Missions and the Church

As we spend more time here, God is increasing one passion of ours: the local church.

The mission of overseas missions has to be the development of the local church, whether you are dealing with an unreached people group or not. There are many MANY biblical reasons why I think this, but as I actually do overseas missions, I have become ever more convinced of this.

What people and different cultures need are local, healthy, bodily representations of Christ, or churches. The Spirit is establishing these churches all across the globe. He brings the Gospel to the communities through churches. This gospel brings salvation, not just when we die, but also presently in our world. Thus, not only does the Spirit use the gospel for salvation from death, but also uses it for life now as it is meant to be lived. So, we bring healthy churches, which bring the gospel, which brings solutions to systemic social problems (poverty, education, famine, civil war, etc.). In other words, social issues of our day and the church are tied together.

I don’t know what you think about Uganda or what comes to mind when you think about the African continent, but for most it involves thinking about its “problems”. And while its true that Uganda faces problems (which are extremely complex), they are not all that different from the problems facing the other continents in the world. So, being a believer, as you think about Africa and support various causes, please have your support involve the local church. With all of its dysfunction and unhealth, the local church is still the only viable, eternal solution to the problems that people face (this is true especially in Africa, but it is just as true for the rest of the world). There is no other place like the church that God will use to meet people facing the brutal nature of the evil in this world and the evil in themselves. Sad to say, it seems to me that many problems in Uganda have come about because foreigners (even Christians) have presented “solutions” that have nothing to do with building healthy churches. These solutions end up hurting both Uganda and the church…

So, should you come visit Sarah and me in Africa, what will you see us doing? Working with the local church and the people of that church. We believe that the best people to solve Uganda’s problems (inside AND outside the church, temporal AND eternal) are Ugandans themselves. They know the culture, the language and the people. They can preach and live out the Gospel just like us. Our job, then, must be to train and develop the church to be sustainable to reach out in the ways that only they can do. Now, we might give some time to some other causes that we see are necessary here (ministry to street kids, organizations for those with disabilities), but only because we want to see them connected to the local church. I guess what I am arguing against is the idea that the church only solves eternal problems. The Spirit will also use it to solve societal problems. I am arguing for an understanding of the church doing both and what that means for how we do missions and what we support. The day Sarah and I stop developing some aspect of the local church is the day you should stop supporting us and reading this blog.

Please, lets have the church and its proclamation of the Gospel be central to what we are involved in, especially when it comes to cross-cultural missions.