The Blurring Lines of Going Versus Sending in Global Missions

When Samuel Zwemer left rural Iowa to sail to Bahrain in 1891 there were few in the Arabian Peninsula who had heard the gospel. His work over the next forty years is seen in many ways as the genesis of missions work among Muslims in the Middle East and Zwemer is now known as the “Apostle to Islam.” He responded to the call of God to take the gospel to the Muslim world by leaving everything in order to live in Bahrain and later, Egypt. He learned the language, he started a literature ministry, he mobilized others to join him and he used every available means to share the gospel with Muslims. At the beginning of the 20th century however, those means were limited to the missionary himself and the printed page.

In Western Christians in Global Missions (2012), Doug Birdsall is quoted saying, “The Great Commission is for every church in every culture in every generation. There are no exclusions. But . . . every church in every culture in every generation must determine the way in which they respond to this responsibility -- in a way that is appropriate to time and context.” Zwemer and his contemporaries were faithful to respond to the great commission in every way they knew how for their time and context. Missionaries like Zwemer have been sent by churches to the unreached places of our world for the last 200 years. They have done and will continue to do amazing work and we see the fruit of their labors all across the globe.

Peggy is another believer from rural Iowa who is sharing the gospel with Muslims. She has not yet learned another language and hasn’t traveled outside the U.S. and yet every Tuesday morning she jumps on a video call with a young university student living in a Muslim majority country. They’ve been reading through a creation to Christ set of stories from the Bible as a way for this young lady to practice English, a language that will open up doors for opportunity for better education and future employment. Peggy is the first true follower of Jesus this young lady has ever met. For the first time in her life she is reading the living and active word of God. For the first time in her life there is a Christian who is praying specifically for her and her family.

Peggy’s ministry, appropriate for her time and context, highlights the increasingly blurred edges of sending versus going. In Zwemer’s day, the missionary went and did their work and their sending churches prayed and supported them but had few other opportunities to connect with the work. Missionary work was literally a world away.

Globalization and innovations in technology have quickly brought our world closer together than ever before. A recent search on a commonly used language exchange app found that over 200 people from Turkey, a country that is 99% Muslim, had logged onto the app in the previous 24 hours looking to connect with a native English speaker. Searches of several other Muslim majority countries resulted in much the same reality. Hundreds of thousands of Muslims are actively looking for friendships with native English speakers online. And indeed, they are finding friends. They are connecting with secular humanists and new age spiritualists, radical atheists and run of the mill hedonists. As I lead Embassy, an online outreach for Crescent Project, the focus of our work is to see that more and more of them connect with true followers of Jesus.

Jesus urged his disciples to pray for harvest workers to be thrust out into the harvest fields (Luke 10:2). The church is a slumbering giant, a harvest force that needs to wake up to the fact that every believer can be a part of completing the great commission among the nations. A love of Jesus and an Internet connection are all that is required. A new day is dawning when those who are sending are also going and the lines between sending and going are increasingly blurring.

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Resources:

• Samuel Zwemer Biography
• Western Christians in Global Missions
• Crescent Project
• Embassy Online Outreach
• Article: Unleashing the Ordinary Saints