MISSIOLOGY
IX. Seeing the Big Picture
To facilitate missions, one large mission agency identified two questions that each missionary should ask. First, each missionary asks a question like this Lord, how can you use me to reach a lost world for Jesus Christ This question leads to a commitment to follow Christ in mission work. A second question leads to seeing the big picture of missions “Lord,
what’s it going to take to get the job done?”
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By asking this second question, a missionary focuses on the whole job, rather than upon himself. This allows a missionary to work together with others in a more coordinated way. A missionary sees that other people and a variety of resources are needed to accomplish the work that God plans. He sees that he is inadequate to accomplish the Great Commission by himself, and that he needs God to provide the contacts and resources for the job.
As a missionary opens his eyes to the big picture of missions, he looks for people that can facilitate such missions efforts. Sometimes he may need to work on a superficial level with non-Christians to open the door to missions. For example, he may seek assistance from the government to identify population centers, or to identify the physical needs of people (needs for food, clothing, medical care, etc. On the other hand, a missionary may work more closely with evangelical missionaries from other denominations that are located on the field near him. There are evangelicals comprising more than 20,000 denominations and over 1,000 foreign mission agencies in the world An evangelical is one who believes in the born-again salvation experience, the authority of the Bible, and the submission to Jesus as Lord If a missionary identifies another mission group sharing his doctrine—holding the Bible as the infallible word of God—he may wish to partner with the other mission group.
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Something New Under the Sun
, January 1999, (Office of Overseas Operations, International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, PO. Box 6767, Richmond, VA 23230-0767) 25.
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Something New Under the Sun
, January 1999, p. 25.
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Something New Under the Sun
, January 1999, p. 30.
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Something New Under the Sun
, January 1999, p. 51.
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MISSIOLOGY - Seeing the Big Picture
1/7/2012
http://test.missionstraining.org/Missiology/BigPicture.html
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