What Mission Field?!?!

At Calvary, the school holds a missions conference every year in which a good 20 or so missionaries or differing mission agencies are represented all over the world. I really enjoy being able to talk to the missionaries, hearing stories and what God is doing wherever they are at.  I enjoy the conference except for one major detail.  To them at least, it seems like a huge time for recruiting for more missionaries.  It seems to be a recruiting week for most of them there, not all of the, though.  Instead of being invested in the student, they seem to be invested in themselves or their mission agency.  That is wrong!

I want to go into ministry, be a pastor.  They will ask me what I want to do and I’ll tell them, that I believe the Lord is leading me to that ministry.  And they’ll reply with a congrats on that and then the conversation will shut down, and they will move on to the next “victim” to try to recruit them.  At my church, we hold a missions conference, the same idea as Calvary, but at home the missionaries are sharing what the Lord is doing in their field.  Their focus is not recruiting, it is the glorification of God.  If there were missionaries that I would want to be following in their footsteps, it would be the ones at home because they are not looking to recruit me.  The big difference is the focus between Calvary and my home church.  The missionaries that will come to Calvary seem to emphasize recruiting whereas at home the focus is God!  I like my home churches missions conference because I am not being pressured to “follow God’s call into the mission field” because I know that is NOT my call, at least not right now!

I promise that this won’t turn into a rant against mission’s or missionaries, but there is a point to all this.  I would like to address the issue of unity within the Body of Christ! I have a huge burden for proper theological training and teaching within the Body of Christ.   That is where my heart is set.  We need that proper theology so the people can go overseas and spread the Gospel correctly.  We need these people in our church so they can train others who will go to the mission field.

I’ve struggled with Christians who place so much emphasis on overseas missions, that they forget about their church, which is what Christ built.  Why aren’t they sharing the Gospel with their neighbors here and what makes them think that they will share the Gospel overseas when they won’t do it with their next door neighbor?

The unity of the Body of Christ (Eph. 4; I Cor. 12).  Yes, the context of the passage in I Cor. 12 is on Spiritual gifts, but verse 12 through the end of the chapter is key on Unity.  Paul places emphasis on different parts of the Body of Christ and their unique abilities and function to make the body work.  We aren’t all called to be missionaries.  I believe God is calling me to the church here stateside.  You believe that God is calling to you Nowhereville, Africa, GREAT!!!  Good for you!!! I couldn’t be more excited for you because you are seeking God’s will for your life.  I am too, so don’t go to try to change God’s calling for me and I won’t do it to you!  I’ll gladly support you, asking only of you to do the same for me!

We are not all called to be missionaries, we are not all called to be pastors.  Find God’s calling for you and do it, supporting others to do the same within the Body of Christ!!!