Below is Dalton Thomas’s excellent piece Driving Convictions Concerning Frontier Missions P4 “The Need to Distinguish Between Domestic Ministry and Frontier Missions” .  I greatly appreciate how Dalton brings clarity to this missions topic. The whole series deserves reading and thinking upon. Thank you Dalton Thomas for this message!

[read the intro]   [read part 1] [read part 2] [read part 3]

At the core of my theology of missions is the distinction between domestic ministry and frontier missions. The New Testament emphasizes this distinction. Therefore, so should we.

I dare say that, to a large degree, the fate of the unreached may hang in the balance.

THE CRISIS OF ACCESS

It’s common in some Church circles to hear statements like these:

“We’re all called to be missionaries.”

“America is as much of a missions field as India.”

“Missions is as much about going across the street as it is about going overseas.”

“You don’t need to go to the other side of the world to do missions. There are unreached people all around us!”

While such assertions appear noble and sound beneficial to the Church’s evangelistic efforts, they lack biblical substance and have grave consequences for the unreached among the nations.

We are all called to live on mission where ever we are. And we are all called to obey Jesus’ command to make disciples of all nations–even our home nations. I don’t deny these things! But in our desire to stir passion for the lost around us, we need to discern the apostolic perspective concerning the crisis of unreached people groups.

When we use the term “unreached people groups” we’re not talking about lost people in Orlando, Sydney, and Edinburgh. We’re referring to lost people who don’t have access to a Church, a Bible, or a follower of Christ. According to the Joshua Project there are almost 17,000 ethno-linguistic people groups. Just under 7,000 of them don’t have access to a Church, a Bible, or a Christian.

Those 6,000+ people groups who have never had the opportunity to hear the Gospel are the reason why I think it’s so important to distinguish between domestic and frontier ministry. As long as we believe that “missions is missions wherever you are,” we won’t be able to see the crisis for what it is. Consequently, we will live free from the appropriate burden that is ours to bear.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PAUL AND TIMOTHY

In the New Testament there is a clear distinction between the work of the evangelist in a location where the Gospel has penetrated at some level, and a location where the name of Jesus has never been spoken. A comparison of two passages makes this distinction quite clear. In II Timothy, we read of Paul’s words to a young man who was established in a city (possibly Ephesus) where Paul had previously labored.[1] He wrote to Timothy saying

. . . do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. (1 Timothy 4:5)

The “work of an evangelist” and the “ministry” to which Timothy was called was in a city in which the Gospel had already been preached and a Church already established. This is what we mean by “domestic ministry.” He was laboring in a location in which the Gospel had already penetrated. He was hard at work among a community in which seeds of Gospel truth were being scattered by an established Church Body. Let’s compare this with Romans 15 where Paul explains his own calling.

I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else’s foundation . . . (Romans 15:20)

Timothy was fulfilling a ministry of domestic evangelism. Paul was fulfilling a ministry of frontier evangelism. Timothy was “building on a foundation” that was laid by “another.” Paul was driven by passion to lay the foundation in regions where there wasn’t one.

EMBRACING THE CALL TO FRONTIER MISSIONS

Frontier missions and domestic evangelism are both legitimate callings that are indispensible to the advance of God’s purposes in the nations. It is important therefore that we do not exalt one above the other. Both are to be honored, proclaimed, and embraced. Some are called to pour themselves out in “Ephesus” where the Gospel has taken root, and some are called to pour themselves out in “Macedonia” where the name of the Lord has yet to roll from the tongue of even one individual. We must be careful to never hold one in a higher regard than the other. However, with that said, it is apparent that the Church needs to hold frontier missions in a higher regard than we currently do.

