Where Might Acts 1:8 Take You?

Much is made about being a good and effective gospel witness in the believer’s own “Jerusalem” first, before attempting to reach one’s “Judea and Samaria,” and then again before attempting to reach “the ends of the earth.”  We need to reconsider this popular interpretation and application of Acts 1:8.

Usually, Jerusalem is defined as one’s nearest geographical region and close natural relationships. The next ring includes those who share similarities, but with marked cultural or social differences, perhaps even a little farther away geographically. Additional effort is needed to build these relationships. The third ring is the true cross-cultural experience, or the “foreign mission” field. As churches, we often aim to develop ministries to each of the sectors in a similarly progressive manner, eventually completing our development with a balanced portfolio, or a comprehensive approach. 

The Traditional Application of Acts 1:8

Is the implementation of this concentric ring paradigm what Luke had in mind for his readers when he compiled the Book of Acts? Probably not. Luke presents a much more compelling vision for missions than the typical evangelical interpretation grasps. The standard use of the text is not only inaccurate, but prevents us from fully living and loving the Great Commission.  We need to change our mission paradigm and move further away from an individualistic application of this verse to a more corporate one.

Mission strategies for churches are built upon this concentric ring idea, but in reality, it is a construction we have imposed upon the Biblical text. Our intentions are good, and this model seems to work well for us. It is compellingly motivational, moving many to the mission field. It also makes the passage easy to preach and immediately applicable. These purposes are understandably appealing. 

However, the model obscures the truest application regarding the mission of the Church. There are even greater accomplishments to be attained. We search the Bible to extract the buried treasure of practical models, but we often end up pragmatically using the Bible rather than learning and following its wisdom. 

Four Regrettable Outcomes

First, the standard viewpoint tends to create and sustain a bias to stay put, when Jesus said, “go.” We end up focusing intensely upon local outreach efforts because we believe God has called us to minister where he has placed us. We become thoroughly absorbed (almost exclusively) in the needs around us. Then, often the “remotest part of the earth” gets the leftovers of our energies and resources, rather than the best. We re-define the Church’s mission in purely local terms for ourselves and our esteem. 

A second regrettable outcome of the old paradigm is that we feel so overwhelmed by the first two mission categories that we pay little attention to the third. The gospel ministry is hard work. We work wholeheartedly and prayerfully to figure out how we might reach others with the truth and love of Christ. In our struggle with local outreach efforts, we may no longer feel competent enough to engage people cross-culturally and actually accomplish ministry. We never get to the ends of the earth because our faithful witness at home seems to be ever faltering. Simply put, we feel we can’t make a difference over there.

A third outcome of the typical interpretation of Acts 1:8 is that we can quickly and easily lose perspective and vision. We no longer see what we are supposed to be seeing. This is because we are actually missing the very point of the text, and even the book itself:  to give first-priority to frontier mission--to plant churches among the unreached peoples of the world. 

The final regrettable outcome of the common understanding of Acts 1:8, is that we miss the corporate calling. As North American evangelicals, we tend to speak too much about the individual and the personal, and not enough about the Church as a whole, and even the local church as a community. 

Shifting to a Truly Biblical Model

First, rather than perpetuating a bias to stay put, what if our churches worked to create and sustain a bias to “go?” Most will end up staying to live for Christ at home, and will further the mission by sending out and supporting their brothers and sisters who go. But assuming that we should go, rather than assuming that we should stay would change almost everything in the life of our churches. We would find that this is really a huge shift and that it would lead to many being called and sent out from our churches. 

Isn’t this what we are already hoping and praying for, anyway? We would find ourselves thinking, talking, organizing, and strategizing quite differently. People would talk about positioning themselves to be able to go, thinking along the lines of how it might be possible and not why it never could be. We would find new energy and renewed perspective for local ministry. The sacrifices demanded would also greatly increase, but God’s supply of our needs from his inexhaustible resources of grace would remain.  

Second, rather than being overwhelmed by the first two circles of mission, what if the last part of Acts 1:8b actually energized our mission endeavors? That is what has happened in our congregation. (For the story see the complete article “To the Ends of the Earth,” Evangelical Missions Quarterly 42:4 (October 2006), 434-439.) Focusing on the unreached peoples of the world has provided the courageous faith and motivation needed for local and nearby missions. 

