The Senders, the Goers, and the Disobedient

John Piper once said that there are three types of Christians in this world, those who send, those who go, and those who are disobedient. God is a missionary God who wants to see people repent and come to Him through the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and He uses people to do this task. How does God use people? Many people may only think that God uses people by making them go to other nations to preach the good news. This is true. But did you know God also uses people to send missionaries?

The Churches in America appears to be failing in this task. Jen Park, one who was called to go to China for a year has provided KCF with these stats.

• American evangelicals could provide all of the funds needed to plant a church in each of the 10,000 people groups with only 0.2% of their income.
• American Christians spend 95% of offerings on home based ministry, 4.5% on already-reached people groups, and 0.5% to reach the unreached.
• The Global Church earnes 12.3 Trillion dollars (that's 12,300,000,000,000)
• Of the 12.3 Trillion dollars Christians own, 11.4 billion goes to foreign missions (that's 11,400,000,000 - a lot less zeros)

What's the point? Foreign missions does not appear to be an important cause to invest in to many Christians. Before we go judging the church, the pastors, or elders, let us look into our own hearts and actions. Perhaps the churches invest in the church because the members demand of it. Perhaps there are too many complaints about the lack of a good sound system, nice fellowship chairs, enough space to teach Sunday school, etc...Keep in mind, these things are good and enhance the church, but let us also keep in our minds that there are some churches who do not have or need any of these things to worship and still grow in the Word. There must be a proper balance with nurturing the church and reaching out to the world. Both ministries are important but the problem is that reaching out to the world seems to be a less important ministry.

But God did not give me a heart for the world...Referring back to what Piper said, missions is not about whether or not you have a heart for missions. Rather, it is part of the calling that God gives to all His people. I used to not really care that much about missions or about people in some other country who did not know the gospel. I'm sure there are many people like that in KCF. But the more I sought after the very heart of God, my heart changed as well and I began to have a heart for this world. God has a heart for the loss. If He didn't, none of us would be Christian because we too were once lost people.

The way we can get involved in missions is either by sending or going. America is one of the wealthiest nations and therefore, the churches in America are pretty wealthy as well. Yet, it seems like we are the stingiest with our money. The more money you have, the harder it is to give it up and that has been reflected by the statistics above. I urge you to get involved in becoming senders. I know we are poor college kids but if you can't give to the Lord when you're poor, chances are you won't give to Him when you're rich. Look at the church of Macedonia in 2 Cor. 8. They were in "extreme poverty" and they not only gave according to their means, but "beyond their means." They actually begged to be a part of the giving "relief to the saints." I think their hearts model how our hearts ought to be. Although we are poor (even though we're really not compared to most people), if our hearts truly desire what God desires, money no longer has any value to us and it will no longer rule our hearts. It is my prayer that people from KCF will commit their lives to missions and become missionaries. However, I think what is really needed are faithful senders and so I pray that everyone in KCF will be a sender as they graduate and serve their churches in the future.