Which of the following should be disqualified as a scriptural basis for missions?
Genesis 12:1-2. The call of Abram
Psalm 96:3 A Psalmist's declaration of God's glory
Matthew 4:19 Jesus's call to his first disciples
Mark 6:7 Jesus's sending of the twelve disciples
Matthew 5:14 A metaphor about being using salt and light
John 20:21 Jesus sends his disciples as he was sent
Matthew 28:19 The Great Commission
Acts 1:8 ...witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
Acts 11:26 Disciples first called Christians
Acts 22:21 Paul's commission to the Gentiles
It is important as missions moves into a new enlightened era where we see our most effective evangelism tool efforts to engage social action endeavors such as construction, medical care, vacation Bible school, and food and hygiene programs in the hopes that those we serve will then ask us why we do these things. This moment will open the door for us to plant the seeds of salvation.
Perhaps any and all of the above scriptural bases for this type of approach.
So when someone asks why we do missions, our reply might be:
God calls each of us in our own way to create a nation, God is good all the time- just try it and you'll see, we are all called by Jesus in one way or another to follow him, we are fishers of men (but are we catch and release?), we have to tell the story or we will be cast aside, Jesus is counting on me, the Bible says it and so I better do it, we have to be God's witnesses everywhere, we are Christians and that's what we do.
So just to make the exercise interesting, James S. Lowry, in his essay in Hope for the World p. 102 asks us to consider one more scriptural basis for missions:
Mark 16:8 News of risen Christ leaves believers dumbstruck.
From which Lowry develops the following approach to missions:
"Into the silence, I was called to wonder and discover what the resurrection of Christ means."
Would you build your next mission trip around that?
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