Together for World Missions

It takes the entire congregation to make a World Missions Conference happen. The Missions Committee plays a vital role in planning and organizing our annual conference. But it takes all of us pulling together to call our church family to the grand enterprise of spreading the gospel flame to the ends of the earth. I say “enterprise” because world missions is important, difficult, and dangerous. Is there anything that exceeds gospel proclamation in importance? If we take our lead from the media’s attention to societal values we are left with the temporary. World Missions is about what is eternal. This is not arrogance. This is reality. The environment, drought, presidential campaigning, international terrorism, famine in Darfur, the war in Iraq, and local politics are not unimportant. But in the supernatural order of things certain truths are supreme. God is there. He is not an imaginary being. He has made us for fellowship with Himself. We are sinners and there is an infinite gap between us and a holy God. We can’t reach Him on our own. God has made a way to have access to Him both now and forever. It is through the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We can have the forgiveness of sin and eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ.

What must we do? Many things. But we have an immediate opportunity to invest time, money, and effort into eight days of intense concentration on sending out those who are taking the good news about Jesus Christ around the world. Here are a few ways we can all participate.

1. Commit yourself to praying three times a day for the missions conference; our speakers, Grace Promise for 2008, our attendance, candidates for missionary service.
2. Host a missionary family in your home. Have them to your house for a meal. Spend some time talking with them about what they do.
3. Visit every missionary display in the fellowship hall. Refresh your memory on Berachah’s missionary family.
4. Arrive early enough for the Sunday services so that you can ready your heart to be a hearer and doer of the Word of God. A prepared hearer is a responsive hearer.
5. Determine what should be your part in our Grace Promise commitment for the coming year, 2008. Could it not be more than it was in 2007? Think, talk, and plan with your spouse about your financial involvement in world missions. Are you making any sacrifices so that the gospel can go to those who have never heard about Jesus Christ?
6. Consider the possibility of participating in a missions’ trip in the coming year. Is there a missionary family you could visit at your expense?
7. Set up and plan to pray for a different nation of the world in each week. Get a copy of “Operation World” and pray around the world in 52 weeks.
8. Put a world map up somewhere in home (e.g., a small one on the refrigerator, on the kitchen table) to keep you reminded that the world is bigger than Fayette county and its environs.
9. Adopt a missionary family that you will give special attention to in the coming year; consistent prayer for them, communication through e-mail, attention to special needs they might have, etc.
10. Make up your own list of what you can do to be a team-player in our annual World Missions conference. But let’s not allow these eight days to go by as some form of special entertainment. That will not look good at the judgment seat of Christ.

As I write this I am looking out my window at a squirrel busily digging little holes and packing away acorns for the coming months. Right now his grocery store shelves are full (acorns have been bombarding my roof for two weeks now). That little gray furry creature is focused on the present and the future. Take a lesson from him. Seize the moment and plan for the future. The Lord Jesus Christ is coming again for His sheep.

Dr. Howard E. Dial
Berachah Bible Church