I went to a very missions minded
school. I’d estimate that 15-25% of the population was
involved in some sort of missions trip any given year. That
was great but sometimes it was presented badly. At times it
felt like those pushing to go on missions trips thought you
were a bad Christian if you didn’t want to go overseas to
help the people in Jamaica or Africa or wherever they may be
going. It seemed like they were laying a huge guilt trip on
those who didn’t join them. At times you wondered if these
people believed that the only way to “properly” serve God
was to go overseas – as if the people overseas deserved to
hear the gospel more than our next door neighbors.
The Bible is clear about what our
purpose is; we are to be making disciples. As a Christian we
should feel a duty to do this because we care about lost
people and don’t want them to go to hell. But there are many
ways to go about this and there are many steps. You may not
be the one who plants the seed but instead you are the one
who waters it. Do not feel that you are a bad Christian or
not doing your duty if you are not out on the “front lines”
of evangelism but still play a part in the whole process.
As we will see in the next chapter,
making disciples is a process. While we are called to make
disciples there are many different roles that we can play.
One role in the disciple making process is not more valuable
than another just like the one who plants is not more
important than the one who waters. If either did do their
job, the end result wouldn’t be positive. Don’t let anyone
consider you a bad Christian because your role is different
from someone else. The important thing is that you are
active in making disciples.
Next Chapter -
Making Disciples
