence in our support.
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  And John gives the motivation for this high standard in the
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  very next verse, verse 7, for they went out for the sake of
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  the name. The name, the name of Christ,
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  that is the reason they're out there.
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  They are not out there for adventure or for tourism.
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  They are out there for the glory of the King.
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  So because they're on the King's business.
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  They should be treated with the dignity of the King's
• 18:53
  ambassadors. Then there's this really
• 18:55
  interesting negative constraint that John adds.
• 18:58
  Right after that, he says they are taking nothing from the
• 19:01
  Gentiles. This is fascinating and it's
• 19:04
  crucial for us. The Gentiles here refers to
• 19:07
  unbelievers, the Pagan world. The early church had a clear
• 19:12
  policy. We do not solicit funds from the
• 19:15
  world to do God's work. Why not?
• 19:18
  What's the reasoning behind that?
• 19:19
  Because it honors the name. If God's people cannot or will
• 19:23
  not support God's work, and we have to go begging to the world
• 19:26
  for help, what does that say about our God It.
• 19:29
  Implies he's insufficient it. Implies he's insufficient, or
• 19:31
  that his own people don't actually care about his glory.
• 19:34
  That is a heavy thought. So the Church has the exclusive
• 19:37
  duty to fund the work. Yes, and the implication is if
• 19:41
  we fail to support them adequately, we are effectively
• 19:44
  forcing them to look to the Gentiles or today maybe to
• 19:47
  government grants or secular jobs that distract them from
• 19:50
  ministry and that dishonors the name.
• 19:52
  But the flip side of that is glorious.
• 19:54
  Verse 8. Therefore, we ought to support
• 19:56
  such men so that we may be fellow workers with the truth.
• 19:59
  Fellow workers, the Greek is synergos.
• 20:01
  We get our word synergy from it. So even if you stay home, even
• 20:05
  if you never leave your hometown.
• 20:07
  By supporting them in a manner worthy of God, you become an
• 20:10
  active participant in the advance of the truth.
• 20:13
  You are swinging the hammer just as much as they are.
• 20:16
  You are holding the rope. That connects all this theology
• 20:19
  right back to the person sitting in the Pew.
• 20:22
  It dignifies the role of the sender.
• 20:24
  It does. It completely removes any idea
• 20:26
  of a second class citizen status for those who stay in support.
• 20:30
  OK. So we have established the
• 20:31
  biblical necessity of all this The church must send, must hold
• 20:36
  the rope, must steer through the changes, and must support in a
• 20:40
  manner worthy of God. Now let's get practical.
• 20:43
  How do we actually do this? Right, this is where the rubber
• 20:45
  meets the road. We're turning now to Tom
• 20:47
  Pennington's work supporting your church's missionaries.
• 20:51
  And he breaks this down by role, the elders, the pastors in the
• 20:55
  congregation. It's one thing to agree with the
• 20:57
  theology, it's a whole other thing to clear your calendar and
• 21:00
  actually do the work. Start at the top with the
• 21:02
  elders. Pennington lists 6 specific ways
• 21:06
  that elders must engage. The first one is simple, but I
• 21:10
  think it's often neglected. It's counsel.
• 21:13
  Just be available. Missionaries face incredibly
• 21:16
  complicated ethical and strategic dilemmas.
• 21:19
  Should we bribe this official to get our visa?
• 21:22
  How do we handle the issue of polygamy among new converts?
• 21:26
  These are heavy, heavy questions and.
• 21:28
  They need wise counselors. They do, but often missionaries
• 21:32
  are afraid to even ask these questions because they fear if
• 21:34
  they share a struggle, the church will pull their support.
• 21:37
  The oh, he's struggling, maybe he's not cut out for this
• 21:39
  mentality. It's.
• 21:40
  A toxic culture and it's deadly. Elders need to create a safe
• 21:43
  space where a missionary can call them and say I am drowning.
• 21:47
  And the immediate response is we are with you, not we are firing
• 21:50
  you the. Second point from Pennington is
• 21:52
  visit, get on a plane and go to the field.
• 21:55
  And this is not a vacation. This is not mission tourism for
• 21:58
  the leadership. Elders need to go to see the
• 22:01
  reality on the ground. They need to smell the air.
• 22:03
  They need to feel the spiritual oppression.
• 22:05
  They. Need to see that the
• 22:06
  missionaries apartment has mold or that the traffic is madding.
• 22:09
  Yes, you cannot pray with real empathy if you have not seen the
• 22:13
  context. And when an elder visits, it
• 22:16
  validates the ministry to the missionary in a huge way.