Third, rather than losing perspective and vision, what if our churches rediscovered Luke's original emphasis? The emphasis of the verse is not on the “Jerusalem,” but upon the “remotest part of the earth.”  

The Book of Acts was written by Luke as the second part of his Gospel account to show the advance of the gospel of Christ’s Kingdom by the Holy Spirit through the Apostles and the Church. Jerusalem is impacted first, by the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and the subsequent preaching and witness in the city by the Apostle Peter and the church. Then, the “Samaritan mission” in Acts 8 was the gospel’s first great advance after Pentecost. The Gentile mission begins here. Luke then shows us further movement through the conversions of the Ethiopian proselyte, and Cornelius the God-fearing Gentile. The full-on ministry to Gentiles begins in chapter 11 with the ministry of the Antioch church, and the Pauline mission flowing out of this and continuing the progression. We, as the Church, are to follow the arrow and continue the mission until the Return of our Lord Jesus Christ!

Acts 1:8b is not about everyone’s three different realms of witness (Jerusalem, Judea/Samaria, and remote), but about these actual historical transitions, which are now over. The Apostles and the early Church completed the first two and started on the third. What remains is the really exciting part--the relentless drive to the mission’s end! Acts 1:8b is meant to rivet our attention on the “remotest part of the earth” section. Our mission ever since the beginnings of New Testament Christianity, is to go to the ends of the earth and hasten the coming of that day of worship by those Jesus purchased with his blood, “from every tribe and language and people and nation.” (Revelation 5:9) 

Fourth, rather than following our inclination to apply the biblical text to ourselves individually, what if we considered its meaning for the global Church first? Replace the question “What does this mean for me?” with the question "What does this mean for us?" Turn the focus from the individual to the Church globally and locally. What if we saw our churches as local teams, not as a collection of individuals trying to accomplish the Great Commission? Understand Acts 1:8b as being not so much about a personal mission, as it is about the group’s mission. 

Individually, we cannot complete the Great Commission, nor do many of us do very well in that which we do accomplish by ourselves. This group approach actually inspires and accomplishes much more in the personal realm in our churches as we all work together to increase our own spiritual health and maturity and usefulness in the mission of planting churches that reproduce. We expand our vision and look at the bigger picture outside of ourselves. We can focus on a specific area in the world and are start to ask longer range questions about how we can even better utilize all of our people and ministry resources.

We live in perhaps the most thrilling time in the history of redemption, when the gospel is actually reaching the very ends of the earth, and God is calling out for himself a people to worship him forever. Convinced that we live to serve the Lord God and his Gospel, may we be willing to take great risks for his glory among all peoples, and let us yearn to see their full enjoyment of him. Let us follow the arrow and go to the very ends of the earth!

Prayer Is Our Real Work

We are all prone to timidity.  Timeless then, is our Apostle’s urgent appeal in Ephesians 6:18-20 to pray in the Spirit with persevering alertness for the Church’s boldness in its Gospel proclamation.  At the conclusion to the Apostle’s discussion of fighting valiantly in the spiritual war, we come to the absolutely crucial matter of prayer.

Praying in the Warfare

Ephesians 6:18 ESV “praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints,”

Prayer is not a piece of the armor, but it is clear that this praying belongs with the discussion above because of the participial form of “praying.”  In other words, after the soldier is outfitted for war, he is to pray a lot because the battle again is won by the Lord, not one’s skill in the battle or his spiritual merits.  

Dependent prayer accesses the power crucial for success in the spiritual war, being aware of both our spiritual goals in situations, and our very real weaknesses.  We can have real confidence going to prayer, and while praying, and then we will find real power resulting from prayer.

We are to pray at all times, at every opportunity, for the struggle never stops, for us or for others.  To pray in the Spirit means under His influence and with His guidance and assistance.  It is not a special way to pray (e.g. speaking in tongues), but a way of stating exactly what prayer is--intense spiritual activity.

In performing this constant prayer, we are to be alert in intercession for others in the war, as well.  In fact we show our love for all the saints by our prayer for them.  Alertness means perseverance and vigilance in petitioning for others according to their need.  It means keeping spiritually sharp and focused in our prayers.  

Prayer is powerfully effective in the spiritual war and does make significant gains.  The Holy Spirit guides our prayers to pray according to the will of God.  God then answers our spiritual prayers empowering His Church.  We really are accomplishing remarkable work in the Mission by praying for our church partners.

