{"id":3768,"date":"2019-04-10T00:01:51","date_gmt":"2019-04-10T05:01:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jfbelievers.com\/?p=3768"},"modified":"2019-04-10T00:01:51","modified_gmt":"2019-04-10T05:01:51","slug":"staying-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.jfbduluth.com\/index.php\/2019\/04\/10\/staying-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Staying Home"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Before\nJesus ascended, He left His men with marching orders. In giving those orders,\nHe made it clear to both the devil and<\/em>\nHis disciples what He intended to accomplish from afar. He intended to build\nHis Church, just like He had always said, through willing men & women for\ncenturies to come. Only now, this plan was no longer mere<\/em> talk<\/em>, it had actually\nbegun<\/em>. The Commission had been given,\nand the gates of hell were on high alert. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After\n2,000 years of building, the Church of God is yet unfinished. The work is still\nhappening, but the war is still raging. Our progress is sure, but it\u2019s slow,\nand it seems that we\u2019ve got a long way to go. A modern missionary to Asia gives\na sobering first-hand assessment of one possible reason for any lack of success\nin our work, saying this: \u201cSadly, over\nthe centuries of missionary efforts, there has been a huge disconnect between\nthe church at home and those sent to the mission field. People at home are not\nsure what to do or say to those in the field, and those in the field often feel\nforgotten and abandoned. At the same time, it\u2019s hard for those in the mission\nfield to accurately describe what it\u2019s like where they\u2019re at, and so they give\nup trying, leaving those at home without the full knowledge of what\u2019s happening\nand what they\u2019re going through<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another article reminds us that: \u201cWhen a congregation sends out missionaries, they extend their church\u2019s ministry beyond their immediate cultural and geographical context.  This partnership means the missionaries do not cease to belong to their sending church, or are simply absent friends, but should remain valued members of their church, albeit in another place. A healthy relationship between a sending church and its missionaries will be a rewarding and enriching two-way process, keeping the church abreast of God\u2019s wider purposes and giving an increasing awareness of cross-cultural and global mission<\/em>\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Forgotten Statistics<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMission\u2019s\nSeason\u201d has begun for us already this year, and the season itself only seems to\nget longer and longer. The JFB community has a total of 4 short-term missionary\nendeavors in 2019, stretching from March to October, with a total of 48\nparticipants, many of whom will be on multiple trips. The numbers are impressive\nfor a church our size, and noteworthy for various reasons, but hidden behind\nthose figures are other statistics that are easily overlooked. As many people\nas we are sending into the mission field this year, there are approximately three\ntimes as many people who are staying home<\/em>.\nThey will not<\/em> be prayed over, they\nwill not<\/em> be sent out, and they will not<\/em> keep us updated on the exciting\nthings they\u2019re doing for God\u2019s Kingdom via the mission\u2019s blog. Instead of\nfighting against malaria, jet lag, and homesickness, they\u2019ll be doing battle\nwith the common cold, long commutes, and monotony. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Satan\u2019s\nchief concern is that we, the church, unify<\/em>,\nand that each of us gives full attention to our particular role in missions\n(whether going or staying), and that we will actually fulfill<\/em> the Great Commission. His strategy, in part, to prevent\nthat from happening, is to promote a \u201cdisconnect\u201d between the church and her\nmissionaries. The Lord knows his schemes and has shown us how to fight against\nthat disconnect. There is a way for those whose mission field goes no further\nthan the county line, to partner with those we\u2019ve sent out, and share in the\nwork of building up the Church of Christ. But how? How can we who stay home, bless,\nserve, and unite with those in the field, keep the bond between us strong, and\nshare in the eternal reward for the missionary work done by this church?  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Be Relational<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

