Tag: Missionary

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Perspectives on Missions Book Review by Jeff Bush

by Dr. Don Sisk

  • There are many enemies. If you do not believe it, consider this: there are more than 5 million fundamental Baptist Christians in America today. But these 5 million Christians have fewer than 5000 foreign missionaries., Which means it takes 1000 fundamental Baptist to go to get one missionary on the field. Last year, less than $75 million was given through all fundamental Baptist mission agencies for worldwide evangelization. This represent approximately $15 per fundamental Baptist per year for foreign missions. This is enough to convince anyone that to the average person, missions is not considered obligatory, but optional. Many show a token interest in worldwide evangelization, but only a few our whole heartedly involved. — page 21
  • When He directs people, He has a purpose for them. God prepares the fields before He directs the workers. — page 23
  • The Moravians had such a missionary zeal that 1 out of every 92 members of their congregations were serving God on a foreign mission field. It was not long before the Moravians in foreign countries, outnumbered the Moravians in Germany by 3 to 1. I do not know that there has ever been a more intensified effort on any group to get the gospel out around the world than this group. — page 25-26
  • I believe the missionary should plan his furlough around his work, instead of planning his work around his furlough. — page 39
  • In June (1990), BIMI will be 30 years old. I try to check our pulse regularly. I have a phobia of being a part of something that has lost its purpose. I have a fear of having a name that we live, but are dead (Revelation 3:1). A wise man once said, “Many Christian institutions are dead, but we can’t bury them because they are too heavily endowed.” — page 63
  • As I check our pulse, I must say: “Praise God, we’re alive! Let’s not go to sleep on the job. Let’s not rest on our past and become useless for the present and lose our opportunities for the future.” 
  • I have some visions for our 30th anniversary year:
        1. A gain of 30 missionary couples per year for the next 10 years. (Since every mission loses missionaries each year by death, retirement, etc., we must have at least 60 new missionaries each year.) This would give us 1200 active missionaries by the year 2000.
        2. Thirty new supporting churches for the home office each year. (Administrative cost increase each year. We must have help from churches to keep down the cost for the missionaries.)
        3. Thirty new fields opened in the next 10 years. (There are more opportunities now than at any time in the history of BIMI.)
        4. Thirty new churches established by our missionaries each year for the next 10 years.
  • We are alive! Will you allow us to help you? As your church thinks about missions, would you let us suggest some missionaries? Could we help you in your missionary conference? As you consider the mission field, would you consider BIMI as your mission? Pastor, would you recommend to your church BIMI for monthly support? — page 63-64
  • Someone has well said, “God accepts us as we are, but He loves us too much to leave us as we are.” — page 67
  • How sad, but throughout Christian history, some have come to believe “If I said it, you should believe it.” No man should assume that, and none of us should give any man that kind of allegiance. Any man can make a mistake, and any man can be replaced. We are instruments. God changes instruments, but God does not change. He buries his workmen, but his work goes on. — page 78-79
  • The cry of a Mexican pastor, Brother Enoch, continues to ring in my ear as I remember hearing him say, “There is enough of the Bread of Life to feed the whole world. There’s enough of the Light of the World to enlighten every person who lives on the face of the earth. There’s enough of the Water of Life to quench the thirst of every thirsty soul in the whole world. But the great majority of the people of the world know nothing about the Bread of Life. They know nothing about the Light of the World. They know nothing about the Water of Life.” — page 138
  • Perhaps there are 200 Bible-believing, Gospel-preaching churches in this (Mexico City) city. There’s about 1 Christian worker for every 300,000 people. In contrast, there is about 1 for every 150 people in Chattanooga, Greenville, Dallas, Jacksonville, and Memphis. On we could go naming cities in America, where the Gospel has been preached. — page 139
  • I have a dream… that pastors from all over America can come here to the World Missions Center and, in modular courses, be trained in worldwide evangelization by pastors and mission personnel, who have experienced firsthand what missions is all about. — page 148
  • God never commands the impossible, and He has commanded us, “Go, ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). — page 148
  • We (BIMI) are not a fellowship, we are not a denomination, we have no authority over any church anywhere. It is not our job to keep everybody straight or even to determine who is right and who is wrong. It is our task to serve. To that purpose, we want to get in totally dictate ourselves. — page 152
  • Available! The laborers are in the Bible-believing, fundamental Baptist churches in our country. There are at least fifteen thousand fundamental Baptist churches in North America. However, there are fewer than ten thousand fundamental Baptist missionaries. Thousands of churches have never sent one missionary to the mission field. Thank God for good sending churches. However, this is not a task for a few, but for all. Every church should be sending forth missionaries. — page 170
  • I often say to people, “It is always too early to quit.” The great difference between winners and losers is not that winners never fail – they do. There will always be failures in any endeavor. The difference between winners and losers is that winners never quit. — page 174
  • Approximately 80% of the independent Baptist churches in America do not have a missions conference. That is, they do not have a time during the year that is set apart for the emphasis of worldwide evangelization. I am aware of the fact that we need not to emphasize world evangelization every Sunday; however, churches that are being used by God to make an impact in world missions set aside some time every year for missions is the main emphasis. — page 184
  • The problem is not with the harvest; the problem is a lack of laborers. After making that great statement, Jesus commanded his disciples, “Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest” (verse 38). What if you and I would go before God daily, and pray to Him that He would send forth laborers into this great harvest field? — page 185
  • Someone has well said, “We should not pray unless we are willing to be the answer to God’s prayer.” — page 186
  • It was not until God allowed the persecution of the church to come that the fulfillment of Acts 1:8 began to be unveiled. — page 220
  • It would be impossible for anyone to read the Bible, and not realize that God is interested in the whole world. — page 229
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Peeking Through the 10/40 Window Book Review by Jeff Bush