Praying for the Boldness

Ephesians 6:19–20 ESV “and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.”

The Apostle Paul is in prison in Rome and will soon have an opportunity to speak of the revealed mystery of the Gospel before Caesar or his deputy.  How important and daunting!  His chains in this passage speak more of his obligation with God for the Gospel as His ambassador.  He does not pity his difficult situation, but rather he revels in his own mission and this opportunity!

Even the Apostle Paul requests prayers on his behalf for boldness in testifying to the Gospel.  However, this is not asking out of weakness.  He does not distrust or doubt, instead he is eager to fulfill his ministry faithful to the very end.  He desires strengthening so he will know what to say and how to say it without fear.  He wants to be able to speak freely, and have powerful expression, and be clear.  He knows that the prayers of the church will be effective for this outcome and so asks for them.

So, if the great Apostle asked, then we should not be ashamed of asking for boldness, for all of us are still in the body of weakness.  Often, we all need and want prayer for the same things; and so we ask and pray such for one another.  It is true that our Gospel partners need our many prayers for their boldness; and we ourselves need theirs for us.

2 Corinthians 1:11 ESV “You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.”

Colossians 4:2–4 ESV “Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison— that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak.”

We Need a Renewed Understanding of the Work of Prayer

Romans 12:2 ESV “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Pastor Ben Patterson, in his book Deepening Your Conversation With God asks, “Why don’t we believe we’re getting anything done when we pray?”  He answers, “Two reasons:  the world’s view [secularism] and the world’s pace [busyness].”  The logic of secularism is busyness.  When we get busy, prayer is the first thing to go, when prayer is what will rescue us.  But, prayer is our real work--giving up on human efforts and trusting God to work.

Pastor Adoniram Judson Gordon (1836-1895) of Clarendon Street Baptist Church in Boston, a model for many of a “dynamic mission station,” put it clearly, “You can do more than pray after you have prayed; but you can never do more than pray until you have prayed.”

Four Valuable Concepts When Preparing A Team

People need far less training than they think they do for short-term mission trips.  In fact, there is a danger in providing too much training, or over-training.  There is much greater value in under-training, if you will.

Clearly, people need an overview of the trip and training on what they are going to be doing.  They need to hear the bigger picture and how they fit in and will help move the vision forward.  Understanding their strategic role is critical, as well.  And surely they need some basics on ministering cross-culturally.

But, what is most needed is a team saturated in the Gospel and prayer before they get on the plane.  I typically have each team member pick a Gospel account and read and re-read it and pray through it extensively for three months.

Then, when we get to the cross-cultural training portion of our twice monthly team meetings, I spend time discussing four words:  humility, learner, servant and unity.  With these four concepts and carefully selected bits of training and non-training the team is actually better prepared to be used by God.

Humility

Too much training can build too much confidence.  And then comes the urge to walk in tall and charge ahead.  Though it would be done politely most of the time (from our cultural perspective), we still don’t need an outside team moving ahead unaware of their misplaced confidence.

It is preferable to have team members in a posture of dependence upon the Lord and one another.  Getting the ministry done well during the short time there requires trusting our national partners and following their lead, thankful to be a part of God’s plan under their direction and plans.

Learner

Too much preparation leads to people who are too prepared.  Then they will want to teach something to someone.  The experts are our partners not our preparation manuals on culture and ministry.  Such preparations should be kept general and in the background; rather we should build anticipation to learn from actual real people.

It is preferable to have team members show up as joyful observers of culture and ministry, prepared to change the way they think and do ministry.  By providing minimal training at home there is no option but to learn by experience alongside a believer from another culture.  

Servant

Too much training prepares people to be in charge and direct events to unfold as they envision them.  They come ready to give out, but not to think though what would best serve their brothers and sisters.  It tends to focus their efforts on making a successful trip happen by their own cultural standards.

It is preferable to have team members who feel less able and less in control.  This way they are more observant of true needs and willing to take direction from others, especially from our national partners.  Also, realizing they have less to give puts them in a position of wanting to do whatever would be most helpful from our hosts’ perspective.

Unity

Too much training makes for independent-minded people with their own goals.  They will more likely attempt to forge their way and make their own trip happen.  The relational stress level in taking a team cross-culturally is high enough and over-training just adds all the more opportunities for disunity.