They\nsay that \u201cAbsence makes the heart grow\nfonder<\/em>\u201d. In other words, distance needn\u2019t weaken the relationship you have\nto the ones in the field. In fact, because of the spiritual dynamic in true\nChristian fellowship, it can actually make it stronger. Read what Paul wrote to\nthe Romans in 1:9-13 and you\u2019ll see that his affinity for the friends he had at\nchurch didn\u2019t diminish because of his work in the field; quite the opposite.\nLet separation prove how deep your friendship really is. Our missionaries know\nthat they have the support of the church, but do they know whether they have yours<\/em>? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Be\nsensitive, of course, to how you can best communicate that to our missionaries\nwithout burdening them, or interfering with their work (Paul wrote a letter, he\ndidn\u2019t bombard them with voicemails and text messages). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Be Prayerful<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Absence\ncan make the heart grow fonder, but it can also cause the mind to forget. This\nmay sound like a given, but pray for your missionaries regularly. Pray for\ntheir specific needs\u2026if you don\u2019t know what they are, then ask them! Ask them\nbefore they leave. Get updates while they\u2019re gone. Assure them that you\u2019ll be\npraying for their specific prayer requests. And then make sure to follow\nthrough with your promise. Make the extra effort to be thoughtful and pray for\nwhat they may not be thinking of (which is the very heart of intercessory\nprayer; Romans 8:26). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nformerly quoted missionary to the people of Asia puts it like this: \u201cWe don\u2019t need people at home to pray weak\nprayers for us like, <\/em>\u201cAnd God, remember ____. Bless him\/her.\u201d We are on the \u201cfront lines\u201d in countries\nwhere the Gospel has either never been taken or is not well-known. We need\npowerful prayers from you! Not just short, last-thought on a prayer-list\nprayers. We need to be prayed for as sons and daughters on the front-lines of\nbattlefields are prayed for. I encourage you to adopt some missionaries to\nbattle for in prayer; prayer for faith, encouragement, continued vision,\nstrategy, health, wisdom, protection, & harvest reaping<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Be Thoughtful<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Find\ncreative and helpful ways to bless missionaries according to their needs. Is\nthere anything you can do to help them get ready for their trip? Is there\nsomething they could use while they\u2019re gone? Is there any help they\u2019ll need\nwhen they come back? What can you do to say, \u201cWelcome home, we\u2019ve missed you<\/em>\u201d. Sometimes the expression of a\nlittle extra care and consideration can be very refreshing to a tired servant\nof God. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYour love has given me great joy and\nencouragement, because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the Lord’s\npeople<\/em>\u201d Philemon 1:7<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. Be Missional<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The\nmissionaries you\u2019re praying for have such a strong desire to see the work of\nGod accomplished, they were willing to rearrange schedules, suffer docked pay, and\nleave friends, family, & comfort, in order to do it. They\u2019ve made major\nfinancial sacrifices, and taken substantial risks to fulfill their role in the\nGreat Commission. Nothing would encourage them more than to remember that you\nare doing the very same thing on domestic soil. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Be evangelistic<\/em> like they are. Work hard<\/em> like they are. Make sacrifices<\/em> like they are. Leaving\nthe state isn\u2019t required for a person to be \u201cmissional\u201d. You can serve Jesus in\nmany ways right here, right now, that will put you in the game and bless your\nmissionaries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re\nall part of the same team. If we take missions seriously as a church, then let\nthose of us who won\u2019t be boarding a plane or piling in a van this year make\nsure that we\u2019re every bit as missional as those who are. The Great Commission\nwill be fulfilled when each of us finds & fills our place in it. And when\nwe do, we\u2019ll shake the gates of hell.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Before Jesus ascended, He left His men with marching orders. In giving those orders, He made it clear to both the devil and His disciples what He intended to accomplish from afar. He intended to build His Church, just like He had always said, through willing men & women for centuries to come. Only now, … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":3769,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pastors-notes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.jfbduluth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.jfbduluth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.jfbduluth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jfbduluth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jfbduluth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jfbduluth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3768\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jfbduluth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.jfbduluth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jfbduluth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jfbduluth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}