But to ask it directly made me to realize that I don’t know that I have it as nailed down as tight as I thought. So here is my response, which I
couldn’t seem to make small enough to post on that Facebook comment…
When dealing with evangelism and missionaries I think we’re
dealing with subjects deeper than sending them and supporting them. What was it
that gave Paul his authority and power? Everywhere he went there was either
riot or revival. The disciples after being sent out from Jesus came back and
proclaimed miracles and demonic deliverance in such a way to make even the
Charismatic/Pentecostal denominations seem anemic in comparison. Notice in Acts
13:1-5 and when Jesus sends out His disciples that they are sent in 2 - never alone. There is
still community even when they are sent out of community. Even in being sent
out, they know where they are sent from is still their community, and they are
welcome home at any time.
Paul seems to indicate that even when he is out abroad that
he had hopes to go back to such and such church where he could reconnect with
“home.” I guess what I’m feeling
for is that maybe missionary work isn’t merely winning the lost or going to
places that haven’t heard the gospel? What if missionary work is something more
like apostleship in that you are sent by the word of God to proclaim the
message God gives you to proclaim to the people God sends you to (Romans
10:14-15)? Maybe it is the sent word that causes faith upon hearing, because it
is hearing the very word of God.
Lets not pass that so soon. What makes this word so
powerful? It actually gives faith to the hearer, gives liberty to the captive,
and/or causes uproar. The man who is sent out by the will of the Lord is sealed
with the power and authority of the Holy Spirit. I think that maybe what
actually warrants that power and authority is found in the context of
community. What exactly do I mean by that word?
Community is the denial of self. It is a relation with other
believers that displays the mystery of the Godhead. As Jesus was one with the
Father, so are we one with each other. We sacrificially give self unreservedly
for the benefit of the other believers without expectation of recompense.
Because I sacrificially give myself, and my wife sacrificially gives herself,
somehow we pour into each other in a way that neither of us are empty, and
neither of us are weak, but we somehow strengthen each other. This is the
mystery displayed in that Jesus gave Himself unreservedly for the Father, and
the Father selflessly promoted the Son (gave Him a name above every name –
including His own name).
When we can display that kind of reality, of denying self
for the benefit and promotion of the others in the community, and by the power
of the Spirit we are transformed into being one as God is one, it is precisely
at that point that we have now reached “community.” When a Church is able to
live like that, then they have no issue with also giving to another community
in another town, village, country, etc.
One of my wife and my initial thoughts with the question
were about the distinction made between local and global church. Kim and I
don’t think that we should make a distinction between local and global church.
Paul addresses the whole city, not “local churches” in Ephesus. He does
sometimes address churches that met in homes (typically at the end of the
epistle). Because they are all connected as the Church, many times we read of
how the church in such and such location has shown its faithfulness by sending
someone to another location in support.
The reason this is important is because I want to make it
clear that I am not against supporting missions groups. They’ve already been
established, and if you know they do good, then by all means support them. The
point, however, is that having a special offering for missions, or having a
denominationally supported mission, is not enough. It takes the whole Church.
If it weren’t for the saints throughout the world coming to Paul in his time of
need, who knows what kind of condition he would have been in Rome? He told
Timothy that everyone abandoned him. He then goes on to say that he is thankful
for some who came to him.
I would like to suggest that maybe the idea of community is
so central to the Christian faith that even missions work is not a different
subject. Maybe the reason that the disciples in that first century had such
power is because “when two or three are gathered in My name, there I am in
their midst.” What if the whole framework of missions is held up by the global
church as community – being one with each other as God is one – in that they
are in communion with the same Spirit? Is it possible that by the togetherness
that we truly display here and now with the other believers that we gather with
actually affects our witness?
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