Thinking Like a Missionary Document

THINKING LIKE A MISSIONARY:

15 Guiding Principles that Govern All Missionary Service

By Pastor Mike Wilson

Thinking like a missionary involves believing and operating based on a number of very important principles. My list might be somewhat different from the lists of other missionaries and the order might be a little different, but I see these 15 as guiding truths and deeply held convictions that guide and motivate missionaries wherever they might be.

Principle #1: Missionaries take individual ownership of the Great Commission. At some point you probably learned the Great Commission by heart, at least the version of it found in Matthew 28:16-20 – “¹⁶ But the eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had designated.  ¹⁷ When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some were doubtful.  ¹⁸ And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to Me in Heaven and on earth.  ¹⁹ Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.’” 

            The Great Commission is also found in other passages and all of them are burned very deeply into every missionary’s heart. For example, in Acts 1:8 we read, [Jesus speaking] “…But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”

            In John 17:18 we hear Jesus praying to the Father, “As You sent Me into the world [meaning, in the same way, to be light and salt], I also have sent them into the world.” 

            Romans 10:13-15 says, “WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.”  ¹⁴ How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?  ¹⁵ How will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things!” 

            In Matthew 4:19 Jesus called His first disciples with these words, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” 

The main difference between missionaries and other Christians is that missionaries apply these verses to themselves individually, rather than just collectively. They take the Great Commission as their personal marching orders. They do not wait to see what others are going to do about it, they own it for themselves, believing that God has called them personally to fulfil the mission, and they set out to get it done, believing that it can be accomplished with God’s help.

Principle #2: Missionaries personally embrace God’s call on their lives. You are probably aware that the subject of a so-called “missionary call” has been much debated over the years. In fact, great missionary movements have been started by people who felt that they had received some sort of supernatural call to missions. That “call” often came after an emotional appeal for missionaries to step forward as volunteers to carry the Gospel to the ends of the earth. Sometimes this happened at the close of a powerful mission conference in a church, or around a campfire at a youth retreat, or at a regional missions gathering like Mission ConneXion or the Urbana Conference. An invitation would be given, and with tear-stained faces people would lay their lives on the altar of missions to go to darkest Africa or some other place.  They would always look back to that night, when they received their “missionary call.”

Now I do not mean to belittle that idea or to call into question the conviction that those missionaries have of having been handpicked by God to become missionaries. I can relate because near the end of my second year in college I had a very emotional experience in my life as well, when I finally submitted my life and my future to God’s Sovereign plan. That decision eventually led me to serve for three terms as a missionary in Brazil.

However, I have had a lot of years to revisit that experience and to search the Scriptures, and today I have come to a different conclusion. I now believe that every Christian has received a missionary call from God. It came when we took up His name, and His banner, and His cross. It is simply part and parcel of being a child of God. We should not wait to be hit by a bolt of lightning. Mission is all about obedience, not about waiting for some mystical experience to confirm God’s call. That call already came, 2000 years ago, and God is just waiting for somebody to pick up the phone! Every Christian is called to serve God “full time.” There is no such thing as a “part time” Christian. Moreover, we all have a mission given to us by God, thus making us “missionaries,” wherever we might be, whether in our own country or across the sea.  Distance is not the issue.

Unfortunately, this idea of a specific “missionary call” has been terribly misused by many Christians as a get-out-of-responsibility free card. They say, “Well, I have never been called by God to be a missionary, so I will just hang around here doing my own thing until such time as He zaps me with lightening or speaks to me in an audible voice. If that happens then I will know for sure that He wants me to be a missionary.”

However, when we look at the verses in the Scriptures that refer to God’s call we come away with a different impression. Certainly, the twelve Apostles were all called personally by Jesus and handpicked for their missionary role in establishing Christ’s Church. Moreover, there can be no question about the Apostle Paul. God called him to salvation and to missionary service all at the same time. However, to my knowledge Paul is the only person we can point to in the NT that had that kind of a call. His call is the exception to the rule, rather than the rule.

