Statistical evidence would suggest that the commitment of the church in the UK to overseas mission has been on a downward path for some time, whether measured in terms of personnel volunteering to go and serve or in terms of financial support.
Anecdotally, I was asked recently if it was still the case that some Christians offer to leave home to serve the Lord in cross-cultural situations. This was a genuine question from a godly pastor who just had no experience of this happening either in his own church or others which he knew of.
How then have we arrived at this situation? There are no doubt many reasons, but I would suggest three which in my experience are particularly significant.
Firstly, the church in the UK is itself on the decline and, as a consequence, there has been a tendency to focus diminishing resources, either of personnel or finance, on the local situation; a retreat into ‘maintenance mode’.
Secondly, in parallel with the decline in the church there is a process of increasing secularisation in society. Thus, for those churches which do have the vision to reach out with the gospel, there is a world of need on their doorstep.
Thirdly, ‘the world is coming to our shores’ whether as international students or asylum seekers, and if a church has a vision to reach out to foreign nationals then there are increasing opportunities here at home. Hence the recent growth of Diaspora Ministries.
In the light of this background, the question arises as to whether we should be accepting of this situation or concerned about it. The fields are indeed ‘white unto harvest’, but in relation to our responsibilities do we just accept that they extend only as far as the English Channel ?
I would argue that they do not, for the following reasons.
When Paul was instructing the infant churches dotted around the eastern Mediterranean to take up collections for the relief of fellow believers in other parts of the then known world, no-one would have been more aware than he of the very limited means these congregations would have had at their disposal. Yet the underlying assumption seems to have been that the God whom they worship is more than able to meet their needs and through them the needs of fellow believers.
When Jesus gave us the command to ‘pray the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers …’, He did not give us the flexibility to seek exemption for ‘John, our bright young youth leader on whom this vital work depends’.
In short we must be prepared to offer up whatever meagre resources we might have either of finance or personnel in the certain knowledge that God is no-one’s debtor.
Similarly, Jesus gave us the command to go ‘into all the world’ – an instruction which recognises no geographical boundaries. I am all in favour of the local church reaching out to those who are coming to our shores. Indeed, I am involved in work with migrants myself. However, I am continually conscious that for every one Eritrean or Iraqi I speak to here, there are thousands back home who have yet to hear the gospel.
However, the vital truth, which we must remember, is that God will not allow His work to be frustrated by the changing attitude of the local church.
Every year in our missionary convention here in Bangor (NI), we have the privilege of meeting a steady stream of people who have responded to the call to work for the extension of the kingdom in other places. A retired couple leaving for Peru to work with orphans, a pastor and his wife moving to lead a church in Spain, a couple of newly-weds setting off to work among Muslims in North Africa, are but a few recent examples.
The local church has the opportunity to play its part in this glorious work – to refuse to take it up is to deny itself the blessings which can flow into every aspect of congregational life.
