I Think This Call is for You
After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. - Luke 10:1-2
One third of human beings on the planet today live in an unreached people group. One out of every three people made in God’s image has essentially no access to the gospel. Most of them are Muslim, Hindu, or Buddhist background people in what we call the 10/40 window. 86% of these people have never met a believer in Jesus. They will never come to know Jesus as Lord unless someone goes into their world with the good news.
The mission of God is far from completed and the American church is both gifted and responsible to engage. Yet the number of gospel workers on the field from the USA is in significant decline. And where they are engaged, it is often to parts of the world where the church is already established and has existing local leadership.
Americans’ engagement in missions has often followed cultural trends in the USA. Before World War 2, Americans were typically inwardly focused and isolationist. We were not passionate about global kingdom expansion. That changed after WW2 when many veterans came back with a heart for the world. They saw that governments and the wars we wage would never solve the problems of the world and many came home with a passion to take Jesus back to the people they saw suffering around the world. The numbers of kingdom workers exploded, and American churches felt a strong call to take Jesus to the world.
However, after the Vietnam war and turbulent decades of the 60s and 70s, Americans again turned inward and had more apathy towards the rest of the world. We began to lose our sense of calling. That began to change once more with the growth of globalization in the late 20th century and there was again an increase in kingdom workers. But in the early 21st century, terrorism, 9-11, the 2008 financial crisis, the COVID pandemic, and other national trends have resulted in a major drop in American Christians’ willingness to answer God’s call.
Bible, ministry, and mission majors are at historic low numbers at our colleges. This generation has found a greater call toward social justice, which is good, but sadly it is coming sometimes at the expense of a concern for evangelism and disciple-making. The word “missionary” has taken on negative connotations of western imperialism and mission has become a controversial, non-politically/culturally correct designation. People are still attracted to Jesus, but churches and missionaries are viewed with skepticism or worse. Bad actors make the news and the heroic servants who honor God with sacrificial service are overlooked.
While the church is doing very well in many parts of the world, the American church is stuck in a malaise that discourages our active engagement elsewhere. While God is hardly limited to working through Americans, it is shame that we don’t engage in God’s global mission more enthusiastically. The world still needs American involvement. We can’t just send our money and not our people and claim we are engaged. We need Western and majority world workers partnering in collaborations that lead to interdependent kingdom health and expansion. We need each other.
Currently, it is common for churches to call MRN seeking to fund cross-cultural workers but are having trouble recruiting or identifying suitable candidates. Many of the best workers that have come through our training in the last decade have been much older than what we used to see. Empty nesters and second career families in their 30s and 40s with children in various ages make some of the best global disciple makers and church planters.
God is calling. Maybe that call is for you. Would you be willing to pray and ask God if he is calling you or someone you know? If you hear that call, would you pick up? Then, please call us.