All the NT passages that I know that speak about God’s “call” are referring to the fact that God calls sinners unto Himself for salvation and then to Kingdom service. A good example is found in Romans 8:28-30. “²⁸ And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.  ²⁹ For those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.  ³⁰ And those He predestined, He also called; those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified.” In fact, I can find no verse in the Bible that supports the commonly held idea of a “missionary call.”

The Bible says that we are all “called” of God. We are called to Christ, called to worship, and to serve Him, called to walk worthy of our calling in Him, called to obey the biblical creation mandates, and called to share Christ with others. So, why am I making a big deal of this “missionary call”? Well, it is partly just to clarify matters. I think it is important to eliminate unbiblical teaching that tries to dichotomize vocations and life into “secular” and “sacred.” The common myth about a “missionary call” has been responsible for thousands of Christians letting themselves off the hook with a clear conscience, leaving the task of world evangelization to the “called” professionals. If every Christian would begin to personally embrace God’s universal call to “full-time Christian service” then we would get a lot more accomplished in terms of Gospel-spreading, disciple-making, and church-planting.

Principle #3: Missionaries identify God as their source of strength and acknowledge their own weaknesses. If we are to be effective missionaries for Christ, then we must do the same. Paul tells us in Romans 14:23, “Whatsoever is not of faith is sin.”  That means that if we are trying to serve God in our own strength and by our wits rather than in the strength of His might and wisdom then we are sinning. God certainly never promised to bless our ideas, methods, or programs. On the other hand, He did promise to bless His Word and to build His Church. We are not strong enough, smart enough, wise enough, or creative enough to accomplish our mission without His anointing. And anything we do manage to build on our own will not last! If we are to be effective missionaries it will be through His power and by doing things His way. We must take to heart Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 12:8, “When I am weak, then I am strong.” 

Principle #4: Missionaries build and rely upon a support team of “rope holders.” When William Carey, often referred to as the “father of modern missions,” was leaving for India as a missionary, he told a group of interested friends: “Saving souls can be likened a to a man drowning in a deep well and a volunteer can do nothing unless there are people who will hold the rope for him to be lowered till he reaches the drowning man, and then pull them both up to safety.” Carey added, “I will go to India as a volunteer to seek sinners drowning in the well of sin. But I cannot do it alone. I need rope holders. Will you be my rope holders?” Obviously not everyone can be on the frontline at the same time. The army has known this principle for centuries. In the same way, missionaries have always depended on a support network of faithful people doing the unsung behind-the-lines work. That is because mission is all about teamwork. Paul said it best in 1 Corinthians 3:6, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth.” We are all called to be God’s missionaries and we all have a role to play in completing the mission. There are lots of things to be done, including praying, giving, and encouraging other team members. We are all missionaries, but we come with different skill sets, different gifts, and different levels of training and ability. But God wants to use every one of us to accomplish His mission here where He has placed us.

Principle #5: Missionaries are committed to go where “they” live. That statement needs some clarification. First, who do I mean by “they.” I am talking, of course, about the people to whom we have been sent by God, to share the Good News of salvation in Jesus Christ, the people here in our own community. We all know that just getting on an airplane and flying to another country does not transform a person into a missionary. In fact, during my years in Brazil I met lots of American Christians who were not missionaries. Some were businesspeople, working for big corporations. They generally lived lives that were 100% American. They ate only American food, always hung out with other Americans, sent their kids to American schools, attended Calvary International Church with services in English, spoke only English, and had almost no social contact with Brazilians. Yet they lived in Brazil! How sad and how short-sighted!

But sadder yet were a few “missionaries” I knew who were almost as bad. They learned Portuguese, more or less, and could preach and teach in the language, and they were usually involved in some kind of Brazilian church, but in their homes and in their “off duty” social contacts they had little voluntary contact with Brazilians. They had been sent to Brazil as missionaries. Their supporters back home thought they were real missionaries. They wrote missionary letters to their supporters giving glowing reports of all that God was doing, but in reality they did everything possible to avoid living with the people, getting to know and understand them, and getting to be known and accepted.