By Johnny J. Esposito

  • Many of the countries in this window (10/40) are either officially closed or informally opposed to Christian ministry within their borders. Citizens have limited knowledge of the Gospel, minimal access to Bibles, and Christian materials, and extremely restricted opportunities to respond to and follow the Christian faith. 
  • Of course, the people who are lost in the 10/40 Window are not “more lost” than your neighbor or family member who does not know Christ. But, they are unreached in the sense that they have not had an opportunity to hear the Gospel. “The issue is not their lostness, but their access to the Gospel.” People can be unevangelized without being unreached. There are people in the United States who have not heard the Gospel by their choice. Most people living in the 10/40 Window could not learn about Jesus even if they wanted to! These are unreached people who do not have access to the Gospel!
  • One-third of the planet’s population, over two billion people, has never heard the gospel. And of that number, over 50,000 die daily, separated from God forever. As has been said, one definition of a missionary is someone who never gets used to the sound of pagan footsteps on their way to a Christless eternity. The sounds of those footsteps echo in their minds and haunt their waking dreams. One should not go driven by the need alone, but God often uses the need as a starting place to awaken us to Hs call. — The Missionary Call by David Sills
  • Jesus has not given us a commission to consider; He has given us a command to obey. That command involves sacrifice on all our parts. If we have this much access to the Gospel in our culture, and there is this much absence of the Gospel in other cultures, then surely God is leading many more of us (maybe the majority of us) to go to those cultures. If God calls us to stay in this culture, then surely He is leading us to live simply and give sacrificially so that as many people as possible can go. — Counter Culture by David Platt
  • The United States, with its 600,000 congregations or groups, is blessed with 1.5 million full-time Christian workers, or one full-time religious leader for every 182 people in the nation. What a difference this is from the rest of the world, where more than 2 billion people are still unreached with the Gospel. The unreached or “hidden peoples” have only one missionary working for every 78,000 people and there are still 1,240 distinct cultural groups in the world world without a single church among them to preach the Gospel. These are the masses for whom Christ wept and died. — Revolution in World Missions by K.P. Yohannan
  • It has been said that in India alone there are 500,000 villages without a Gospel witness. None! Not one. In China, Southeast Asia, and the many islands in the great Pacific we are unsure how many there are. In the country of Cambodia, where my wife and I are presently serving, it is said there are nearly 14,000 villages without a Gospel witness. A statement has been made that it would take a million workers to finish the task at hand in the 10/40 Window.
  • If the church in America isn’t giving and our church members aren’t going, the task will remain undone!
  • God has always used people to get His work done. Therefore, if this area (10/40 Window) of the world will be reached with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, it is going to be because men and women choose to leave the comforts and conveniences of home to deliver the message of Christ’s love.
  • There’s only one thing worse than being lost, and that is being lost and having no one trying to find you. – David Platt
  • Today, more than a billion people in the world live and die in desperate poverty. They attempt to survive on less than a dollar per day. Close to two billion others live on less than $2.00 per day. In other words, almost half of the world lives on less than two dollars per day. That is nearly half of the world struggling to find food, water, and shelter with the same amount of money that I spend on fries for lunch. — Radical by David Platt.
  • We are told that the average Cristian gives only 1.8 percent of his income to the church and the cause of Christ. Study after study has revealed that the richer we are the smaller the percentage of our income we give to the church, the mission of the church and to the poor.
  • Did you know?
          • If your income is $25,000 per year, you are wealthier than approximately 90 percent of the world’s population!
          • If you make $50,000 per year, you are wealthier than 99 percent of the world!
  • Does this shock you? Remember, of the 7 billion people on earth, almost half of them live on less than two dollars a day. If you don’t feel rich, it’s because you are comparing yourself to people who have more than you do – those living above even the 99th percentile of global wealth.
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Ten Suggestions To More Effective Missionary Display Booths

SOURCE: By Butch Oglesby (Many of the suggestions in this article are
based on the book, “How To Get The Most Out of Trade Shows”, by Steve
Miller.) 31 Oct 2003

One of the many tasks of a furloughing missionary is to inform his or her stateside constituents about the work that God is doing where the missionary is serving. We do this not just to inform, but to encourage interest in and support for missions. Even those of us who serve in denominations that do not require us to raise our own support must encourage our supporters to pray for us and the people we are trying to reach. Naturally, we want them to become excited about missions and support our work financially, either directly or indirectly.

