Previously, in our series on building a biblical missiology, we addressed the questions: what is missions, and who is a missionary? Now for the question: where do missionaries serve? Places of missionary service largely depend on how we define the terms missions and missionary. The location of missionary work may be described in geographic terms as either domestic or international. Perhaps you have heard of missions referred to as crossing cultural or linguistic barriers. In Romans, Paul articulates that his missionary ambition is to preach the gospel where it is not known, writing, “Thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else’s foundation” (Rom 15:20). In addition to taking the gospel to Christ-starved places,  several of Paul’s missionary colleagues served where the church required strengthening. Thus, a reasonable biblical answer to the question is:

Missionaries serve where the church is not or where the church is weak.

Missionaries go and serve where the church is not.

Paul narrows the scope of his ministry by declaring his mission to take the gospel to those without knowledge of Christ, to the unreached. Paul’s ambition was not a drive for personal notoriety or gain. He is not making an entrepreneurial statement—that he is a trendsetter or looking for fame. Neither is this statement out of arrogance—that he is bent on making his own way or is an eccentric maverick preferring to work on his own terms. Rather, this motivation was the glory of Christ among the nations. We can argue this because Paul speaks of wanting all glory be to Christ, a glory that includes the praise of the nations (2 Cor 10:12-18, Rom 16:25-27). His desire to preach the gospel where Christ has not been named, makes the point that the missionary task is part of the fulfillment of the glorious promise that the salvation of God would spread so that “the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea” (Hab 2:14). For this to happen, missionaries must take the gospel to where churches do not exist. Paul’s ambition and the missionary ambition are both gospel ambitions. The mission of taking the gospel to gospel-starved places will have significant implications on how missionaries serve. One such implication to mention at this juncture is that many missionaries will go to barren lands wherein there is not a church to join, but a church and churches to plant. A second and related implication is that, though we can go to gospel-barren lands and find believers from other peoples and cultures living there, the missionary-mission is to take the gospel to those who have never heard—the indigenous population who need the gospel and, subsequently, churches.

Paul states this missionary ambition in the words of Isaiah 52:15, “As it is written, ‘Those who have never been told of him will see, and those who have never heard will understand’” (Rom 15:21). The nations who are in gospel isolation, will be told and hear the gospel so that they may see and understand Christ. He understands the words of Isaiah to apply to his calling and to mean that the missionary-mission is to take the gospel to the nations for the glory of God. Therefore, missionaries go to where there is no gospel and no church, into deep lostness. We often referred to this work as frontier or pioneer missions.

Excursus on the nations.

We need to give some attention to the meaning of the word nations. When Paul writes of the nations (ἔθνεσιν, ἔθνη) in this context (Rom 1:5; 16:26), he is referring to the Gentiles or non-Jews. In our day, many take nations to mean peoples or ethnolinguistic people groups, and there are grounds for doing so. But to correctly identify the proper recipients of missions efforts, it is instructive to look to Revelation 5:9 and 7:9. There we see the result of the missionary-mission. And what do we find? The result of missions is a throng of people from every kindred or family (φυλῆς), every language (γλώσσης), every people or community (λαοῦ), and from every nation (ἔθνους). It seems reasonable then to read nations as a kind of shorthand for all manner of divisions of people. Therefore, the place of missions is not merely Unreached People Groups, though peoples are a part of the target group, or even Unreached Peoples and Places, which is broader, but in every division of mankind where Christ has not yet been named. The work of the missionary is to take the gospel of Christ to those who have not heard because they are of a particular lineage, or language, or people, or nation or any other way mankind divides people into categories of “us” and “them.”

Missionaries go and serve where the church is weak.

Paul’s calling was to pioneer missionary church planting. When that initial task was complete, he moved on to other fields of service (Rom 15:19), but that does not mean that the missionary task was complete. Other missionaries, such as Timothy and Titus, were sent back to those early works to strengthen the churches and ensure they established appropriate local leadership. In other words, missionaries serve where the church is not and where missionaries serve where the church remains weak.

A common misconception is that the indicators that mark a people or place for initial missionary work are the same markers that indicate that missionary work is complete. Understanding the missionary task is helpful at this juncture. The missionary task is made up of six vital elements centered around abiding in Christ. The six elements are entry, evangelism, disciple-making, healthy church formation, leadership development, and exit to partnership.[1] The primary indicator for initial missionary work is the absence of the gospel, marked by a lack of believers and churches among a people or place. But we misunderstand the missionary task if we argue that once we have believers and churches, the missionary work is done. In fact, the work is incomplete until the indigenous church can stand on her own and propagate. Local churches need to have leaders, raise up more leaders, and take up their missionary birthright to carry the gospel to the ends of the earth.

Therefore, missionaries may join an ongoing work. Missionaries may step into a work that was started by others and carry that work to completion. Stepping into the middle of a work requires a skill set different from that necessary at the onset of a work. Whereas initial work is heavy on evangelism and early discipleship, more mature work necessitates pastoral training with theological and missiological development. In some locations, this aspect of the work may include formal education and, at a minimum, assisting the indigenous church to determine how to send out and support her own missionaries. Missionaries serve where the church is not and where the church is weak.

The missionary-mission is the priority of priorities.

One of the oft-missed aspects of the missionary-mission is that it is the priority of priorities. Missions is the core work of the church such that it may prevent her from doing other good things. After expressing his strong desire to visit the Roman church, Paul wrote that his missionary work was the reason why he had yet to visit them (Rom 15:22). The gospel mission was an all-consuming priority.

Today, churches release and send missionaries to exercise this priority, and missionaries strive for the priority of the gospel among the nations. Therefore, missionaries must be free and able to leave their homes and home churches and cleave to new lands, make a new home, and work to bring about the obedience of faith. Missionary service is a priority of all priorities—that which my mother, after thirty-four years of service in Bangladesh, called “a most difficult joy.”

Summary

We release missionaries from our churches and send them off to where the church is not and where the church is weak. The missionary-mission begins where Christ has not been named and continues until the indigenous church can stand and expand on her own, taking up her missionary birthright. This releasing and sending of missionaries to the nations must be an all-consuming priority. Next, how do missionaries do their work?

 

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[1] Foundations, Richmond, VA: IMB, 2022.