Keeping Up With Missionaries: A Christian Responsibility

One of the highlights of the year at Fellowship Baptist Church is the annual missions conference. Growing up at my church back home, I always looked forward to this time. The Sunday before missions conference, a small model of our church building, handmade by a long-term member, was placed on the communion table, attended by small flags from all over the world sticking out of it. It always excited me, as I knew we were about to meet families going all over the globe to tell people about Jesus. I have never lost that sense of excitement, and gearing up for our own missions conference is just as thrilling to me, now decades later.

But we are four months removed from the conference, and I think it is easy to become less involved in the lives of our missionaries. I want to begin by giving you two reasons for being interested in missions around the year, and I will end by giving you some practical steps to stay plugged into our missions ministry.

Two Reasons

First, you should care about our missions ministry all year long because our missionaries depend on your giving all year long. It's easy to think about missions during our conference, and that could be when you are most faithful to give. But those on the field need funds just as badly the rest of the year. We will be most faithful to give if our heart is most invested in the people and ministries we are giving toward, and this necessitates staying up to date with these people and ministries. It is harder to drop off in your giving if you know this leads to real world effects downstream for missionaries you truly care about.

Second, you should be invested in missions all the time because our missionaries are in spiritual warfare. Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 2:17-18, "But we, brethren, being taken from you for a short time in presence, not in heart, endeavoured the more abundantly to see your face with great desire. Wherefore we would have come unto you, even I Paul, once and again; but Satan hindered us." Do you not think Satan is still at work trying to interrupt evangelism and church planting today? If you know he is, then you know our missionaries need our prayers. But you also know that we do not tend to pray for people we never think about. If you miss connection group for a month, your morning quiet time will most likely not be filled with prayers for people in your group. If you do not keep up with our missionaries you will not pray for them much either.

Those are two basic reasons you ought to keep up with our missionaries. Here are some practical ways to stay engaged.

Three Suggestions

First, prioritize attending services when we host missionaries. This Sunday evening, we are blessed to have Dallas Brown with us in services. He is a dedicated missionary to Burkina Faso, a 63% Muslim country in Africa. I hope you plan on attending Sunday evening services all the time (I have written about that in the past!) But this Sunday evening will be extra special as we get to hear from this brother missionary.

Second, read the missions update toward the end of the Midweek. In other words, scroll down on this very page, and see who you can pray for this week. When it is available, I am going to start listing the missionary's contact information so you can let them know you are praying for them. Missionaries and church planters are often shocked to be told their letters are read and specific prayers are being made for them. This can be very encouraging.

Third, become friends with our missionaries on Facebook if they have an active presence. We often complain about the woes of social media, and there are many to complain about. However one blessing of Facebook is getting real time updates from our missionaries.You can go through our missions booklet we gave out this Spring and see how many of them are online. Some of them even post videos that will give you a really good idea of what ministry is like in their field.

One Aspiration

In 2 Corinthians 7:3, Paul told the church at Corinth: "you are in our hearts." I love that little phrase tucked away in this verse. It is just glorious. I trust you attend and enjoy our missions conference - even that you look forward to it. It would be a delight if you pick up prayer cards, meet missionaries at their tables, watch their presentations, and come to the missions banquet each year. But much more than that, I hope that by the end of your Christian life, you will have cultivated relationships with a few missionaries so deep that they can say you, brother or sister, were in their hearts.