• 22:20
  It says you are so central to our church's work that we will
• 22:23
  travel halfway around the world just to be with you and
• 22:26
  encourage you and. Then that elder can come back
• 22:29
  and report to the church with first hand authority and
• 22:31
  passion. That's right.
• 22:32
  The Third Point is encourage engagement.
• 22:36
  This means the elders have to mobilize the whole congregation.
• 22:39
  They. Have to be the cheerleaders for
• 22:41
  missions they. Do they're constantly pointing
• 22:43
  the congregation to the missionaries?
• 22:45
  They are setting up the practical structures for care,
• 22:47
  which we'll talk about in a minute.
• 22:49
  Like care teams, it's their job to keep it on the front runner.
• 22:52
  4th Pray and not just a generic God bless the missionaries at
• 22:56
  the end of the service, no. Pennington references Spurgeon
• 22:59
  here. Spurgeon used to pray that God
• 23:01
  would pour out on this church a missionary spirit.
• 23:05
  Elders need to model all this kind of specific, passionate
• 23:08
  public prayer. Because if the elders never pray
• 23:12
  for the nations from the pulpit. The people will not pray for the
• 23:15
  nations in their prayer closets. It signals what is actually
• 23:19
  crucial to the life of the Church. #5 from Pennington is
• 23:24
  platform. Give them the microphone when
• 23:26
  they are home on assignment. Let them speak and not just for
• 23:28
  5 minutes at the end of the service.
• 23:29
  Give them the pulpit during the Sunday school hour or even the
• 23:32
  main service. And with technology today?
• 23:35
  There's no excuse. We have Zoom, we have video
• 23:37
  calls. There is no reason for a
• 23:39
  missionary to be out of sight, out of mind.
• 23:42
  OK, the 6th one for elders and I think this has a distinctly
• 23:45
  reformed flavor to it. Philosophy.
• 23:49
  The elders must emphasize faithfulness over results.
• 23:52
  This is so critical. The American business model that
• 23:55
  has crept into the church is all about ROI, return on investment.
• 23:59
  We gave you $50,000 last year, so how many baptisms did we get
• 24:03
  for that? That just crushes A missionary
• 24:05
  spirit. It does, especially those who
• 24:07
  are working in hard soil like the Middle East or post
• 24:09
  Christian Europe. It's a produce or parish
• 24:11
  mentality, but the. Biblical standard is different.
• 24:14
  The biblical standard is faithfulness.
• 24:16
  Paul says it is required of stewards that they be found
• 24:18
  faithful. God is one who gives the
• 24:21
  increase. Our job is to plant and water.
• 24:24
  Elders need to protect their missionaries from the pressure
• 24:27
  to inflate numbers or to pursue shallow decision based ministry.
• 24:31
  They need to be the one saying we support you because you are
• 24:35
  faithfully preaching the gospel, not because you posted a high
• 24:38
  baptism count on Instagram. And that is incredibly
• 24:41
  liberating. For a worker on the field to
• 24:42
  know that their value to the church is not tied to a metric
• 24:46
  allows them to focus on deep, long term discipleship.
• 24:50
  Oh, OK. So that's the elders.
• 24:51
  Pennington then singles out the lead pastor.
• 24:54
  Why is he separated out? Because the lead pastor is the
• 24:57
  primary voice, he steers the ship.
• 24:59
  If he is indifferent or silent about missions, the church will
• 25:02
  be indifferent, Pennington says. He must be the one building
• 25:05
  personal relationships with the missionaries.
• 25:06
  And he should be the one visiting.
• 25:08
  Yes, when the senior pastor gets on a plane and goes to the
• 25:11
  field, it sends a massive signal to the whole congregation.
• 25:14
  This work matters. This is a priority for us.
• 25:17
  And of course, his pulpit ministry is key.
• 25:20
  It is he needs to preach the Great Commission, but more than
• 25:23
  that, he needs to connect God's heart for the nation's into his
• 25:27
  regular week in, week out exposition of the Scriptures.
• 25:30
  So. You don't have to wait for the
• 25:31
  annual mission Sunday. Not.
• 25:32
  At all. If you're preaching through
• 25:34
  Romans or the Psalms or Genesis, the nations are everywhere in
• 25:38
  the text. Point them out to your people.
• 25:41
  All right, finally, let's talk about the missions leadership
• 25:44
  team, MLT, and the members of the church.
• 25:46
  Because not everyone is an elder or a pastor.
• 25:49
  What does the average person in the Pew do to hold the rope?