Tragically, at this point, frontier missions is simply not a priority to most in the western Church. We invest less than 1% of our resources into ministry to unreached people groups. This means that either God is unconcerned about the issue (which leaves Him responsible for the near wholesale avoidance of these people), or it is we who are indifferent (which places the guilt of negligence upon us). The website of one missions organization puts it this way:

If everyone is obeying God’s “calling” to be a missionary wherever they are then God is calling 99.9995% of people to work among the 44.3% of the world population that already has the gospel, and calling virtually no one (.0005%) to relocate among the other 53.7% of the world population that are not Christian. You have a better chance of being in a plane crash than being one of the 2 billion Christians in the world that are UPG [Unreached People Groups] missionaries.[2]

The fact that we in the west are so unconcerned about the unreached and unengaged is an injustice of epic proportions. Still, after two thousand years, half of the earth’s population has never met an ambassador for Christ! In the book The Spiritual Secret of Hudson Taylor, the son and daughter-in-law of the frontier missionary recall the story of an interaction between Taylor and a new and deeply grateful Chinese convert. The new believer confronted him and

unexpectedly raised the question: “How long have you had the Glad Tidings in your country?” “Some hundreds of years,” was the reluctant reply [from Taylor]. “What! hundreds of years? “My father sought the Truth,” he continued sadly, “and died without finding it. Oh, why did you not come sooner?” It was a moment, the pain of which Hudson Taylor could never forget, and which deepened his earnestness in seeking to bring Christ to those who might still be reached.[3]

PUTTING FRONTIER MISSIONS INTO PERSPECTIVE

The Joshua Project[4] has done extensive research concerning the progress of the Gospel in the nations among the unreached and unengaged. Their research puts the task of frontier missions in perspective.[5] As of November 2011 they reported the following statistics about the progress of the Gospel by people group and global population.

Progress by People Group

Total People Groups: 16,750
Unreached People Groups 6,921
% People Groups Unreached: 41.3 %

Progress by Population

World Population: 6.83 Billion
Population in Unreached People Groups: 2.84 Billion
% of Population in Unreached People Groups: 41.5%

The largest religious block on the map of the unreached and unengaged is Islam. The Joshua Project reports these sobering statistics.

– The population of the Muslim world is 1,537,185,000.
– Within that population of 1.5+ billion people are 2,840 different unreached people groups.
– 87.4 % of those 1.5+ billion people have yet to hear the Gospel.
– Or, to say it another way, 1,343,613,000 Muslims have yet to hear the name of Jesus.

THE FINAL FRONTIER OF GLOBAL MISSIONS: ISLAM

While every religious block constitutes a substantial challenge to the global Church, clearly Islam is the most daunting. It is the largest as well as the most hostile. Consequently, the number of missionaries on the field is tragically few. In the wake of the September 11^th attacks, Joshua Lingel explained the level of activity within this block by saying that

Only one percent of all Christian missionaries go to do direct ministry amongst Muslims (1,800 missionaries total). That’s one missionary for every 550,000 Muslims! For every Mormon you have ever met, there are 130 Muslims in the world. That’s equivalent to having about five churches and 150 pastors for all of North America. Said differently, it would be like having the option to go to church in Texas (if you’re fortunate to be that close) or say Boston perhaps, and three other locations in the U.S. on any given Sunday morning.[6]

This should take our breath away, especially considering that the challenge of engaging the Islamic world is not new. Writing from Bahrain in 1902, Samuel Zwemer, the American missionary, historian, and “apostle to Islam,” appealed to an emerging generation of Christians saying that

the twentieth century is to be preeminently a century of missions to Moslems.[7]

The twentieth century has come and gone. And the majority of the Islamic world remains unreached and unengaged. While the number of laborers has considerably increased since Zwemer’s day, so also has the population of Muslims. In other words, we are no closer now than we were 100 years ago to accomplishing the task of establishing a faithful Gospel witness among those whose allegiance now belongs to Mohamed. The proverbial boundaries of the field have expanded, and the Church in the west has not proportionally expanded its efforts to reap it. Thus, it is a harvest which remains ready, yet largeley unengaged.

The challenge of serving the Muslim world demands a thoughtful and sober response. This will be the final frontier of world missions and the Church’s greatest challenge. It will by no means be the only challenge. But it will be the greatest, and the costliest.