It is preferable to keep people working in the project together with an inter-dependent spirit.  Maintaining unity is the greatest team challenge.  With barely enough training the team is more likely to realize how much they need one another to accomplish goals and glorify God in all they say and do. 

A Team Prepared to Head Out

Understanding these concepts, along with personal time with the Gospel of Christ, and then purposefully not training the team any more than is truly necessary, prepares them well to live out these concepts for their brief time in the field. 

Training on these four concepts has been the most helpful preparatory lesson for the teams I have led.  It ends up being most helpful to the mission’s advance, and to themselves as growing Christians.  The team as a team becomes more effective at sharing the Gospel; and then upon returning, they are even more eager to discover what God might have next for them in His Mission in the world.

Ending Our Partisanship Over Term-Length

We have all heard the horror stories of short-term missionaries doing those terrible things that destroy the real work of God being done by long-term missionaries.  Many of the tales are likely true.  And true stories also could be told about long-term missionaries sabotaging the work of God by their own cultural or ministerial ineptness.  However, length of time isn’t the main or most important issue.

On the other hand, we could talk about the much larger number of missionaries, short-term, mid-term, long-term, fixed-term, flex-term, or whatever-term who are doing an awesome job in faithfully fulfilling the Great Commission!

Perhaps we would serve God better by concentrating more on this truth of a much larger proportion and impact, and encouraging one another.  These are the missionaries I like to hear from, hang out with, and serve alongside together.  

Stop Telling the Horror Stories

Since when does length of time make for a real and good missionary, anyway?  And isn’t it really the stories of pride, jealousy, and vision myopia that are the real horror stories to be told and confessed, even? 

The term-length issue is not really an issue, rather it is a term of distraction at best.  Sadly, it is used at times as a red herring to distract from really important matters that need to be addressed.   Perhaps we should just stop talking about short-term, mid-term, and long-term mission endeavors altogether.  Length of time has very little to do with success in missions in and of itself. 

The predominant model in the New Testament is temporary and high-impact preaching teams, anyway.  The issue is what we do.  Let’s discuss this instead, and of course the why and the how, and be intelligent about it.  But, missions is about doing.  Let’s move on and move forward, and stop the rancorous trash-talking.

Start Crafting the Celebration Stories

Christian workers serving in a country for different lengths of time are going to have different concerns personally and in going about doing their ministry.  Each will be accomplishing different short-term goals and long-term goals, but all under the ultimate goal.  

Shorter-term and longer-term missionaries serve different purposes and carry their own potential for damage, depending on the context, the immediate goals, and the people involved.  But the associated risk, pain and challenges are worthy of the mission of the glory of Jesus Christ!

Each plays a role and has value in its context.  We need everyone and every approach, and both professionals and amateurs, and those in between.  We do not desire either an elite over-professionalization, nor an ignorant radical-reductionism.  We need all levels of ministry experience, biblical knowledge, training and cultural adeptness.

It Will Take All of Us

There are so many benefits in using all available legitimate approaches to get the Gospel out!  There are benefits on the field and benefits in our churches, and these become multiplied the more we focus our efforts as churches to become strategic leaders in the mission of God.  There is a lot to accomplish on the spectrum from frontier evangelism and church planting all the way to true healthy leadership development.  

Being partisan over missionary term-length is not a superior way of doing missions, but an inferior way.  It is neither commendable nor smart.  We should be multi-faceted when it comes to using people and teams for varying lengths of time and purposes.  We need all types of missionaries at our disposal to accomplish the work we have been given to do.  This approach will result in much happier stories to tell, and more glory for Jesus, the Lord of the Church!

Four Questions To Have You Enjoying People And Sharing Life

Good conversations can get challenging after the standard exchanges about family and career wrap up.  But, dialogue need not be generic, or trail off in awkward silence.  We can keep the discussion lively by asking more specific questions about the many interests and concerns we share as people.  

It might be as simple as adding a twist to the standard family and career topics by backing up to earlier times such us childhood, getting started in life or one another’s first jobs.  You might think about the person’s current stage in life.  Listen for what is occupying his thoughts, or taking up her time these days, whether it is a matter of great excitement or great concern.  

Whatever it takes, simply find out what people value or feel strongly about.  Then take time to learn by asking good questions.  There is almost always the potential for a most fascinating conversation. 

