Are We Really Ready for This?

In a letter to one of his missionaries, Jack Miller, a pastor and the founder of World Harvest Mission, discussed his desire to see the churches he wanted to plant grow in biblical character. Miller wanted to move beyond a small, human-sized vision to embrace a grand, God-sized mission, but he also understood the sacrifice required. Here is a portion of that letter that challenges me as I think about the new visions being formed by the various outreach bodies of my church. (The North he references here is Brownlow North, a Presbyterian leader who challenged his church about the lack of prayer and leadership development within the church.)

Our aim is to gain a bigger vision for what God can do in church planting and mobilizing leaders. As I believe you have put it, "I have been thinking too much about planting a single church, when I should also be thinking about how we can moblize and train our own missionaries and leaders to plant 200 churches..."

The rest of us share your vision, I do believe. But if North is right about us, then we have problems. It simply cannot happen unless we learn to pray better and train better--and also to think more clearly. We all have a heart burden to plant churches in the world's darkest places. But think for a moment. This requires sacrifice, suffering, endurance, even death on the part of American and national missionaries. Are we really ready for this?

I do believe that of ourselves we would never be ready. But in spite of our many weaknesses, I am persuaded we are moving in the right direction. The glory is all God's.

Three items draw my attention here and deeply humble me as a pastor.

1. We are right to seek the bigger vision of God. It is good for God's people to be so passionate for his glory that we want to see the Gospel proclaimed everywhere. We don't need to settle for what is currently working, or even for what seems possible. If God gives us a vision for what seems impossible, we should pursue it and assume the Holy Spirit will act in ways we cannot.

2. We will almost certainly underestimate the cost of God's bigger vision. That first point makes me feel good. This one doesn't. To press into God's bigger vision does not mean we will be safe or happy. All wars have casualties, and it was Jesus himself who said that those who lose their lives for his sake and the Gospel's will find eternal life. Sometimes we lose our lives metaphorically by obedience and sometimes we lose our lives physically by obedience. But make no mistake, all followers of Jesus lose their lives. And if we embrace a greater vision given to us by God, it will certainly come with greater personal sacrifice. Miller is right to ask, "Are we really ready for this?"

3. To achieve God's bigger vision, we need to pray, train, and even think better. If we are going to embrace a grand, God-sized vision for our ministry, and we know with it will come greater sacrifice, then we need to prepare spiritually, emotionally, mentally, and even physically. If we are going to do greater things as a church, we need to pray more fervently and think through the plans with more clarity. I know that I have a tendency to assume I can do more work without exerting more effort; that somehow success will just "happen." But the fact is God calls his church to pray, work, and think hard. That's why he gave us a day to rest: he knows how hard we need to work to do our part in the Kingdom of God!