Missions

Churches have different views of what “Missions” means. In its most simple form, it is anything that reaches out to others with a purpose. In Christianity, we reach out to others with the purpose of showing them God’s love and asking them to join us in our journey through life accepting Jesus as their Savior. When Jesus told us to “Go unto all the world” he mentioned Judea, Samaria and the ends or the uttermost parts of the earth. Many preachers have paraphrased that to mean your local community, your state/country, and foreign missions too. I believe that there is order to that. If all our church is doing is sending some money to a missionary in a far off land while never showing God’s love to the grumpy guy who lives right next to the church building, then we have missed the call. Likewise, if we are reaching out to our local community, but never reach beyond it, we have also missed out on what God intended. If your church has never taken part in foreign missions, then I encourage you to do so. I don’t just mean that you send a few dollars to a missionary. Contact a missionary and find out how you can help them on the field. When you take a group of people from your own church and reach out in another area of the world, it will not only help the missionary and the people where you go serve, but it will be a life changing event in the lives of the people on your team! Another side affect is that when people are concerned about those who live in another land, they will begin to see the needs in their own community as well. If your church rarely goes outside the walls of the building you meet in, give missions of any kind a try! I am sure that you will find the effort very worth the return on investment when you see how the people in your own congregation are changed.