• 25:53
  This is where Pennington suggests care teams and this is
• 25:56
  just a brilliant practical tool. So how does that work A.
• 26:00
  Small group of people in the church is assigned to one
• 26:02
  specific missionary family or unit and they are responsible
• 26:07
  for their practical logistical care.
• 26:09
  So things like sending birthday packages.
• 26:11
  Yes, but it goes deeper. Maybe the missionary owns a
• 26:15
  house back in the States, and while they're gone, the water
• 26:17
  heater breaks. The care team handles getting
• 26:20
  the plumber over there. They take care of it so the
• 26:22
  missionary doesn't have to stress about it from 5000 miles
• 26:25
  away. That's huge.
• 26:27
  That's a massive burden lifted. It is, it's practical love in
• 26:30
  action. Then alongside that you have
• 26:33
  prayer teams. These are members who have
• 26:35
  committed to daily informed prayer for that specific worker.
• 26:39
  They get the real time updates, the urgent requests.
• 26:42
  And of course, giving. Regular, faithful financial
• 26:45
  support. Pennington frames it as a duty
• 26:48
  of every believer. It's not charity, it's
• 26:50
  participation in the work. The last point here is short
• 26:53
  term ministry. Short term trips often get a bad
• 26:56
  rap. People call it mission tourism,
• 26:58
  and they can be. Bad.
• 26:59
  They can be a net negative for the long term worker if they're
• 27:02
  not done well. So what's the key to doing them
• 27:05
  right? They must be done under the
• 27:07
  authority of the elders, and their entire purpose must be to
• 27:10
  support and advance the goals of the long term work already
• 27:13
  happening. When they're done that way,
• 27:15
  they're invaluable. Well, they can provide real aid
• 27:18
  to the work on the ground, but just as much they infect the
• 27:22
  person who goes with a vision for the world.
• 27:24
  A huge number of long term missionaries started out as
• 27:28
  short termers. So we've built this entire
• 27:31
  structure. We have the theological
• 27:32
  foundation from Acts. We have the practical
• 27:35
  scaffolding from Pennington and IT.
• 27:36
  All points back to that one idea, the integral link.
• 27:39
  The church and the missionary are inseparable, from the
• 27:42
  selection process in Acts 13, to the reporting back in Acts 14,
• 27:46
  through the conflict resolution in Acts 15, all the way to the
• 27:49
  ongoing care we see in Three John.
• 27:52
  You simply cannot have one without the other.
• 27:54
  And we have to keep coming back to that distinction we made at
• 27:57
  the beginning. Agencies are tools.
• 28:00
  They can be good tools, but the church is the body.
• 28:03
  It's like parenting. You don't hand your children off
• 28:05
  to a daycare center and then never see them again.
• 28:08
  You might use a school to help educate them, but you are the
• 28:11
  parent. The church is the parent of the
• 28:13
  missionary. That's a powerful analogy, and
• 28:15
  in many ways we've been guilty of a kind of spiritual child
• 28:18
  neglect. We've handed them off.
• 28:20
  It's time to take them back. It's time to re engage and hold
• 28:23
  the rope. As we wrap up this deep dive, I
• 28:25
  just want to challenge you, the person listening right now.
• 28:29
  Where is your church in this picture?
• 28:32
  Is your church actively holding the rope, or is your rope lying
• 28:36
  on the ground next to the mine while you assume someone else
• 28:39
  has it? It's a sobering question, and it
• 28:41
  applies to every single one of us.
• 28:43
  The Great Commission is not an optional extra for super
• 28:47
  Christians. You either go or you send.
• 28:49
  And sending is not just writing a check once a year.
• 28:51
  It's sending in a manner worthy of God.
• 28:54
  Here is a thought to leave you with something to Mull over.
• 28:58
  We talked about 3 John and that command not to take anything
• 29:01
  from the Gentiles from the world, right?
• 29:03
  If our church has failed to step up, if we are stingy or
• 29:05
  distracted or just plain disorganized, and our
• 29:08
  missionaries are forced to come home early, or worse, forced to
• 29:11
  look for support from secular sources to stay on the field,
• 29:15
  are we not responsible for dimming the glory of the very
• 29:17
  name they went out to proclaim we?
• 29:19
  Are absolutely If they go out for the sake of the name, we
• 29:22
  must support them for the sake of the name.
• 29:24
  Anything less is unworthy of our King.
• 29:27
  Thank you for joining us on Reformed Thinking.
• 29:29
  May we be a people who hold the rope tight until the work is
• 29:33
  done. Amen to that.