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Are You Called to Missions?
By Eowyn Stoddard
1/25/99

Are you called to missions?

You are! Every Christian is. According to the great commission, the disciples are commanded to "go into all the world". You are a disciple of Christ if you are a Christian. Of course, the particular corner of the world you end up in will depend on a more specific guidance of the Lord but that doesn't nullify the command to be a missionary.

Are you called to foreign missions?

Again: Yes, you are! Even the American culture ought to be "foreign" to you since you are a citizen of Heaven. You should not feel at home even in your own culture because you are not of this world. You are placed in it for a time, as a pilgrim. It is foreign territory and your task is to scout it out and win it for Christ.

Are you called to cross-cultural missions?

You guessed: Yes, you are! You will be meeting plenty of people from other cultures within your own town. Whether you are a college student or an employer, you will come into contact with foreigners. How do you treat them? Do you welcome them as you would welcome Christ? Do you see their displacement from their own country as the means God might use to bring them to Himself? Do you see them as the best potential missionaries to their own culture? Ask your foreign friends questions about their country, culture, history, religion. Get to know them and their particular needs and see how Christ can fulfill them. The gospel can cut through cultural barriers so don't worry about not saying the right thing. Sometimes an aspect of the Gospel will address a particular culture in ways you would never have dreamed it would.
I remember talking to a Wycliffe Bible translator. He has just finished the translation of the feeding of the five thousand. He gave it to the Indonesian people for whom he was translating the New Testament, asked them to read it and tell him what it was about so he could make sure his translation was acurate. After reading the account one of them said "we are very afraid!". The translator wondered where he had possibly gone wrong so he asked the man to retell the story in his own words. "Jesus took bread and he broke it and broke it and broke it. There was so much bread that everyone was fed and they even had left-overs". "Why is that frightening?", the translator asked. "Well, if Jesus has the power to do that and we are not on his side, we are afraid of what he could do to us!" God's word addressed that people through his word, inspite of the translator.

Are you called to overseas missions?

Maybe. If God has given you a love for another culture, a strong desire to leave this one or a task you can do elsewhere, why not consider it? Being a missionary sometimes seems like a scary thing but if you have already been active as a missionary here in the US it wouldn't be much of a stretch to do the same thing in another culture. Learning a new language and culture are but the side pleasures God gives us in the discovery of his beautiful, multi-faceted creation.

Once you have determined you would like to go be a missionary in another culture, you will need to contact Mission to the World (the PCA mission agency) or some other mission. They will give you all the necessary information you will need in order to get the ball rolling.

We would love to talk to any of you who have questions about missions in general or about our vision more particularly.