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Why Do Missions Right Now?

THE REV. LOREN FOX,
RECTOR, CHURCH OF OUR

SAVIOR, PALM BAY, FLORIDA

The Church is at an exciting juncture in its life and ministry: the crisis in the Episcopal Church which has been brewing for nearly fifty years appears to have crossed over into a new chapter. A new province in America, Anglican and separate from the Episcopal Church, has been formed and has now changed the dynamics within all of American Anglicanism, both in the Episcopal Church and in the new Province. Where do cross-cultural, church planting missions fit into the new chapter and dynamics of American Anglicanism?

The last fifty years are marked by two simultaneous developments. The Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the Episcopal Church of America, most recently simply called the Episcopal Church, retreated further and further from both foreign and domestic missionary work. At the same time, the Episcopal Church began to adopt more and more changes in our theology, ethics, worship, and ministry which deviated from our historic identity, tradition, and ministry. These corollary dynamics should not only lead us to renew our Anglicanism by affirming our historic, apostolic Faith and Tradition, but also to renew our commitments to cross-cultural church planting missions. Here are ten quick reasons to do so right now:

1. Missions strengthens the Church
2. Missions resists creeping heresy
3. Missions stretches our faith
4. Missions clarifies our purposes
5. Missions sharpens our theology
6. Missions builds global relationships
7. Missions disciplines our finances
8. Missions nurtures the fruit and gifts of the Spirit
9. Missions engages youth
10. Missions builds leadership for the future

1. Missions strengthens the Church. To do missions well takes work; it is a challenge. Missions is the Church partnering together to share the joyful hope of Jesus Christ with people from all around the world such that people are brought together to form new Church communities. If it was easy, anybody could do it. But after 2000 years, we are still learning from God how to do so effectively. When we are sharing the Gospel, we are exercising our spiritual muscles and the Church is being strengthened.
2. Missions resists creeping heresy. A strong Church is healthier and better able to resist creeping heresy. It’s hard to say which came first the retreat from missions or the adoption of heterodox teaching, but we can be certain that a Church that grows strong in faith will resist creeping heresy. Thus engaging missions today will help the Church hold onto the gains made in reaffirming our historic and biblical Faith. To avoid missions is to risk repeating the mistakes and failures of the last fifty years.
3. Missions stretches our faith. How big do we really believe God is? How much do we expect God to reveal Himself in our generation? Missions often places the Church in the context of people who face incredible obstacles in life. When we see children get clean drinking water for the first time, or a village receive medical care for the first time, or a family receive the hope of salvation, then our faith is rewarded and increased—which in turn opens the door to trust God to act in our own lives and circumstance.
4. Missions clarifies our purposes. Today there are opportunities to get involved in cross-cultural church planting missions here in the US, in Central and South America, in Africa, in Asia, among children, refugees, international students, and the least evangelized. There are far too many excellent opportunities for any one parish, diocese or even a province to do it all. Remember that one in five people around the world still have no access to the Gospel in their own language. Therefore each parish, diocese and providence must discern carefully with God how we are to focus our attentions, prayers, and actions.
5. Missions sharpens our theology. We have already seen this in the current crisis. The debates within the Church and the Communion have forced us to examine our teaching with respect to the authority of Scripture, the essence of God, the nature of being human, and the character of the Church. The debates have not been pleasant, but the process of purifying and clarifying our theology has been worth it. Most of the New Testament was written to sharpen the Church’s theology or practice in missionary settings. Likewise our missions today help us focus and clarify our teaching today.
6. Missions builds global relationships. Our high-tech, fast-paced culture encourages independence and isolation. Each person and organization does their own thing for good or for bad. Missions is counter-cultural, drawing us into relationships with those who are different from us. Isolation is replaced with cooperation; independence is tempered by humility and accountability. Missions benefits the Church at home as much as the new Church planted and nurtured in another culture.
7. Missions disciplines our finances. Money is tight right now, can we afford to do missions? And don’t we need to raise moneys to plant churches here at home? These questions echo the very similar questions that individuals ask themselves when their parish invites them to tithe and give to the annual stewardship campaign. The stewardship committees and clergy are quick to point out that tithing helps individuals to bring God into all of their financial decisions and to see that He indeed is able to provide all our needs. That should be the same answer for parishes, dioceses, and provinces when they ask about the financial investment in cross-cultural church planting missions.
8. Missions nurtures the fruit and gifts of the Spirit. The Lord gives us the freedom to grow in the Spirit or to quench the Spirit in our lives. We can know the joy of the Lord in the Spirit, or we can be grumpy Christians. I have learned so much about generosity, trust, love, hope, self-control and all the fruit of the Spirit from my cross-cultural friendships. Likewise, I have discovered so much more that God works through me by the strength of the Spirit even when I am outside my comfort zone where I really have to trust Him rather than my own skills and smarts. Missions nurtures therefore my own growth in the Lord.
9. Missions engages youth. Again and again, I have seen youth in our culture eager to be asked to do something big, significant, and worthy. The Church has habitually asked too little of them. When we trust our young people to follow the Lord, they respond! The irony is that we often give our young people more freedom to minister and lead when they are away on mission trips than when they are at home-and God works through them with enthusiasm, zeal, and power. On Pentecost, Peter intertwined ministry across distance (missions) and time (youth ministry), when he said (Acts 2:39), “The promise is for you and your children, and for those far away, for all whom the Lord will call.”
10. Missions builds leadership for the future. A well known rector at the time, now a bishop, told me ten years ago that almost all of the most dynamic rectors he had encountered had at some point lived outside their home culture. He did not know how, but he was convinced that missions and cross-cultural living was God’s way of raising up creative, inspiring, powerful leaders. From my experience, I too have seen that those who actively engage cross-cultural ministry begin to ask new questions that probe more deeply what God is doing in a parish and a community. They are freed up to lead God’s people at home and away.

That’s ten reasons why we must ensure that cross-cultural church-planting missions becomes part of our spiritual and corporate DNA for the next generation and beyond. This is simply far too important a time to do otherwise.