Shifting Missions Paradigms Part 1
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Shifting Mission Paradigms: Vision
The heartbeat of our lives and ministries is to get the Gospel to ALL nations.
Many of us have served on or led short term trips to places all over the world, have prayed using resources like Operation World or Joshua Project, and are faithfully trying to develop “World Christians” in our ministries. These are all incredible endeavors and God is using them in His work all over the world. However, it is worth evaluating: are we truly developing our ministries for maximum impact to the least-reached peoples of the earth?
Starting Point: A Vision of Multiplying Disciples
“The least of you will become a thousand, the smallest a mighty nation. I am the Lord; in its time I will do this swiftly.” (Isaiah 60:22 )
In order to impact the nations, we must deeply impact one life at a time. Current events have provided a timely example: The Coronavirus demonstrates the power of multiplication. From one place in China it spread exponentially to more than 180 countries in a brief period.
It is easy to get so caught up in huge, overwhelming statistics and then neglect the single most important factor––one individual.
The first and most important task of a campus minister is to train and equip individuals to be effective in their walk with Jesus.
Jesus said, “The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the people of the kingdom.” (Matt. 13:38) It is the intent of Jesus to scatter the “good seed” around the world. The more laborers a ministry can develop, the greater a ministry’s global impact.
How then can we set this process in motion?
Earnest Prayer
When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” (Matt. 9:36-38)
Prayer is essential in not only developing multiplying disciples, but also in deploying those disciples to the nations.
“Ask of me and I will give you the nations as your inheritance, the very ends of the earth as your possession.” (Psalms 2:8) Ask God to give you and your ministry a vision and heart for a particular nation or region of the world.
“There is no great movement of God that has ever occurred that does not begin with the extraordinary prayer of God’s people.,” says Ronnie Floyd.
“The time is now,” he continues, “For us to come together before God in clear agreement, visible union, and in extraordinary prayer for the next Great Awakening and for the world to be reached for Christ.”
We already know God has promised the nations as our inheritance, but we must claim these promises in committed and devoted prayer.
Prayer is not simply the starting point. It is where the true work of the mission is accomplished. What begins in prayer echoes beyond your campus.
Dream Bigger Than Your Campus
Campus ministers carry many daily responsibilities. While trying to balance stewarding these various responsibilities, it can be difficult to think outside of how God is working in our local ministry.
I want to challenge us all though.
Step back, and begin to view your local campus as just one of the locations you serve.
It isn’t enough to simply disciple students to the point of reproducing their faith locally.
If they have no idea that God’s heart is that the Good News should spread across the world, the chain of investment dies there.
Is there another campus where God could use you and your students and graduates? Is there a campus located across the ocean where you could develop a partnership? Where you could send short term and long term laborers?
Yeah, but...
No campus ministry intentionally decides to not maximize its global impact. As we began, the campus ministers that I know are hard-working, mission-minded laborers who want to see the nations reached. However, I have found that there are some common challenges that hold us back from maximum global impact.
Objection #1: I do not have time/energy/resources
Answer: This is a common concern of the church related to international missions. If we take time and resources to do this, won’t our local ministries suffer? I often think of the church in Jerusalem after Pentecost when I hear this concern. It was led by a small group of Apostles, who were up to their eyeballs in new believers and incredible physical needs. Yet God chose to scatter them out across Judea and Samaria (and beyond). If ever there was a ministry that needed to conserve resources it was that early church in Jerusalem. I’m really glad the Lord didn’t allow them to play it safe! The body of believers is always strongest and most vibrant when it is outwardly, not inwardly, focused. This is how God has designed it. We all acutely feel our own lack of capacity, but we serve a God of infinite capacity. And he has a way of multiplying our efforts when we trust Him. Pray for God to guide you, multiply your efforts and bring others to help.
Objection #2: It’s not in my job description!
Answer: As followers of Jesus, we all have one ultimate job description, “Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations.” We see the fulfillment of this in the multitude from every tribe, tongue and nation worshipping around the throne in Revelation. We have different roles and callings in how we will be a part of this, but this is the ultimate goal. As campus ministers, we want to help develop young people into committed followers of Christ. If making disciples of all nations is our ultimate task, then believers who do not embrace the desire to see the Gospel go to the ends of the earth still lack maturity in a vital part of the discipleship process. And students won’t develop a heart for the nations without intentional efforts on our part. They need teaching and modeling in order to embrace the idea of global impact. They also need opportunities to experience this first hand.
Objection #3: I need help and do not know where to turn.
Answer: With some strategy and the right resources, this is absolutely something you can undertake at your campus.
One such resource is FOCUS.
Founded in 1993, FOCUS exists because the Gospel must go to those who have no access. Through training and mobilizing college students, they help connect students - and the campus ministries to which they belong - with global partners. This conviction of sending highly trained students to carefully selected global partnerships, has helped effectively impact the nations for Christ - while having eternal echoes in campus ministry.
I am part of the staff team at FOCUS, and through my work with them, I have seen several difference-making elements that impact a campus’ effectiveness in the work of cross cultural missions: developing partners and a commitment to sending the equipped. Our summer missions program for college students is called Link Teams and you can learn more about this at www.linkteams.org, or you can write to us at office@onefocuslink.com.
Developing Partners
“In order to be healthy and helpful a short-term mission trip should fuel long-term disciple making processes on the ground wherever we're going. There should be a partnership with people on the ground such that you being there as a team is going to help further the gospel in helpful healthy ways, and we don't determine that, people on the ground determined that. (David Platt)
Developing partners comes down to three primary questions:
What is a long-term, cross-cultural partner?
Why should I build long-term, cross-cultural partnerships?
How should I decide with whom to partner?
These are the three of the questions we address in our article “Shifting Mission Paradigms: Partnership.”
Sending the equipped
In our third article in this series “Shifting Missions Paradigms: Training,” we are talking more about the value of more intensive investment in training, and equipping students to bless the nations.
Too often we send students without vetting and training them. We have been willing to send any student even if he or she might not be ready. Together, we will think more about this idea of readiness in our third article. For now, the question to ask ourselves is, Is this the wisest and most effective approach to seeing the glory of God among all nations and languages? I agree with Max Barnett when he says, “I'd rather have four demolition experts than 10,000 college students with firecrackers.”
In Conclusion: Why not?
What is on the heart of the students that have graduated from your ministry in recent years? Do they have a burden and vision to see their communities transformed by the Gospel? Does that burden and vision expand to the ends of the Earth?
How are you intentionally building a missional mindset in the hearts of your students? How do your students view your current mission strategy, if you have one? Do your students come away feeling as though mission trips are primarily about their own growth and development or do they see themselves as servants of the nations? Do they have a burden to see the long-term strategy for the place they served accomplished?
There is a major difference between a mission strategy that prioritizes your students’ growth and a strategy that prioritizes God’s mission and the forwarding of the long-term work in the context you are serving. We’ve found that as we emphasize the long-term work, the impact on our students is even greater.
The harvest is waiting. Together, let’s consider how to best invest, train, and equip our students to labor. The investment is worth it. The work is worth it. And the results are certainly worth it.