Launching a blog

GFA Missions has decided to join the missions conversation. Why? Our burden is to become a trusted voice on missions to stimulate a fresh awakening of Great Commission laborers in conservative churches.

It is our hope that articles published here through Commissioned will be a true spiritual blessing to all God’s people who have a sincere interest in missions. We desire to encourage your faith and help you better understand your role in obeying the Great Commission.

The Lord has given to GFA a special group of missionaries and leaders that can rightly handle the Word of God and help us to think through missions. Our regional directors have all served foreign fields: Mexico, Japan, and Cambodia. Our stateside directors are seasoned pastors and church planters. GFA’s missionaries serve in over 30 countries and in every imaginable context.

There are many voices out there, including many who speak to missions and ministry matters. We enjoy reading and hearing from co-laborers in the work of the Gospel and have a strong desire to join the gospel ministry conversation by sharing our God-given experiences and lessons learned. We want to promote gospel ministry every way we can!

Stimulating a fresh spiritual awakening

We don’t want to just add more knowledge or statistics to the missions database. We are increasingly burdened for a fresh spiritual awakening, a new movement of God, that results in many new laborers thrust out into God’s harvest, both at home and abroad.

• We want to encourage Christians to think biblically and pray fervently for the lost.
• We hope to urge God’s people to make disciples in obedience to Jesus.
• We want to help Christians who want to give of their resources to know where to best invest in ministry.
• We desire to help our brothers and sisters to focus on God’s priorities for life and ministry.
• We seek to point believers to the joy of the ministry.
• We pray that God’s people will continue to become and to send out laborers—no matter what the circumstances are in this changing world.

Doing this strengthens and multiplies churches. It also fulfills the Great Commission at home and abroad. 

Commissioned: Extending Grace to the Nations

Commissioned

Given authority to do a task. A superior officer giving a soldier orders to complete, or a police chief tasking his officers with a duty to fulfill. A president issuing directives to his staff to accomplish on his behalf. A king sending his couriers throughout the land to declare his proclamations.

The last words of Jesus, our King and Commander, recorded in Matthew 28, are often referred to as “The Great Commission.” Why? Because our risen Lord, Jesus Christ, was given authority over all things by His Father. Jesus has commissioned us, delegated to us the task of going and making disciples of all nations. We are to go at His command, in His name, using His authority, for Him. All believers in Jesus Christ are commissioned to make disciples and do all they can to see that this task is carried out among all peoples until He returns.

We want to provide resources that will encourage us to this end.

Extending grace to the nations

This phrase comes from that incredible chapter describing gospel ministry in general and missions in particular. In 2 Corinthians 4:15, Paul expresses this about his gospel labors: “It is all for your sake, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.” As grace extends to more and more people, thanksgiving increases, to the praise and glory of God.

We are all called to be “Gospel-extenders,” those who increase the reach or spread of the Gospel. When God’s grace spreads to more and more people, God receives much glory. Some are to be “sent ones” who leave home, and even their home culture, to be one of God’s instruments in that extension among the nations. As the Gospel is extended, grace is extended. Grace received results in eternal praise.  

May God help us, His people, to labor for Him so that His grace might be extended more and more throughout the earth, resulting in His praise everywhere!

Will you take a moment to pray for us as we seek to glorify the Lord through this blog?