So when I say that as a missionary I need to “go where they live,” I am not talking about the place as much as a mindset that reveals my commitment to live among the people, have them for my closest friends, spend time in their homes and have them over to my house, take vacations together, celebrate our kids’ birthdays together, laugh at one another’s jokes and cry when we have to be separated from one another. Here are some practical suggestions about things we can do to truly “live among the people”:

GO TO THEM – You must take the initiative. It sounds strange, but sometimes we can be so busy doing church stuff that we do not ever have a chance to spend time with non-Christians. I learned while serving in Brazil that it was easy to get busy with “missionary stuff” and fail to spend time in the community. How pointless is that! Why go all the way overseas, if you are never going to walk out your front door and meet some people?

DO TALK TO STRANGERS – Ignore what your mother always told you. Learn to do “small talk” and develop the art of conversation.

ü  Shake hands and introduce yourself by name.

ü  Ask people questions about themselves. We all love to talk about ourselves. If you want to know what their interests are or what they think, ask them – then listen to their answer. They may follow suit and do the same, opening a door for a new friendship to begin.

ü  At a wedding reception ask: “So how do you know the bride and groom?”

ü  At a little league game or football match say: “So which one is yours?”

ü  At a community gathering ask: “So have you always lived here?”

FIND COMMON GROUND – Look for relational connections. You may not have Jesus in common, but there must be a hundred other things you could have in common. You just need to find out what they like to do. Are you willing to learn some new tricks? Let me ask you, what do you think a 2020 Christian “fisher-of-men” might look like? – A golfer maybe? A ballroom dancer? A community-theatre actor? A library volunteer? Too often our only contact with unbelievers is when it is on our turf and our terms. I recently read about a guy who wanted to carry the Gospel where “no man has gone before,” so he joined a group of Muslims for prayer at a mosque and ended up having the opportunity to respond to their questions about Christianity. I would never have thought of that, but he did.

REMEMBER THAT NON-BELIEVERS ARE NOT ALL BAD – Just because they are not believers, does not mean they cannot contribute something meaningful to your life. Going deep in relationships comes because of sharing and doing life together. If you share openly with them and let them participate in your life, they will do the same in allowing you to go deep with them relationally.

FORM INTER-CONNECTIONS – Think in terms of networks—with their friends and family, and they with yours (e.g. a backyard barbeque with some neighbours and some friends from church). The advantage for you is that your scope of influence expands, and you gain credibility. For your new friend, they benefit from getting to know more believers like you and feel like they are more a part of your life. It is also possible that a Christian friend of yours will serve as a better connection to one of your non-Christian friends.

KEEP IT REAL – Let them see what a Christian’s life is really like. Let them see the good and the bad. People are drawn to authenticity. Hypocrisy repels.

ATTACK OBSTACLES TO FAITH THROUGH PRAYER – Ephesians 6:12 tells us, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” We need to be alert to the spiritual strongholds and barriers to faith whether physical, social, or spiritual and address them in prayer. 

POINT THEM TO JESUS – not to the church or church going, other believers, authors, Christian musicians, speakers, etc. What they need is to meet Jesus.

Principle #6: Missionaries start out by carefully surveying their mission field. If you were sent to a new mission field what would be the things you might want to know about your new home and the people who already live there? Upon arriving in his mission field, a good missionary begins to observe where people hang out. He watches. He keeps his eyes open and he asks questions. He looks for places where men congregate, and he begins to hang out there. He notices where families go on the weekends and he makes a point to take his family there too. He learns about the national sport and goes to a few matches. He begins listening to their music and learns about the musicians and the various musical styles. Instead of tuning in to the BBC or CNN he makes a point to listen to local stations in the language he is trying to learn. He avoids spending time with other Expats in favour of spending time with the native people. He goes to cafes and initiates conversations with college students. He eats local food every chance he gets.

So then, how about our mission field? How might we benefit from doing a better job of observation and strategic planning?

Principle #7: Missionaries make it their goal to learn the heart language of the people they are trying to win. You might be thinking, “Well at least there is one thing we can scratch off our list.” But not so fast! By “language” I am not only referring to English, Spanish, or Portuguese. I am talking about how people communicate with one another, and the fact is, Christians and non-Christians speak two vastly different languages. If Sam and Silvia Seeker were to walk into our average Sunday class how much do you think they would really understand? If Sam and Sylvia Seeker happened to drop in on a Sunday morning worship service, how much of it would really be intelligible to them and make any sense? Not much!

