discovering missions - Southern Nazarene University

245187 Disc Missions ins 9/6/07 1:04 PM Page 76
76 From Every Nation
About A.D. 1400 Christianity became identified as the religion of the
Western world. At that point, lines crystallized in many people’s minds between
which countries were the ones that sent out missionaries and which
countries were the ones that received those missionaries. Following World War
II, American GIs who returned home burdened for Europe found fellow
church members puzzled when they spoke about Europe’s need for missionary
work. Europe was, those church members thought, a Christian continent!
Years later church members were puzzled again when they heard that Korean
and Brazilian churches were sending out foreign missionaries. Those two nations,
thought many people, were supposed to be receiving countries, not sending
countries.
When Westerners who are passionate about global outreach have talked
about taking the gospel “to every nation” they have often fixated on the to of
that phrase. They have not seen that God desires to call people from every nation
to engage in the world missions enterprise. It is time for the Church in the
West to see that the from part of God’s design must be promoted just as strongly
as the to part. Being a global church means more than being present everywhere.
Being global means more than believers of different ethnic groups
warmly hugging each other. Being global means that the Church everywhere
has become a center of missionary outreach.
Throughout Church history, God has followed a pattern of calling missionaries
from people groups soon after they have been evangelized. One of the
earliest missionaries to India was likely Pantaenus from North Africa. An Italian
named Denis planted the first church in Paris. A Cappodocian named Ulfilas
took the gospel to the Goths. Nubia (southern Egypt and northern Sudan)
heard the Good News from Julian, a Turk. A Syrian named Alopen may have
been the first to take the gospel to China. An Englishman named Boniface
helped turn the peoples of what is now Germany to Christ. A Frenchman
named Anskar took the gospel to Denmark. A Belgian named William of
Rubruck went on missionary journeys to the Mongols. A Spaniard named
Francis Xavier, one of the pioneer Jesuits, was one of the first to preach the
Good News in Japan. George Mueller from Prussia went as a missionary to the
Jews in England.
Italy, which Paul reached toward the end of his missionary travels, sent out
wave after wave of missionaries. Spain has been a significant source of missionary
personnel. The Celts evangelized a great deal of northern Europe and the
first Protestant missionary movements came from Viking descendants through
the Danish-Halle Mission. Then that cycle of the evangelized turning into the
evangelizers seemed to slow down and almost stop. During the Great Century
of missionary outreach, it appeared to many people that missionaries were be-