Four Sets of Questions

Ask your new friend to tell you more about a particular event, accomplishment, relationship, experience or ministry dream.  Personal storytelling builds a relationship, as we enter into one another’s lives.  Keep the story moving along by asking questions about the specific people, setting, plot line, conflict and resolution.  Stories are the most interesting things about us as people.

Ask the “how” questions.  How did you go about accomplishing that, it sounds difficult?  How were you able to handle that?  How do you make sense of those events?  Did this change your life or perspective in any way?  How have you seen God’s grace or wisdom at work?  Observing how people process allows you to ask more intelligent “why” questions.

Ask the “why” questions.  I am curious, why did you choose that way?  What led you to that course of action?  Would you go about it the same way again?  Even asking a series of non-annoying of “why” questions will pay off in deeper revelation and understanding of a person’s commitments.  

To close out the discussion topic you might ask, “What has been most fulfilling or meaningful to you?” or “What has brought you the most joy?”  Such questions open up the opportunity to listen for core motivations.  And this is a great time to dialogue about ultimate meaning and serving the purposes of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

God’s Purposes Do Come Out in the End

This is not a step-by-step guide, but a tool that allows for free flowing and Spirit-led conversations, using an unlimited number of questions.  Thoroughness is not possible, nor the goal, rather relationship is the goal.  This is about true interest in another person and celebrating God‘s working in their lives.  

It is about sharing life and even revealing the same about yourself just as you are asking for openness from another.  And by integrating faith questions all along the way you can serve both purposes of evangelism and encouragement, whatever the Lord chooses to do in your time together.

It’s all about relationship, whether you are building significant partnership relationships, or simply seeking to know others and share life with them, especially the life there is in Christ.

Clearing The Stewardship Smokescreen

This short term mission trip costs about $18,000 for the team.  Is it worth it?  That compassion project will easily run $50,000.  Is it worth it?  Supporting the long term missionary family costs about $120,000 a year.  Is it worth it?  I believe it is usually safest to say that it is worth it--and more than worth it--most of the time.

Don’t Measure the Mission by the Money 

How do we measure worth?  It depends on what work is being accomplished, perhaps uniquely by this team, that project or the missionary family.  It depends on the vision, values and commitments of the congregations involved.  To be honest, it is difficult to assess upfront all that God will cause to fall out in His gracious plans for everyone involved. 

When the question, “Is it worth it?” is brought up, usually that is not the main concern.  It is simply the money, and not the mission.  We devote way more energy to the money matters than the actual mission matters when it comes to doing mission through the local church.  

Some say the money could be better spent supporting long term missionaries, short term teams, national Christians, relief efforts or whatever, and usually the whatever is closely related to the particular mission with which the one complaining is involved.  

Arguments are made about how money could be spent more effectively, strategically, or wisely.  But, we don’t know as much about these things as we think we do, so we don’t need to spend such an inordinate amount of time on them.  

Besides, this assumes that there is a limit to the funds, which there is not.  It also assumes that the goal is more monetary than it really is.  We are to be good stewards of entrusted resources surely; but we are not the stewards of great importance we often claim.

Love the Mission More than the Money

Everyone knows that Americans love their money.  In addition, American Christians also love one another’s money, being ever so eager to advise on the best use of it for God’s work in mission.  In our churches, money discussions can make it look like we are very concerned about the mission, but often it is simply about being involved with the decisions surrounding the use of the money.  

It seems like everyone has a better way to spend the money.  But, money just isn’t that important.  God already owns it all and can move it however and whenever He so desires.  He can work without it and with it . . . and He does!

We are a successful people who also love the Mission of God.  But, we err when we seek to measure spiritual results in human terms and with worldly reasoning on effectiveness, especially cost-effectiveness.  We need to love the mission itself more than the money involved in the mission.

Give More and More and Spend More and More for the Mission

It is more of a privilege to have money and to spend it than we have yet realized.  There is great encouragement all throughout 2 Corinthians 8-9; for example, 

“The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. . . . And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. . . . He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness.”

Who are we doing this for?  Not ourselves, but for the mission goal, for God and His glory.  God gives us money to spend it, not to save it, or pretend that we are so wise in moving His plans forward with our skill at success in this world applied to His mission.  

What if we just spent our money in God’s mission without over-thinking it?  What if we just decided to do mission and spend the money, whatever it costs to get it done?