Why should you participate in Faith Promise Missions?
I’m writing this article assuming that you already have an idea of the concept of Faith Promise Missions: the biblical philosophy of “the local church sending missionaries into the world through giving and through prayer”.
I’d like to take a few minutes not so much to tell you how we participate in faith promise missions but to tell you why we participate in faith promise missions.
If you are like me, you frequently ask the question: Why? I know that it's easier for me to do what I’m supposed to do when I know why I’m supposed to do it.
It’s sad how many christians live their lives without doing what they are supposed to do. Many times this is because of ignorance of the truth. But sometimes it is because they ignore the truth.
If you have been in an independent, Baptist church for more than a year, you have probably attended at least one missions conference. You have probably been encouraged to go soul winning. You have been taught the need to tithe and give to missions. If you have been in an independent, Baptist church for more than a year and you aren’t doing these things regularly, something is wrong.
I’m talking about the basics of christianity. We are to “love our neighbor” and there is no greater demonstration of love than to tell someone else about the Love of God. If you aren’t participating in your church’s missions program and soul winning effort, something is wrong.
A kindergartener isn’t expected to be able to do long devision. That is not something we expect from a child the moment they enter they first grade or second or third. However, if a child is not forming words or able to count to ten by the time he is in the first grade, something is wrong. Parents start looking for answers. Specialists are called in and tests are run.
When a born again christian has been in a Bible believing, truth-preaching church for more than a year and they are unable to participate in the missions program and soul winning effort, something is wrong. You need a specialist. You need to run some tests. Something isn’t getting through and something needs to be done.
I’d like to use this article to eliminate one of the factors. I’d like to eliminate the possibility that you don’t know why we participate in faith promise missions.
1. Why do we participate in Faith Promise Missions? To fulfill the Great Commission of our Lord.
In Matthew 28:19-20, Christ said: 19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
This is the first reason we participate in faith promise missions. We are told to “Go” and “teach” and “baptize”. And we are told to do this in “all nations”. The only way for a christian to be able to “go” and “teach” and “baptize” in “all nations” is by proxy — by sending someone else in his place.
So we participate in faith promise missions so that we can fulfill the Great Commission.
The problem is we become more concerned with what’s going on at home and what’s going on in all nations. We are more concerned about buildings. More concerned about the church gym. We are more concerned with program and form. We’re more concerned with school and shopping and clothes and entertainment and having fun then in fulfilling the great commission and that’s one of the reasons why a Christian who has been in independent, Baptist church for more than a year doesn’t participate in faith promise missions.
By the way, even though you cannot go to Zambia or Morocco or Brazil, doesn’t mean you can’t go to Main Street and Broadway. We are supposed to “Go” but we are also supposed to “teach” and “baptize” where we are. We are no closer to fulfilling the Great Commission when we support 50 missionaries but don’t pass out a tract or win a soul than when we do nothing at all.
You understand there is no such thing as partial obedience. You either obey or you disobey. You say, “That’s just a little extreme.” Say that next time you tell your kids to clean their room. If you walk in after an hour and only half the room is cleaned up, they didn’t obey – they disobeyed.
We participate in faith promise missions to fulfill the Great Commission. We do it out of obedience.
The wonderful thing about fulfilling the Great Commission through faith promise missions is that every person who hears the gospel in all the nations where you support a missionary is added to your account in heaven. After being faithful with your promise to support world missions through the program of your local church, one day, in heaven you will see all the people – red, yellow, black and white – that were reached by the missionaries you support.
I want to participate in that kind of plan. I want to obey God to the best of my ability to go to all nations – whether in person or being represented by a missionary.
2. Why do we participate in Faith Promise Missions? To share the compassion of our Lord.
I wonder if this is what Jesus had in mind when in Matthew 9:36-38 it says: “But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. 37 Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; 38 Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.”
Jesus was moved with compassion. He was provoked to action by what he saw. And what he saw caused him to command his disciples to pray that God would send labourers (that’s missionaries) into the world.
Again, in order to fulfill this commandment, we must be willing to send missionaries into the field.
So, we participate in faith promise missions to share the compassion of our Lord.
Just as Jesus was moved to act on what he saw, we are commanded to act on what we know.
Compassion is an interesting concept. Compassion is not pity. To have compassion for someone is not to feel sorry for that person. Compassion is not a feeling, it’s not an emotion. Compassion is an action. You cannot be moved with compassion without acting on that compassion. Compassion is a force with cause and effect.
