who is going? ... everybody!

"Who is this?" I asked one of our church planters about a 12 year old boy who had accompanied him to our training event. "Oh, he is one of us," replied the church planter. "He is one of your family?" I asked. "No, he is part of our team, he is going with us to plant churches." He added, "our team member's wives and children go too, so that they can relate to the families we meet in the villages."

What a breath of fresh air to meet people like that, where the Great Commission is interpreted so literally and perceived as something that every follower of Christ should obey! Jesus, with all authority, commands us: "As you are going, make disciples of all people groups" (more literal translation). Jesus assumes that everyone in His church will be going somewhere. Not everyone will make it to the "uttermost". Most will be going in their own Jerusalem (Acts 5:42). Some will go to their Judea and Samaria (Acts 8:4, 5). A few will be sent to the ends of the earth (Acts 13:1-3). But everybody in the church is going somewhere. Maybe most are not going where the Lord desires, but they are going. Most are not doing what the Lord has in mind, but they are doing something. Somewhere and something is better than nowhere and nothing, right?

After 200 years of the modern missionary movement the ratio of Christian missionaries to lost population in some places in the world remains shocking. The average for South Asia is less than 10 missionaries for every one million lost persons ("Closing the Gap," Garrison). That includes all evangelical groups. The average for IMB, SBC in South Asia right now is about one missionary for every six million lost. Of course we have a good number of national missionaries, and then many more indigenous workers in some areas (as it should be).

But it still boggles my mind how many people are going somewhere else. Are they hearing the Lord correctly when He calls? Upon hearing where we were going, one of my relatives asked, "Are you sure the Lord said _____? Maybe you heard wrong, maybe He was saying Indiana." I don't think He would say Indiana to me, but you never know.

There are two possible explanations for the ratio imbalance of missionaries to lost population here on this side of the planet. The first is ... this part of the world, and the hundreds of unengaged people groups living here, are reserved for the Gideons. No, not the organization "The Gideons," that distribute Bibles. I mean a type of Gideon. God determined that Gideon only needed 300 to deliver the enemy into the hands of God's people (Judges 7:7). The enemy (the Midianite people) was innumerable (Judges 7:12). The reason given by the Lord to Gideon for this strategy: "The people who are with you are too many (Gideon had 32,000 soldiers at first) ... lest Israel claim glory for itself against Me, saying, 'My own hand has saved ...' (Judges 7:2)."

Hummm ... maybe that's it. I don't know, it very well could be ... but you haven't heard the second explanation. Could it be ... God is calling and His people are not listening? Missional churches SEND. Everbody is going. Hopefully not to Indiana.