"In no other way can we so effectively
bring the suffering Savior the reward of His
passion as by missionary labor, whether we go
ourselves or enable others to go."
The
development of a strong sending base is a key
to the missionary's success. It was the founder
of McDonald's restaurant that said, "None of us
is as great as all of us." This is a solid Christian
principle that is difficult in practice, especially
for those of us from individualistic western churches.
In essence, those of us who take the Gospel to
unreached nations carry with us the DNA of the
church from which we are sent. There are exceptions
to every rule, but most of the time this is true.
Many
of my (Norm) thoughts come from Andrew Murray's
book called, Key to the Missionary Problem.
Anything by Andrew Murray is worth reading. His
second chapter presents an historic account of
the Moravian Church. The Moravians are best remembered
for their prayer meeting that lasted for over
100 years, but what fewer people realize are the
reasons for that prayer meeting and the strength
that fueled such a meeting. Imagine if modern
churches sent two missionaries for every 58 church
members. This was the Moravian's church member
to missionary ratio! There are several characteristics
that helped to give the Moravian church momentum
to go beyond the norm.
What
Gave the Moravian Church Momentum?
- Love
for the Lord - They loved the Lord that
they might reward Him for His suffering. It
is important as Christians to meditate on the
cost Christ paid for the salvation of sinners.
Mel Gibson's film, "The Passion of the Christ",
clearly portrays the suffering the Lord went
through. This was the hallmark of the Moravian
Church.
"While
acknowledging the supreme authority of the
great commission, the Moravian Brethren have
always emphasized as their chief incentive
the inspiring truth from Isaiah 53:10-12:
making our Lord's suffering the spur to all
their activity. From that prophecy, they drew
the missionary battle cry, 'to win for the
Lamb who was slain the reward for His suffering.'"
They believed the best way to reward Him was
by bringing souls to Him. The first principle
of importance is to see that there was a joined
passion for the love of the Lord by both senders
and the sent.
"Whoever
has my commands and obeys them, he is the
one who loves me. He who loves me will be
loved by my Father, and I too will love him
and show myself to him." (John 14:21-22)
- Discipline
- Discipline was characteristic of the church.
Character and discipline go hand and hand. You
cannot have good character without strict discipline.
Discipline and character, as exhibited by Jesus
Christ, are the foundation on which ministry
abilities must rest. A person may have gifts
and the faith for great anointing, but if these
rest on a flimsy foundation, sooner or later
there will be a collapse. History testifies
to this truth.
Discipline
goes beyond having mental knowledge. If knowledge
could save the world, the world would already
have been saved. Knowledge is just theory,
but disciplined actions are theory in practice.
It is often difficult to practice what we
know in our minds. When we began to envision
the Elijah Company as a mentorship for missionaries,
we felt a tremble in our hearts. This is because
we were consciously deciding to balance our
time standing behind a lectern teaching truth
with standing in an apostolic position saying,
"Follow me even as I follow Christ."
Teaching by example is difficult, as it requires
a disciplined walk. "And what was their
discipline? In every detail of their lives
- in business, pleasure, in Christian service,
in civil duties - they took the Sermon on
the Mount as a lamp to their feet."
"But
by the grace of God I am what I am: and his
grace which was bestowed upon me was not found
in vain; but I labored more abundantly than
they all: yet not I, but the grace of God
which was with me." (I Corinthians 15:10)
- Unity
- Unity was an absolute necessity. This is an
old message that seems too simple to keep repeating,
yet so slowly takes hold of our hearts. There
is the kind of unity that says, "We accept those
who are different, but we will not work with
them." Or more subtly, "We accept them but will
not think it wrong to not work with them." There
are two things here that we need to see. The
first is that the differences between us are
the very things we need in order to be complete.
My wife and I are as opposite in temperament
as any couple could ever be, yet we perfectly
complement each other. We need each other, and
we would be unbalanced without each other.
As
the Church in the non-evangelized world continues
to grow, they will begin to outshine their
parent missionary congregations in certain
areas because the treasures of understanding
that can only be perceived through differing
cultural lenses will begin to surface. This
is already happening. This is also true of
different denominations, races and personalities.
One prism of truth, Christ, reflects multitudes
of colors. The second thing we need to see
is that Christlikeness, real Christlikeness,
is most clearly seen in self-denial. We must
have love and compassion for one another.
"If
you have any encouragement from being united
with Christ, if any comfort from his love,
if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any
tenderness and compassion, then make my joy
complete by being like-minded, having the
same love, being one in spirit and purpose.
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain
conceit, but in humility consider others better
than yourselves. Each of you should look not
only to your own interests, but also to the
interest of others." (Philippians 2:1-4)
- Inspiring
leadership
- Inspiring leadership gave strength to the
movement. It seems that we often live in an
irony. On one hand we live surrounded by highly
motivated leaders, and on the other hand, our
trust in leadership has been strained. Because
of abuses in leadership even on the mission
field, many are suspicious of those who would
seek to lead. There are many sheep without shepherds.
I asked one person, "Who is your spiritual
leader?" The person replied, "Jesus."
Though this is Biblically correct, it is also
true that He appoints shepherds for the flock.
Count
Zinzendorf gave this kind of inspirational
leadership through the love that he had for
the church. His acceptance of even strangers,
his selflessness and the great love for the
Lord and people inspired others. We all need
someone to help lead the way. Without saying
much more about this, we'll focus on the following:
Pray for your leaders. They have a hard job.
Ask that they would be kept from temptations
and evil and that their own level of inspiration
would be kept high. Realize that the leaders
of the home churches have much to do with
the outcome of missions.
"Be shepherds of God's flock that is under
your care, serving as overseers - not because
you must, but because you are willing, as
God wants you to be; not greedy for money,
but eager to serve; not lording it over those
entrusted to you, but being examples to the
flock." (I Peter 5:2-3)
This
is just a short account of the example of the
Moravians. We did not write anything about
their intense prayer life. They believed that
the enemies of the Gospel took no time off day
or night, so their prayer covering needed to have
the same intensity. We encourage you to read the
history of these great people.
"The
brethren promised, one by one, that they would
be the Savior's true followers. Self-will, self-love,
disobedience - they bade these farewell. They
would seek to be poor in spirit, no one was
to seek his own profit before that of others."
Quotes by Andrew Murray
For
additional training on mentoring in support; building
a support team and communicating through newsletters,
read the book called Go Forth in Power
by Norman and Debbie Przybylski.
Training
in World Missions
To
learn more about the Elijah Company please read:
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