I am in Northern China right now and in a city with over 300 missionaries among 10 million people. I spoke with one of these missionaries at a house church on Sunday. He is attending the church after being in the country for three years he has no disciples and no real results from his specific efforts. I asked him what his goal is in being in the country and he said, “I would like to develop indigenous worship leaders in the country.” This missionary’s goal is to ignite church planting movements among college students whom they have identified as the future influencers of society.
Another missionary in the same city has been here even longer with similar results, measurably speaking. He has started a coffee shop in the downtown area where I ate breakfast this morning to the sound of Casting Crowns and Third Day. Their goal in being here is also to assist in and ignite church planting. I sat in their shop for over an hour and the only Christian influence being exerted were the subliminal messages you could get from the music. The owners have a strict rule to not use words in their shop like Jesus, God, church, missionary, etc so as not to cause their front problems with the police.
I was speaking with a local pastor named Stephen who was reached by my friend Jake here four years ago when Jake first arrived. I asked him if he had ever met a Christian before Jake. He said, “Yeah, sure! I had many teachers at the university who are all here to spread Christianity but I never knew it. They never told me about the Gospel or invited me to church. I learned English from them but not Jesus.” Jake and his wife shared Christ with Stephen and many others. This week I worshipped Christ together with almost 80 Chinese in the church they started. They are one of maybe 5 missionaries in this city of 300+ missionaries who have started a church.
Several months ago I was speaking on a Bible college campus about missions to Muslims. A student approached me and shared with me his plan to start a boy’s home in the West of the U.S. He wanted to know what I thought about this. I told him in so many words, and would still tell him: Mathew 4:19.
Jesus called his disciples here to be fishers of men. He spent two to three years with them teaching them to be bold preachers of the Kingdom of God. He modeled for them everything they were to do. He sent them forth to replicate what he was teaching them. He continued to instruct, mold, and build their faith and skills. After his time of training by fire he sent them out, equipped with the Holy Spirit to fish in all the world for men. He taught them to start churches and make disciples.
Would the disciples have started a boy’s home? Would the disciples, having learned at the feet of Jesus, have made it their goal to train indigenous worship leaders? Would the disciples have started businesses and café’s in every city where they would enter? NO!
While there are still cities in the world by the thousands without churches, while there are still billions who have not heard of Christ, while there are still young lives ready to be trained, how can we “disciples of Christ” do anything but focus our efforts on the preaching of the Gospel, the discipling of men, and the planting of churches? Can we not trust the methods of Christ to be more effective than all our plans? With the one life I am given, I want to preach Christ, disciple men, and plant churches.