The Church is long overdue in its response to embrace the responsibility of engaging the Islamic world. The dangers that will accompany our doing so are real. But so are the scriptural commands to preach the Gospel to all peoples, and the promises of a harvest from every tribe and tongue. The moment we exalt the dangers above the commands and the promises that accompany them, we have gone astray. Thus, while it would be foolish to ignore the dangers, we must be careful to view them in light of all that Jesus has commanded and promised us.

More insight on Missions from John Stott:

“Incentives are important in every sphere. Being rational
human beings, we need to know not only what we should be
doing, but why we should be doing it. And motivation for
mission is especially important, not least in our day in
which the comparative study of religions has led many to
deny finality and uniqueness to Jesus Christ and to reject
the very concept of evangelizing and converting people.
How then, in the face of growing opposition to it, can
Christians justify the continuance of world evangelization?
The commonest answer is to point to the Great Commission,
and indeed obedience to it provides a strong stimulus.
Compassion is higher than obedience, however, namely love
for people who do not know Jesus Christ, and who on that
account are alienated, disorientated, and indeed lost. But
the highest incentive of all is zeal or jealousy for the
glory of Jesus Christ. God has promoted him to the supreme
place of honor, in order that every knee and tongue should
acknowledge his lordship. Whenever he is denied his
rightful place in people’s lives, therefore, we should feel
inwardly wounded, and jealous for his name.”

John Stott

(Emphasis JL)

“If God desires every knee to bow to Jesus and every tongue
to confess him, so should we. We should be ‘jealous’ (as
Scripture sometimes puts it) for the honor of his name —
troubled when it remains unknown, hurt when it is ignored,
indignant when it is blasphemed, and all the time anxious
and determined that it shall be given the honor and glory
which are due to it. The highest of all missionary motives
is neither obedience to the Great Commission (important as
that is), nor love for sinners who are alienated and
perishing (strong as that incentive is, especially when we
contemplate the wrath of God) but rather zeal — burning
and passionate zeal — for the glory of Jesus Christ.
Some evangelism, to be sure, is no better than a thinly
disguised form of imperialism, whenever our real ambition
is for the honor of our nation, church, organization, or
ourselves. Only one imperialism is Christian, however, and
that is concern for His Imperial Majesty Jesus Christ, and
for the glory of his empire or kingdom. The earliest
Christians, John tells us, went out ‘for the sake of the
Name’ (3 Jn. 7). He does not even specify to which name he
is referring. But we know. And Paul tells us. It is the
incomparable name of Jesus. Before this supreme goal of
the Christian mission, all unworthy motives wither and die.”

John Stott

“The Great Commission would be a futile task if the ultimate power and authority lay in our hands or in the hands of those to whom we bring the gospel. Jesus Christ did not make it possible for us to be saved. He did not begin a work of redemption. He did not do ‘his part’ so that we could do ours. Rather, Jesus Christ accomplished everything. He assumed our flesh. He has fulfilled all righteousness in our place and has borne the judgment for every one of our sins as our substitute. And he has been raised as the firstfruits of the whole harvest, the beginning of the resurrection from the dead. There is no more redeeming work to be done!” — Michael Horton in his book
The Gospel Commission (Grand Rapids, Mi.: Baker Books, 2011), page 29.

We too can be as fearless  as Daniel for we serve the same living and powerful God. Let us therefore be bold in our witness for Christ, seeking to make Him known where He is not known and standing with our brothers and sisters in Christ who are suffering at the hands of those controlled by Satan and sin. When we intercede and help Christians who are suffering and in need we are being obedient to our Lord’s instructions in Matthew 25!

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’
“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” (Matthew 25:31-46 ESV)

Now compare  Jesus words in Matthew 25 to His words to Saul while he was still persecuting Christians, “And falling to the ground he (Saul) heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” (Acts 9:4 ESV)

When we are ministering to our brothers and sisters in Christ who are in need and/or who are being persecuted we are doing  it as unto Jesus Himself!