MENU
Unsplash: Tiago Rosado

3 Reasons We Must Continue to Send Long-Term Global Missionaries

By Lloyd Kim, Jan 18, 2022

Have you ever seen churches that put a sign on the exit of their sanctuaries that say, “You are now entering your mission field”? In many ways, this is a necessary corrective to simply doing overseas missions and not doing anything locally. We are all called to be witnesses of Jesus, wherever we are. We are all called to engage our local communities with the gospel of grace. But we cannot allow this saying to diminish the importance of overseas missions.

There are at least three reasons why we should continue to send long-term global missionaries—especially during this global pandemic.

1. Overwhelming Disparity in Resources

The first reason is the overwhelming disparity in resources for those in the United States versus those in unreached, or under-reached, areas.

There are 5.5 million full-time Christian workers in the world. Consider a few interesting statistics:

  • 75.9 percent of work in a context of a majority, or large percentage, evangelical Christian population.
  • 23.7 percent work in a context of greater than 2 percent evangelical Christians.
  • 0.37 percent work among the unreached, where less than 2 percent are evangelical Christians

We need our best and most fruitful local missionaries, campus evangelists, and disciple-makers to serve in places where there is little to no witness of the gospel. Going to places where Christians are a minority isn’t the same as ministering to those from unreached people groups coming to us. Why? Because when folks come to us, they have access to Christians, churches, resources, relationships, and mentors. Those in unreached areas may live their whole lives and never meet a Christian. They have no access to discipleship.

2. We Belong to a Global Family

We send missionaries because we belong to a global family and our brothers and sisters serving in these unreached areas are asking for our help. Pastor Tetsuya Dedachi of Oyumino Christ Church in Chiba, Japan, reminds us that 99.9 percent of his country of 125 million people are non-Christians and most of them know nothing of the Bible.

He challenges American Christians and churches to pray and send missionaries into all the world. Supporting local Japanese pastors isn’t enough. There simply aren’t enough Christians—let alone pastors—in Japan to reach the nation. This is also true among many other unreached people groups.

Do we really believe in the holy catholic or universal church? Do we believe in the communion of saints? We’re saying in these statements that we are connected deeply with believers in Japan, India, China, Bangladesh, Thailand, Syria, Iran, Iraq, and West Africa. Therefore, we have a responsibility to come alongside our brothers and sisters in proclaiming God’s redemption.

This is an ideal time to join Jesus and his servants in sharing our faith in the least-reached places of the world. COVID-19 has opened doors for acts of compassion and mercy toward those in need around the world.

For example, in West Africa, COVID lockdowns forced many businesses to close, and without work many families were without food. In response, our missionaries and national partners have distributed relief in the form of rice, cooking oil, and basic hygiene to communities in desperate need, providing many opportunities to share the gospel with people who had never heard it before.

The gospel also is going out on new platforms: as many as 1,000 people per week are tuning in to a YouTube channel on which four West African pastoral interns take turns preaching. In this 95 percent Muslim country, people are coming to faith and the church is growing.

More than ever, people in unreached and unengaged areas are asking about the meaning and purpose of life. They—like us—are coming to grips with mortality and frailty. Now is the time to share and show the love of Christ to those in great spiritual and physical need.

3. Great Commission

We go because our Lord commissions us to do so, and we want to see his name exalted throughout the world. Jesus’s words to his church still apply today:

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matt. 28:18–20)

Proclaiming the gospel and planting churches is our King’s strategy to accomplish his redemptive purposes for the world.

There are 6,741 unreached people groups in the world. The definition of an unreached people group is a population that has less than 2 percent evangelical Christians. These 6,741 groups make up 42.2 percent of the global population—that is, 3.14 billion people. Less than 1 percent of full-time Christian workers are ministering to these groups. “We talk of the second coming,” Canadian pastor Oswald J. Smith said. “Half the world has never heard of the first.”

So then, why should we continue to send longer-term global missionaries? Not simply because of the overwhelming discrepancy in resources, not only because our brothers and sisters are asking for our help, but because our Lord Jesus, who himself was sent from heaven to earth to redeem us, commissions us to go and make his disciples among the nations.

Originally published by The Gospel Coalition. Reused with permission.
Lloyd Kim

Lloyd Kim is coordinator of Mission to the World. He is a former PCA pastor and a former missionary with MTW in the Philippines and Cambodia. He holds an M.Div. from Westminster Seminary in California and a Ph.D. in New Testament studies from Fuller Theological Seminary. Lloyd and his wife, Eda, are the parents of Kaelyn, Christian, and Katy.

Please login to continue
Forgot your password?
Recover it here.
Don't have an account?
Create an Account
Sign Up for Free
Name
Email
Choose Password
Confirm Password

GET INVOLVED

Skilled Laborers Needed to Rebuild Chile
Mission Trips
Explore Your Global Calling in Kigali, Rwanda
Summer Internships
Experience Life in the Middle East
Summer Internships

Haiti: Updates from a Country in Turmoil

Haiti has been mired in a downward spiral of a multifaceted crisis that has brought its people to their knees with a cry of desperation.

SEE MORE

Publishing Reformed Theological Literature in Poland's Heart Language (VIDEO)

Much of Eastern Europe faces a theological famine, with few materials in their own language. A publishing house in Krakow is changing that.

SEE MORE

Missionaries Should Communicate and Churches Should Demand It

When forced to cut back on support, churches will cut “the missionary we've been supporting for years, but just don’t hear from anymore.”

SEE MORE

Pray for church-planting work to increase and bear much fruit in strategic cities around the world that are filling with diverse international populations.

Pray for a small group men's study in the Middle East as men seek to learn truth Scripture while wrestling with the realities of what ISIS has taken from them.

Give thanks for the church leaders that God has been raising up in Bogota, Colombia. Pray that this growth will continue. 

Pray for the people of Sydney, Australia, a city which has been described as "post-post Christian pagan." Pray that God would open eyes to the truth of the gospel.

Pray for college students around the world to be impacted through MTW’s partnership with RUF.

Pray today for the unreached living in Central Asia, as well as for the local believers and missionaries hoping to reach them. Pray for relationships and conversations of faith. 

Pray for those who God is calling to missions, that God would clarify their call, and equip them to serve Him.

Give thanks for the work God is doing in South Asia in the wake of COVID lockdown relief. Ask God to grow the new believers who came to faith in Christ as a result.

Pray that God would meet the needs of itinerating and long-serving missionaries, raising up their financial and prayer support.

Pray for the "Timothys" in Muslim-majority West Africa who are growing in their Christian faith and teaching others. 

SUBSCRIBE TO STORIES & MORE

Good news in your inbox, once per week.