"A congregation that is not deeply and earnestly involved in the worldwide proclamation of the gospel does not understand the nature of salvation." -- Ted Engstrom, former head of Youth for Christ and World Vision International
Jumping out at me from Ted Engstrom's words is the phrase "deeply and earnestly involved." For me, those words raise questions like:
From time to time I hear Nazarenes describe their congregation's involvement in world evangelism as simply, "We always pay our budgets." Things like intercessory prayer support or encouraging children and youth to get involved or providing needed emotional support for missionaries serving on foreign fields do not seem to be on those people's radar.
For them, world missions support is apparently only about sending some money. Furthermore, the way of them say "we pay our budgets," it sounds like they consider it a "tax" levied by the denomination. That gives me the impression that they are neither deeply nor earnestly involved in the worldwide proclamation of the gospel.
Others, when asked about how their church's global involvement, will mention mission trips taken by small groups in their congregation. However, if sending a few members overseas for ten days a year is all they are doing, then they are not really "deeply and earnestly involved" either.
I've heard people in new church plants explain that it is too early in their congreagtion's history for them to think about worldwide proclamation of the gospel. "We'll get to it eventually," they say. Engstrom, who was head of Youth for Christ and then World Vision, would likely say, "If involvement in world evangelism is an option your church hopes to add in the distant future, you really do not understand the nature of salvation."
I've known others who say, "We are called to evangelize right here in our neighborhood. This is where we are fulfilling the Great Commission."
To that, I think Engstrom would respond, "The lost people in your immediate neighborhood need to hear the Gospel, but iIf you have narrowed your concern to a focus solely on them, you really do not understand the nature of salvation."
Deeply and earnestly. Key words. Do they characterize my church's global involvement? Do those words characterize my own involvement?
-- Howard Culbertson
More mini-essays in the "Slogans that awaken the Church" series that appeared in Engage magazine.
World missions history
resources: Black Americans involvement in
world missions World missions history crossword
puzzle Historic world missions
slogans Doing missions well: Missionaries
who exemplified important characteristics Brief
overview of world missions history Monastic
missionary strategy Nazarene Missions
International history PowerPoint: Epochs of
world mission history World missions outreach
from 1600 to the present Missions history
syllabus
Year-by-year timeline of world missions outreach
World missions events that happened day-by-day
Evangelizing the Vikings
William Borden's story