I long to see God’s work advanced globally. And I have the hunch you do too if you’re reading this page. It’s thrilling to me when I read of professions of salvation in Hong Kong, faithfulness of first-generation believers facing hardship in Papua New Guinea, or the ordination of a new pastor in South Africa. This is great stuff that has eternal ramifications!

I serve as an assistant pastor in New Jersey, not New Delhi. I live in a home owned by an American church, not a jungle hut or a flat in a sprawling smog-filled metropolis. I eat cheesesteak, not fried worms. But in the midst of attempting to fulfill God’s call to a life of service to the American church (at least so far), I’m committed to the furtherance of the gospel worldwide. I know people must be sent if the Gospel is going to be preached and heard and believed (Romans 10:14-15).

But how shall they be sent?

That’s the question that Paul didn’t ask in Romans 10. I don’t think he needed to ask. It’s obvious. Churches must send preachers of the Gospel. Here are a few ways churches (and especially their pastors) can send missionaries:

1. Keep the needs and Bible exhortations before your congregation. I’d be surprised if most of us don’t start here. It’s a no-brainer: People need to see “the fields white unto harvest.” Missionary letters, cards, presentations, and trips are important. Preaching from the great Bible passages about the work of the ministry is critical. But we can do more. We can pray for our missionaries by name and need in our services. We can let our churches know about our missionaries’ special needs, efforts, and answers to prayer. We can write occasional messages of exhortation to our church families, emphasizing the call to missionary service. And you can come up with even more and better ideas that fit your local church.

    

2. Continue to dedicate a significant portion of your church’s resources to global missions. When a church invests funds in missions, it speaks. Let’s not fall prey to the “missional” impulse to cut funds to foreign missions in the name of strategy. When a church outfits and updates a mission house or prophet’s chamber for missionaries on deputation and furlough, it speaks. When a church staff dedicates a significant portion of its time to advancing global missions, it speaks. Young ears hear the message that mission work is important.

    

3. Simplify the nature of New Testament gospel work. American churches often have so much activity going on that the essence of what a church is supposed to be doing is obscured in the flurry of good things. When an emerging adult sees this level of programmed activity happening in a ministry, he can feel a sense of inadequacy to ever plant or lead a church. (How does someone do this? Surely only the most extraordinarily gifted Christians could figure it out.) But a constant emphasis on the basics of building a church by making disciples will open his vision to the simplicity of the task and the realistic possibility of God using him to do it!

    

4. Emphasize the Gospel from the pulpit (and in Sunday School and Junior Church and . . .). Young people growing up in solid churches are perhaps the most fertile ground for future missionaries. But many of them need constant reminders of the basics of the Gospel. Is there any passage in the Bible that can’t be related to an aspect of the Gospel in some way? If we repeatedly draw these dotted theological lines, our young people stand a much greater chance of emerging into adulthood with a robust understanding of the nature of gospel work. These are missionary seeds worth sowing.

    

5. Train parents to grow missionaries. Let’s face it, no one has more potential to rear a missionary than a parent has. More time. More trust (hopefully). If we can somehow help parents to grasp the unmatched value of letting go of their children to do WHATEVER God wants them to do WHEREVER He wants them to do it, perhaps we might have more budding missionaries. But this means deep heart-value change. I fear that many well-meaning parents have shied away from appropriate encouragement of their children to answer the call to the foreign field in the name of not wanting to call them when God isn’t. This is regrettable. Parents would do better to err on the side of urging children into God’s work, if they must err. But I don’t think we need to go wrong here; I believe we can legitimately “salt the oats” our children eat by daily expressing delight in God’s global work and sprinkling in a personal hint about their future on occasion. Let’s encourage parents to send their children to the mission field!

    

6. Personally exhort young teen men (yes, especially men) to consider foreign missions. We ought to be bold enough to suggest to a young man that God might be preparing him for participation in the great gospel work somewhere outside the USA! This shouldn’t be a taboo topic. It can be done in the framework of helping him dream about a future of glorious service to the King of Kings!

    

7. Keep the glory of God at the forefront of your message. Cultivating a missions mindset in a church is a long process. But we dare not short-circuit it by emphasizing needs and opportunities apart from the big purpose of the magnification of our Lord. If God uses us to develop people’s hearts so that they beat with fervent desire for the eternal glory of God through the Church, missionaries will go to the field.

Missionaries must be sent. If we don’t send them, who will? Let’s endeavor to prepare and launch a great new band of men and women dedicated to serving the Lord in the Great Work!