And in this case, compassion moved Jesus to act and to tell his disciples to pray for missionaries. And in the very next verse, Jesus gives his disciples power to go out. And in vs. 7 of the next chapter he says: “And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
We share in the Lord’s compassion when we participate in faith promise missions. We are taking a position. We are making a statement. We are saying through our actions that we agree with Christ’s command, not only to pray for the Lord to send out missionaries but also to send out missionaries ourselves.
And let me be clear: when you participate in the missions program of your church, you are making a statement. You are alining yourself with the truth of God’s Word and with the man of God and with the commandment of God to Go and Teach and Baptize.
But the opposite is true as well: when you do not participate in the missions program of your church you are making a silent but a very clear statement. You are effectively positioning yourself against the teaching of God’s Word. You are simply saying that there are other things in your life that are more important. You are saying that there are things in your life that are more important than what Christ has called you to do.
It’s sad that there are petty, temporary activities in our lives that are placed a notch above the eternal things of God’s word. We are truly sad and miserable souls if we do not see the need in the world and are not moved to compassion by what we see.
We have missed great opportunities with eternal blessings and profound results when we chose to invest in brick and mortar and tin and plastic and take our eyes off the streets of gold and gates of pearl.
3. Why do we participate in Faith Promise Missions? To build up the Body of Christ.
Ephesians 4:12-16
There is more to life than life itself. We are called to a greater calling.
Look at our text: Ephesians 4:12-16 He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things. 11 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; 12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:”
You understand that there is not a greater calling than the call of God. “Well, I haven’t been called to the mission field.” Maybe not, but you have been commanded to “Go, teach and baptize”.
That is the purpose of the local church and that is why as a church, we participate in faith promise missions: To build up the Body of Christ. That may sound redundant but it’s simple:
The local church is the source of Missionary personnel. I mean, where do missionaries come from anyway? God doesn’t just drop ‘em out of heaven. They don’t come from another planet. Missionaries come from the pews of the local church. A local church is a missionary-making-machine.
Do you understand that there may be future missionaries in your nursery right now? There may be future missionaries in the junior department or in the youth group. There may be a future missionary in the pew during the preaching on a Sunday morning.
Your church is a source of missionary personnel. It is where missionaries come from and when they are called and surrender it is your responsibility to send them and to pray for them.
Going back to Mark 9:38, “Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.” As a church, we are to pray for missionaries to be sent, but that doesn’t mean that we stop praying for them once they are out there. We are supposed to keep them and their ministries and their needs before God.
And then when God puts it on our heart to provide for their needs we are to respond to that call.
We participate in faith promise missions – the idea of supporting and praying for missionaries as a church based on faith in God to provide for our needs once we have provided for their needs – we do this to build up the Body of Christ or for the edifying of the Body of Christ.
Once you understand that we participate in faith promise missions because (1) it fulfills the great commission, because (2) it shares in the compassion of our Lord and because (3) it edifies this body of believers, you understand that it’s not just about another picture of a missionary on the wall. It’s not just about having influence in other places in the world. It’s not just about adding to the church budget.
We are called to “go”, to “preach” and to “baptize” to “all nations”. And the best way to do that is through faith promise missions – through the missions program of your church – sending missionaries all over the world.
Conclusión
If you look at this in a very strategic, rational way: the United State’s State Department recognizes 195 independent countries in the world. If your church were to pray for and support one missionary in each of those 195 nations you would effectively be fulfilling the great commission!
Let me put that into perspective for you. The average church gives a missionary $50 dollars each month. If you supported 195 missionaries (one in each nation on the planet), that’s $9,750 each month. in a church of 100 members, that’s $97.50 each month. That’s less than most family’s monthly electric bill.
If you prayed for each of those missionaries every two weeks for 2 minutes – that’s about enough time to say the names of each missionaries family members, mention their needs and pray for their safety and effectiveness in preaching the gospel – that’s about 27 minutes each day.
So for $97.50 a month and 27 minutes a day, plus going soul winning regularly and handing out a gospel tract as often as you can, you are coming as close to fulfilling the great commission as one can get in the 21st century.
What a blessing to know that I can participate in a worldwide, global scale evangelistic outreach through the ministry of my church.
I pray that you’ll make one single decision today: To get on board with faith promise missions. Do what ever you need to do to do your part to fulfill the great commission. You can live a disobedient christian life, or you can join Christ in being moved with compassion for others.
Don’t miss the opportunity to do right. You’ll never regret doing right but you will – sooner or later, in this life or in eternity – regret doing wrong. Make the right decision right now.