An Interview with David Strain (part 1)
What is missions and how does a church develop an involvement in missionary work?
Missions is the ministry of the Word in calling sinners to repentance from sin and obedience to God. Every minister of the gospel is a missionary. There are those who are not in the ordained ministry who are missionaries, but every minister, whether in a settled ministry, involved in church planting, or doing evangelistic ministry of some sort is a missionary.
This work of missions produces Christians, but it also produces more missionaries. There is a desire in the heart of every believer to see more people come to Christ. And there is a delight in the heart of every believer when a person lost in sin comes to a saving hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. This means that a church where the gospel of Christ is faithfully preached and where the lives of God’s people are being brought into conformity with God’s Word will have a desire for missions. This congregation will be involved in missions in their own fellowship, but they’ll also desire to see missionary endeavour outside of that context in their home town, in their home nation, and throughout the world. This congregation will delight in the fruit of the gospel at home, and abroad. And that delight in the fruit of the gospel will produce a greater fervour for further missionary involvement.
This desire for and delight in missions will bring forth a variety of results in the life of a congregation. It will produce a joy in Christ and in his gospel, a willingness and motivation to serve, prayer and thanksgiving for the work of the gospel at home and abroad, and fruit of the gospel in the ministry of a congregation.
There will be several marks of a church that is a missionary church. They will pray for gospel ministry, in their own congregation and around the world. They will work to develop a pattern of supporting missionary work financially. They will be a church that is sending men, women, and families from their midst to the mission field. And they will eventually develop a legacy of missions. This will bear fruit over time, with generation after generation involved in missions. It will be a protection against the loss of the gospel in the ministry of the church and it will produce families that follow Christ through successive generations.
What is missions? It is gospel ministry. It is calling men, women, and children from death into life by the power of the gospel.
