Why is missions important

The two basic kinds of missionaries are long term and short term. Long-term missionaries dedicate years of their lives to the communities they serve and become part of those places. Short-term missionaries may dedicate their time to one project and then leave. Both are effective in different ways. A long-term missionary conveys that the church is dedicated to the community and helping the people.

A short-term missionary may fulfill a support role for reaching this same goal. There are also local missionaries and international missionaries. The question of if missionary work is important has been raised by many different people throughout the history of the world.

Worship is ultimate, not missions because God is ultimate, not man. Most of our thoughts toward missions and the importance of missions are to find those who have not heard the good news and focus on reaching them. This is true and biblically accurate. The question is, what is our motivation behind such an act?

God has created us for his glory. The most important thing that matters, in the end, is whether or not God is glorified. With that in mind, we look back to those who remain lost. But what is so surprising is that its outcomes are almost entirely unexamined. The food we ship to Haiti, the well we dig in Sudan, the clothes we distribute in inner-city Detroit — all seem like such worthy efforts.

Yet those closest to the ground — on the receiving end of this outpouring of generosity — quietly admit that it may be hurting more than helping. Destroying personal initiative. When we do for those in need what they have the capacity to do for themselves, we disempower them. Africa can serve as a large-scale example of the problem. How effective has this aid been? Country by country, Africans are worse off today than they were a half century ago. Overall per-capita income is lower today than in the s.

Life expectancy has stagnated, and adult literacy has plummeted below pre levels. Businesses, corporations and all kinds of organizations have learned they can sell more products and move more merchandise when they move their customers by adding the charitable angle to whatever they are selling. Every Christian and every church should take seriously this idea of missions. Every mission, missionary or ministry we support should be bringing people to JESUS and helping make fully devoted disciples of them.

On top of that, we give away over half a million dollars or more annually through our Change for a Dollar program, meeting the needs of people in our community, most of whom have never been on our church campus. We also invest thousands of dollars in our annual Day of Service and annual short-term mission trips. The unique reward of being in a local church like Crossroads, is that we are able to see with our own eyes and touch with our own hands the fruits of our labors and the fruitfulness of our giving.

In the incarnation and the Gospel, we see the extent to which God will go to make Himself known. One might say that our triune God is Himself the first missionary. As such, our summons to missions is naturally bound up in the mission of God itself. Building projects, health clinics, orphan care, and the like are all important humanitarian activities.

Yet these good endeavors, when detached from evangelism, discipleship, and church planting, do not constitute biblical missions. Instead, God has given us clear instructions about playing our role within His ultimate mission. In light of this commission, we must recognize there are places in the world where people have never heard the Gospel, where disciples have not been made yet, and there is currently no church offering acceptable worship to God in Christ.

This is where the need for international missions arises. And at Cedarville, our students have a pivotal role to play. Cedarville does not send missionaries, but we partner with churches in missions.