That is why it is so interesting that we Christians continue to hold on to a broken and unbiblical way of doing church. To what am I referring? The only experience most of us have ever had is the church pattern referred to by mission strategists as the “Attractional Model.” By this we mean that essentially, Sunday morning is an event that is intended to attract people. We live in the eternal hope and expectancy that lost people will just magically show up at church to hear the Gospel. The thought chain goes like this: “They will come on Sunday morning because our church is so pretty. When they come through the door we will dazzle them with our genuine caring and hospitality. When it is time for the sermon the preacher will clearly explain the Gospel. At the close of the service he will give an invitation for people to make decisions. They will come forward and then the church will process them through various programs to turn them into real disciples.” It is a perfect picture except for one thing. This model expects that the “outsider” will just up and decide to come to the church. However, the clear biblical mandate is that the church is to go to the lost, not the other way around. And it is obvious that in this post-Christian America we who are in the church can no longer assume that people in the world have any context or category by which to filter the church experience or the message about Jesus and His saving grace. The Attractional Model has never been biblical. Moreover, it no longer works! A wise man once observed, “If your horse has died, dismount.” Enough said.

Principle #8: Good missionaries love the people genuinely. Sadly, I have known missionaries who had a negative view of the “natives.” They did not like their native food.  They did not appreciate their culture or customs. They would become very impatient with the people’s relaxed attitude toward time and “living up to their obligations.” In private they were quick to criticize the national leaders and they disrespected the spiritual level of the national believers.

I am happy to report that during my years in Brazil I did not run across very many of this kind of missionary, and none within our own particular missionary team, but I have known enough bad missionaries to see the damage that they can do on the field. What I found so interesting was the fact that the nationals could see right through their little piety act and could sense that their love was an outward show, not genuine.

In 2 Corinthians 6:6 Paul speaks of “unfeigned love” being one of the marks of a true Christian. Likewise, in Romans 12:9 he writes, “Let love be without hypocrisy.” People can see through phony love because it does not pass the sniff test. And phony, feigned love turns people off—to us, to our message, and to our Saviour.

Principle #9: Successful missionaries adopt the culture and history of their host country. I think once again that the apostle Paul has the best explanation and it is found in 1 Corinthians 9:19-22. “Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible.  ²⁰ To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law.  ²¹ To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law.  ²² To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some.”

You have heard the old expression, “When in Rome, do as the Romans.” Wise missionaries take that to heart, knowing that to “sell” our message and win people to Christ we first must “sell” ourselves. 2 Corinthians 4:1-2 says it this way: “Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart. ² But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the Word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.” Paul understood the principle of living out the Gospel as we proclaim the Gospel. In other words, before we can share the Good News, we must become good news to the people we are hoping to win to Christ.

Let me try and illustrate this point. When we first moved to Brazil back in January of 1978, we had never met a single Brazilian. We had never even heard the Portuguese language spoken. We knew next to nothing about the country to which we had been sent as missionaries. However, by the end of our second year on the field we knew more about Brazil than most Brazilians. We knew more about their history. We had read more of their authors. We had a wider appreciation of their composers. We knew more about how their judicial system worked. We saluted their flag and knew their national anthem by heart, all the verses. We loved their food and celebrated their holidays and customs. Most of our friends were Brazilians. We spoke Portuguese in our home most of the time. We took our vacations with Brazilians and had them in our home almost continuously. We did all that because we wanted to become “bem brasileiro,” (truly Brazilian) as much Brazilian as we could possibly become, to win Brazilians to Christ.

I tell you this not to brag but to explain that if we want to win the people of our communities to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ we must be just as willing to become a part of their world. We must find ways to go to them, and to become a part of this little mission field.

