Christians have always been stirred by that command of Jesus, “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19). In obedience to that command the church has rightly been a sending (or apostolic) community. The first apostles headed out with the conviction that “salvation is found in no one else (than Jesus), for there is no other name given under heaven by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
The impact of missionaries on the globe has been immense. The church has been planted around the world amongst nearly every tribe and tongue, frequently accompanied by educational and medical facilities never possible before.
However, globally the world is a different place today. In many nations people can no longer go as missionaries. They must go as teachers or doctors or nurses or such like, and faith must be communicated in deeds more than words.
Seeing what is happening in God’s world today reminds me that it is the plan and purpose of the evil one is to bring death and misery to human beings, oppression and deception. What was witnessed this past week in a shopping mall in Kenya and a church in Pakistan is just the tip of a very big ice berg. Violence and terror, or institutionalised coercion, are the means used for groups to get their way. This now goes hand in hand with the massive numbers of refugees the world has to deal with and the poverty that grips so many places.
Jesus said to his disciples, “the hour is coming when those who kill you will think they are offering a service to God” (John 16:2). In many parts of the world, that time is here.
By contrast, the way of Jesus is the way of non-violence. It is the way of service and sacrifice, of laying life down for others. There has never been a more important time to be a Christian. There has never been a more important time to be praying for God’s work amid the spiritual warfare that is unleashed in the world right now.
The great missionary challenge remains, whether we live amid the apathy and self-sufficiency of secularism in the west, or the hostility and brutality of elsewhere. Let us remember, the real struggle is “not against flesh and blood but against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms…” (Ephesians 6:12). So let us be engaged with ‘the great missionary challenge’ today. For the command of Jesus and peoples’ need for the love of Jesus, remains as urgent as ever. We are all missionaries.