When Missions Becomes Slavery

If you are not sharing the Gospel with people here, then why will that change if you go into overseas missions?" - Unknown

When I first heard this quote I thought it was spot on. When I would here it I would say amen. As a good Bible school student, I would share it with friends as we stayed up all night long talking over theology only to struggle staying awake a few hours later in class.

However, not even a week before leaving for Bible school, I had an opportunity to sit down with my pastor. I expressed to him how involved I was looking to be within the community and how much I wanted to do for the Lord. But do you know what he told me?

"Rest." This was his one word. He went on to elaborate and told me to just take the next two years to soak in the Lord Jesus Christ. He wanted me not to be as Martha was, but as Mary. He asked me to just be willing to take this time in order to sit at the feet of Jesus and hear His voice.

I grew up in an atmosphere that was at a constant do, do, do! I felt I always needed to be rushing and working and serving the Lord by repeating the Gospel message to an unsaved individual every second of my life. So as you can imagine, this concept of "rest" was staggering to me.

This was probably the best thing that I could have heard at that moment in time and so I began Bible school with that idea in mind. Well, as you probably guessed, it wasn't too long before I first heard that quote. Like I said earlier, I thought it was great at first. It was convicting and that is what we like in this culture.

So I began going out all over Waukesha looking for people I could lead to the Lord. Before too long, though, I became exhausted. I became so busy, that my personal time with God began sinking. I burnt out very quickly, but I still kept hearing that quote.

It started to become very unsettling to me. It only brought me discomfort and a serious case of joylessness. This is how missions became slavery in my life because I felt as if I was never doing enough.

So I prayed. I studied. And thanks be to the God of all comfort and to His Spirit who guides us into all truth concerning the "rest" that His glorious Son brings to mankind.

God led me back to that concept. You know, the one where Jesus says, "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light." - Matthew 11:28-30

I began treasuring up that idea in my heart and the Lord continued to confirm to me that my two-year Bible education was not to be one of constant tiresome work, but instead it was to be filled with the joys of seeing and savoring Christ.

Now this may sound fine and dandy to some, but others may be wondering if there is any Scriptural support for this. There is actually an abundance of Biblical examples, but for the sake of time we will only look at two.

What did Jesus do first? Did He Prepare or Perform?

Jesus began His public ministry at about age thirty (Luke 3:23). Before this time, what did He do for thirty years? Was He constantly witnessing and sharing the Gospel to people or was He preparing Himself for the ministry that God would place Him into at just the appropriate time?

There isn't much written about His childhood, but there was an event where He became separated from His parents and sat in the temple listening and asking questions to the religious leaders. In this instance Jesus was being the light of the Gospel and God will bring all of His children into experiences like this every now and then where we can share the truth, but I am curious as to whether or not this was a reflection of His entire life or if this was just a God-ordained moment?

I have reason to believe that this was not a common thing for our Savior before He began His public ministry. I don't believe He was sharing the Gospel a whole bunch while growing up. Why do I say this? I say this because He is the Gospel and as He was going through His three-year ministry teaching and proclaiming Himself to be the very source of life, it seems as if the Jews, even in His hometown, have never heard this before (John 6:41-42; Matthew 13:55).

Jesus Christ spent about thirty years of His life not persuading others, but preparing Himself for when the time would come that the Father would see fit to raise up His Son into the ministry.

Likewise, Paul spent about three years in the desert of Arabia immediately after getting saved. Not a lot of people live in deserts and this guy was drenched in pharisaism and keeping to the letter of the Law that he needed a break. He had been misunderstanding the Old Testament Law for so long and had missed everything about Jesus.

Upon his conversion he needed time to refocus his mind and to turn his heart towards the true God. I feel that often times we forget that no one just gets saved and jumps straight into ministry. Paul actually warned against that (1 Timothy 3:6). It takes time and preparation to become effective in advancing the Kingdom.

Yes, there is an urgency in the world and people are dying...but God's not sweating! He has got it all under control and it is in His hand.

If we say we want to be missionaries, but we don't share the Gospel everyday...well, neither did our Savior nor even Paul. People are different. They share Christ in different ways. If we were all evangelists, then there would be no diversity.

God is working to equip His children for an exciting work. For some, it takes longer than others. For some, it takes them going to a different culture. Caitlin and I are going to Papua New Guinea. There are tribes in this country that have been requesting a missionary for well over twenty years...but there is no one to go.

It is not this way for every culture, but for this culture specifically, they will be asking us (the missionaries) who God is because they know that is why we are there. Otherwise, they will wonder why we have come to live among them in their tribe if we are not there to tell them God's talk.

In conclusion, I don't believe this quote is accurate, but I do believe that preparation is a good thing and that when you fall in love with Jesus, He will just naturally come out in your conversations with people. Please don't make missions a burden...make it a joy and a privilege. I made it into a type of bondage and slavery by performing out of conviction instead of love.

That is the reason for writing this blog in order that we all may know that "rest" is a good thing and that preparation for future ministry is a powerful tool in the hands of God. Sometimes you are just not ready to perform and that is why you need time for preparation.