News
News
We often hear missionaries speak about their work and close with a short talk about why you should give to missions (and more specifically, to their particular mission). In these concluding remarks, there are sometimes rationales for giving which I feel do a great disservice to the kingdom of God and, sometimes, do a great deal of harm to the givers themselves.
Reason 1: Guilt
What is guilt? We all know what the feeling is, but some people have a hard time describing what it is or why they are feeling it. Here's what I define it as: guilt is the feeling you have in your heart when you measure yourself morally against a standard and find that there is a discrepancy between the two. There is, therefore, only one thing that should legitimately make you feel guilty, and that is the realization that you are a sinner and that you don't measure up, morally, to God's Holiness and to His standard for you. And this guilt has one purpose, and one purpose alone: to impel you towards His arms of grace, seeking salvation in Christ, from which comes liberty (including liberty from guilt!).
Galatians 5:1 says "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery."
What happens when, after we have been freed, we turn our backs on God and turn towards sin/slavery? Once again, the difference between the standard and the reality becomes more apparent and guilt drives us back into the Father's arms. And that is the only response that guilt should prompt. If guilt itself is used as a motivation for anything else, that action is being done in order to assuage your feelings rather than out of a proper desire to do God's will.
So if you've allowed someone to give you an additional standard against which you've measured yourself (or you've created one yourself), and you've been contributing to missions (or to any other ministry) to numb your feeling of guilt for 1) not being able to go yourself, or for 2) not having contributed before, or 3) for failing to measure up in some other area of your life, you need to seriously question your motivations for giving and your sincerity in supporting that work.
Reason 2: Merit
Sometimes we fall into the trap of using the ministries in God's Kingdom to showcase our own qualities or to put ourselves on a pedestal. People often like to point to worship leaders as examples of this pitfall, but for every self-exalting worship leader I've seen several pastors, elders, and Sunday School teachers who loved making their intellect and knowledge known, regardless of whether it was relevant to what they were teaching.
Ephesians 2:8-9 says "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast."
If we're contributing to the kingdom because it makes us feel good about ourselves, or because we feel that doing so will in some way earn us a reward in heaven, once again our motivations and sincerity need to be questioned.
Your Calling
If you have been in church for a while, you may have heard several times that you should be a missionary in whatever situation you are in. And it's true! You're called to be a living, viral agent for the spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Mark 16:15 says "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation."
Some people who know koiné Greek a heck of a lot better than I do say that a better translation would be "As you go into the world, preach the good news to all creation." But either way, the message is clear. On the one hand, the "Go!" pushes us out of our seats and into the messy business of speaking about Him to a world that is often hostile to the notion that they need to be saved from anything. On the other, the "as you go" makes it clear that this is a process that should be happening naturally in the life of every Christian, if they are truly engaged in following God and knowing Him. If Christ is in you and you are in Him, if He is the one who gives you strength to withstand the storms of life and the energy to celebrate its victories, if He truly is your Lord and Savior, you will never be able to hide Him from those around you. The Bible says that we are an "aroma of Christ" (2 Corinthians 2:15), and that wherever we go, if we are in Him, His presence will not be ignored.
But What About Missions?
So now that we've talked about what should not be motivating you to give or participate in missions and/or ministry, and we've defined what your calling as a Christian is, we can talk a bit about the way that God has described His kingdom-building work and how He has provided ways for us to be involved. Let's start by taking a look at 1 Corinthians 3. Read the whole chapter for context (it's full of goodies about our role in ministry), but for the moment let's focus on verses 7 and 9:
So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. and For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building.
Two things become clear from the passage as a whole but more specifically in these two verses:
1.God is the one who "makes things grow." It's His work.
2.He considers us his "fellow workers," that is, He calls us to work together with Him for the expansion of His kingdom.
The next question is, how are we to work together with Him in this project? Well, we've already talked about how everyone should be preaching the gospel "as they go." The Bible gives us many examples of these as it discusses those who were instrumental in the growth of the early church, people who hosted churches in their homes and/or ministered to the believers in their areas. But the Bible also gives us examples of those who took the "go!" a bit further and took off across the world of their time to preach Christ to those who hadn't heard about Him, and to build the Church through teaching, preaching, discipling, and living the Gospel (Paul, Timothy, Barnabas, and so on). So what structure was in place for the "as they go" folks and the "go!" folks to work together?
Paul, our prime example of a "go!" guy, describes this relationship in Philippians 4:10-20, when he praises the Christians from Philippi for supporting his work:
I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.
Yet it was good of you to share in my troubles. Moreover, as you Philippians know, in the early days of your acquaintance with the gospel, when I set out from Macedonia, not one church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, except you only; for even when I was in Thessalonica, you sent me aid again and again when I was in need.
Paul also makes it clear that those who are called to serve in this supportive ministry (and make no mistake, it is a ministry and is as essential as the legwork being done by those who "go!") will receive all the resources they need in order to fulfill that calling:
2 Corinthians 9:11 (read the full chapter for context!) says "You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God."
Finally, Paul also gives us a vivid picture of what happens when this partnership (with each other, as we partner with God) breaks down. He compares the unsupported missionary or minister to an ox that has been muzzled while he's treading the grain, a powerful message of what it's like to be out there without the support of the rest of the Church. (1 Cor 9:9)
Cliff's Notes (Summary)
1.God calls all His children to be co-workers with Him in the building of His kingdom. (Mk. 16:15)
2.He calls some to "go!" in full-time ministry, commanding that those who preach the gospel in this way should receive their living from it (1 Cor. 9:14!).
3.He raises others to support those full-timers and doesn't make them starve in order to do it, but rather provides them with an abundance of wealth so that they can be generous in this way. (2 Cor. 9:11)
Giving to missions (or any full-time ministry) must thus be motivated not by guilt or merit, but by an understanding of one's role as a co-worker for the Kingdom of God. It must be done in a partnership with those in full-time ministry, supporting them not only materially but also in prayer, weeping with them in their sorrows and celebrating with them in their victories. If God has called you to this ministry, supplied you with the resources, and given you the opportunity, then go for it! And rejoice in the promise that "because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else." (2 Cor. 9:13)
Two Reasons NOT to Give to Missions
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
This is a summary of a talk David gave to a College & Career group at the Santo Amaro Presbyterian Church in São Paulo, Brazil, on August 15, 2009.