Speaking at churches and mission conferences is most often the venue for missionaries, and we are expected to have some sort of display and even dress in our national costume. Often these mission conferences take on the
feel of a trade fair. In fact they may best be thought of as missions fairs. In order to be as effective as we can possibly be it would be good for us to remember some simple and basic rules about one’s mission exhibit. Below a few suggestions and the dos and don’ts of manning your missionary display.

1. Make your display area open. People do not like to walk into a booth where they feel trapped. If you have a table, move it to the rear of the booth so the area feels open and inviting. Don’t be a border guard. That is, don’t stand in the way of your display.

2. Have as much interactivity as possible. If you have a laptop computer you can produce a continuous slide show in Power Point or other programs to encourage visitors to pause a few moments at your booth. People love to touch things; simple games from your country are always attention-getters.

3. Keep your exhibit area neat. People will move things and generally clutter your table. From time-to-time straighten up the clutter. If you have equipment or extra material you are not using at the moment, try to find an out-of-the-way place to store it where it is not visible.

4. Give something away: brochures, fact sheets, pencils, candy from your country; the list goes on. However, don’t give brochures to everyone. They are expensive, and research shows that 90% of them are thrown away before
the recipient reaches home. One researcher says that the average time spent reading a brochure is 1.3 seconds. So, be selective about giving away your slick, four-color brochures.

5. Don’t sit or read in your booth. This gives the impression you really don’t want to be bothered or that you are “off duty.” People will pass you by if you give them any reason to do so.

6. Don’t eat or drink at your booth. It is rude and messy; people are polite and will not bother you while you are eating.

7. Don’t chew gum or suck breath mints. It is not pleasant to talk to someone who has something in their mouth. If you feel you need a breath freshener, use a spray.

8. Don’t ignore those who wander into your booth. If you are busy with someone else, at least acknowledge the person or draw him or her into the conversation.

9. Don’t spend your time visiting with the other missionaries. You do not want to look too busy to spend time with a potential prayer warrior!

10. Wear your badge properly. It may seem more cool to wear it on your sleeve or waistband, but if you want people to read it, then it should be placed on your shirt or jacket wear it can be easily and quickly read.

These are only a few suggestions, but following them will help you stand out and be effective. After all, you want to give your people group the best representation possible.

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Missionary Racism

Court cases, marches, protests, books, movies, and much more reveal how racist the world and society in which we live can really be. But sadly there is another kind of racism that exists, one we do not hear much about: missionary racism. This article is not intended to slam anyone and definitely not to make anyone think less of missions, rather its purpose is to help the missionary and missionary sender avoid racism.

Here are a few attitudes that show “racism” in the area of missions: Continue reading “Missionary Racism”

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Major Mistakes of a Missionary

  1. Going with a pastor mentality instead of a missionary or world evangelist mentality. That attitude means starting a church, pastoring the church, and developing it until we are proud of it.
  • Doing things that nationals cannot reproduce. Money that we invest, materials that we have
  • Not training nationals to do the job
  • Not trusting the nationals
  • Never developing a strategic plan to reach the city and country. (doing a piece meal work, no plan, no goals)
  • Turning our work over to a missionary instead of a national worker that we have trained
  • Getting a defeatist attitude (it won’t work here)

Continue reading “Major Mistakes of a Missionary”

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How To Pray For Your Missionary

By Will Cosby, Veteran missionary of 40 years.

  • Pray for him to understand the people he is working with, and for him to know why they do the things they do.
  • Pray for him to have great patience in dealing with delay.
  • Pray that God will give him wisdom in making daily decisions.  Even a small mistake will magnify in days to come.
  • Pray that God will garrison his mind against evil thoughts.
  • Pray for him to have Holy Spirit power and a good influence on others.
  • Pray that others will de-magnify his imperfections.
  • Pray for his spiritual health to be good and his physical health to keep pace with it.
  • Pray for him to receive much benefit from his Bible study; first for himself, and then for others.
  • Pray that God will help him to be flexible without compromise, and steadfast without being rigid.
  • Pray for him to be able to deliver his sermons with great satisfaction to God, the people, and himself.
  • Pray that God will keep him from believing false information and to be able to discern it as such.
  • Pray that he will know how to arrange his daily schedule with proper spiritual priorities.
  • Pray for him to give the proper attention to his wife and family and not to neglect them for the work.
  • Pay for him to be ever conscious of souls in need and to be aware of opportunities to win them.
  • Pray for him to have an ever increasing and widening vision of his work.
  • Pray for him to love his people as a shepherd does his sheep and to know their individual needs and be able to administrate his work for the benefit of the whole body.
  • Pray that he will have great faith in God to achieve the impossible.
  • Pray for him not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think and that God will shrink his ego.
  • Pray for him to have great boldness to preach the Word without fear or favor of man.
  • Pray for him to have good convictions and not to compromise.
  • Pray for him that most of all, he will love God supremely with all his heart, mind and soul.