Principle #10: Missionaries learn to feel the needs of the people and to sincerely empathize with them. This is a topic that has led to much conflict among Christians. On the one hand there are those who emphasize what has been dubbed “the social gospel.” That expression usually refers to the idea that if we just meet the physical needs of people, they will eventually come to understand our underlying motives and will want to know about our Christian faith. On the other end of the spectrum are those who say, “Just give them the Word. Preach the Gospel and let God worry about their other problems. We will just concentrate on getting them saved.” The truth is somewhere in the middle.

Humans have needs. They need food, shelter, companionship, medicine, clothing, etc. And we must remember that even Jesus fed the multitudes and healed many of their sicknesses and diseases. He was concerned for all their needs. We must be also.

Principle #11: Missionaries find ways to contextualize the Gospel and to proclaim it in culturally relevant ways. This is not only important for modern missionaries, it was also a constant concern of the apostle Paul, and I can prove it. Check out Colossians 4:2-6 (as well as Ephesians 6:19-20). In the Colossians passage Paul sincerely asks the believers in Colossae to pray for him, and his prayer request is five-fold:

1.       That God will give him open doors to proclaim the Gospel

2.      That he will have the courage to speak it boldly (literally, to herald it)

3.      That he might be able to make the message clear

4.      That he might make the most of every God-given opportunity

5.      That he might know exactly how best to speak to each person

The non-believers of this community have their own cultural grid through which they filter everything they hear us say. Therefore, we must make sure that we do nothing to plug up their filters and keep the Gospel from getting through to their hearts and minds.

Let me give you a painful example. A few years ago, Oregonians were asked to vote on Measure 36, which was about the definition of marriage as between one man and one woman. Our church, like nearly every other evangelical church in the state believed that we needed to step up to the plate and encourage Christians to cast their vote for biblical marriage to hold back the onslaught of immorality in the form of homosexual marriage. So, we handed out signs and bumper stickers to our members. We also allowed the Oregon Family Council to put up a big sign on our church lawn that said, “Vote YES on Measure 36.”

Well the whole thing turned out to be a disaster. The sign was torn down 4 times by angry protesters. We even ended up on the TV news as being one of the churches targeted. But that was not the real damage. The real damage came in the form of closed hearts and closed minds to anything else we might have to say because the liberal, open-minded, pro-gay folks from our community came to the conclusion that we are only one step removed from that other Baptist church, you know, Westboro Baptist, the one that pickets at gay funerals with signs that say, “God Hates Fags!” and “Turn Or Burn!” They are also the church that holds demonstrations at funerals of soldiers killed-in-action with signs saying, “This is God’s punishment for not judging the homosexuals,” etc.

We did what we thought was right at the time, but looking back, I think we shot ourselves in the foot for sharing the Gospel with our community. We had to play catch-up for a long time after that to regain our credibility with the community. We allowed a political issue that is not that important in the long run, to get in the way of keeping the door open to the community to present Jesus as Saviour and Redeemer.

Principle #12: Missionaries work hard to develop friendships that last rather than mere surface relationships. The Bible says in Proverbs 17:17, “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.” That principle is true in all times, in all places, and in all cultures. Genuine friendship is a transferable concept. But friendships do not just happen automatically. They require hard work. They require an investment of time spent together, values in common, and shared adversity, sacrifice, and loyalty. If we want to have an impact in our community, we must form strong, lasting, genuine friendships with the people here. If they see us as just-passin’-through to lay a little religion on them, then they are not going to be willing to listen to what we want to share. We must be willing to take the time and put in the effort to invest in people’s lives.

Principle #13: Missionaries understand the concept of conserving the harvest. Several times in the NT evangelism and disciple-making are likened unto farming.  Let’s look at the steps:

ü  After choosing a promising-looking field the first thing the farmer does is to prepare the soil. He does that by removing rocks, cutting down trees and brush, pulling up roots, burning the stumps and slash, and tilling and fertilizing the soil. – For us here on our mission field, we may need to undo some bad impressions from the past. We also need to invest in preparing the ground by building friendships, establishing social networks, and getting to know people.

ü  Then the farmer carefully plants the best seed he can afford. – We too are in the seed-planting business, but our seed is the Word of God and the truths about Him, and no better seed exists anywhere. It is living seed filled with power and potential, and God promises that it will never return void. Sometimes that seed is best couched inside our own personal testimony of God’s life-changing grace. That is one form of seed planting.

