discovering missions - Southern Nazarene University
discovering missions - Southern Nazarene University
discovering missions - Southern Nazarene University
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245187 Disc Missions ins 9/6/07 1:04 PM Page 179<br />
missionaries are discouraged and about to burn out. They do not know large<br />
cultural groups are still untouched by the gospel. They do not know where the<br />
Holy Spirit is moving. They do not know there are ways they can get personally<br />
involved. They do not know that most organizations have accountability systems<br />
in place to ensure that mission funds are properly used. They do not<br />
know there are very receptive groups where an even larger harvest could be<br />
gathered if more resources were available. They do not know their mission organization<br />
is very involved in meeting physical as well as spiritual needs.<br />
3. Erroneous Theology<br />
Wrong beliefs can make people susceptible to mission fatigue. Even evangelical<br />
believers can get infected with the religious relativism associated with<br />
postmodernity. Since what people believe drives their behavior, religious relativism<br />
can blunt the urgency of appeals to get the gospel to underevangelized<br />
and unreached peoples. Believers can also be affected by a universalism that says<br />
that surely everything is going to come out OK in the end for almost everybody.<br />
Wicked Selfishness<br />
I feel now that Arabia could be evangelized within the next thirty<br />
years if it were not for the wicked selfishness of Christians.<br />
—Samuel Zwemer, writing in the early 1900s<br />
4. Selfishness<br />
Carnal selfishness also fosters mission fatigue syndrome. Too many Christians<br />
in materialistic cultures find themselves working to pay for consumer<br />
goods they do not really need and that are often used up before they are paid<br />
for. Sometimes those who have quite livable incomes find themselves saying,<br />
“We’re just barely making ends meet; we can’t really afford to give anything<br />
right now for overseas <strong>missions</strong> work.” Outright selfishness has kept them from<br />
internalizing Jesus’ words in Luke 14:33, “Those of you who do not give up<br />
everything you have cannot be my disciples.”<br />
Raising Up a Mission-Minded Church<br />
Mobilizing the Local Church 179<br />
Because mission is best done when there is a sending, then having a missionary<br />
sending base filled with passion, fervor, and commitment is of paramount<br />
importance. Oswald J. Smith, founder of Peoples’ Church in Toronto,<br />
Canada, felt so strongly about the priority churches should place on world<br />
evangelism that he reportedly said, “Any church that is not seriously involved<br />
in helping fulfill the Great Commission has forfeited its biblical right to exist.”