ü  Then the farmer weeds the field, in faith, and waters the rows despite the fact that there is no visible sign of coming success. – We do the same thing. We have to keep doing the right things and reaching out in faith, even if we are not seeing visible signs of new life. The sprouts will come!

ü  When the tiny shoots first start to appear, the farmer fends off the birds that would steal the seedlings and destroy the harvest. – We must do the same thing. Satan and his cronies will come along to try and steal the grain, pluck up the shoots, and sow tares in our field. But we must stand firmly against him clothed in the power of Christ.

ü  When the grain is full-grown the farmer sets aside every other obligation to prepare for the harvest. He works day and night to get in the crop before the rains come. – Farmers tend to be tightly focused people. Likewise, missionaries do not entangle themselves in activities that have no potential for evangelism and disciple-making. Everything they do is measured against the straightedge of “THE MISSION.” Our mission is… “To win people to Christ and help believers grow to be like Him.” We must not get caught up in non-essentials. The Bible says, “Work for the night is coming when no one can work.” “Redeem the time for the days are evil.” “We will reap if we faint not.”

ü  The farmer puts up his crop in barns and silos, rejoicing in the harvest and giving thanks to God for His mercies. – The Harvest comes from God! As Paul said in 1 Cor. 3:6, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God caused the growth.” Missionaries understand that and they do not take credit for things that only God can do.

            Principle #14: Missionaries celebrate the results. Missionaries love parties. In fact, some of the best parties I have ever attended have been with missionaries. We used to have wonderful times together. But right now, I am not talking about that kind of celebration. I am talking about the joy of leading people to Christ and then seeing them go on to become mature believers, to serve Christ, to win others, to train new believers, to start congregations and new churches, and to learn to preach and teach the Word of God. There is no joy like that joy! But that joy is not reserved just for foreign missionaries on distant fields. God wants YOU to experience that joy too. You are a missionary. You too are on a mission field.

            We need to pray and ask God to help us see this field through missionary eyes. We need to plan, and pray, and work to see lives changed, families transformed, sinners set free, and we need to celebrate every victory, great or small. Luke 15 is all about lost things: a lost sheep, a lost coin, and a lost son. Jesus told three stories. The details were different in each one, but the conclusion was the same. The story of the Lost Sheep ends this way: “And when he finds [his sheep], he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbours together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ [Jesus said] I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in Heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.” The story of the Lost Coin ends this way: “And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbours together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’ In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” And you remember the story of the Lost Son. It too ended with a huge celebration: “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So, they began to celebrate.”

When one lost person is found, it is a big deal! When one sinner gets saved all the angels of Heaven throw a party. We should do no less. Missionaries have the best parties, and with good reason.

            Principle #15: Missionaries look forward to return to work and continue the process. People used to say that a missionary was “home on furlough.” That was an unfortunate choice of words because it projected the idea that missionaries only worked when they were on their field. Lots of people thought that we came home for R&R and would just sit around idle for a year. Nothing could be further from the truth. Now most of the mission boards have adopted the term, “home assignment.” It comes closer to the truth. That year in our home country is filled with exhausting travel, stress, and lots of hard work what with conferences, continuing education, speaking in all of our supporting churches, and raising additional financial support due to increasing costs on the field.

            And just ask any missionary; they will tell you that while it is nice to come home to visit family and friends occasionally their heart is still back on their mission field. They cannot wait to get back “home” because that is where they find their fulfilment in life. Serving the Lord on their assigned field and seeing God at work is the thing that gives them their greatest joy.  That is where their heart is. That is where they love to be.

Where is your heart? How much do you really care about your mission field? How much do you really love the people on your mission field? Are you invested here? Do you pray for the people of this community? Do you care that there are thousands of people all around us who are dying and going to hell?

Oh, dear God, please open our spiritual eyes and break our stony hearts with the needs around us. Let us see our community, which is our mission field, through Your eyes of mercy, and motivate us, O Lord, with Your heart of compassion for lost people.