The Crux of Missions
Spend some time online searching for the answer to “Why Missions” and you will find two overarching responses to this question. Why do we want people to go to the nations? As a missionary mobilizing organization, Greater Europe Mission has a vested interest in getting this answer right.
So, why missions? The two predominant answers simply put are “God’s glory” and “God’s heart for the nations”. Another quote often used is from the words of John Piper: “missions exists because worship doesn’t.” These responses are all valid, but they bring up further questions and curiosities.
God’s Glory and Heart for the Nations
First, what is God’s glory? In our 21st century context, it may be hard to imagine what the glory of a king or god may be. The dictionary defines glory as “honor won by notable achievements” or “magnificent or great beauty.” So, is God’s glory just that He is beautiful and worthy of praise, or because He achieved something worthy of glory? What objective characteristics make him worthy of glory? Without knowing why God is worthy of glory, I don’t fully grasp the motivation for missions.
Second, what is God’s heart? If his heart is for the nations, is it a good heart? There are many world leaders who also have a heart for the nations, but ultimately have nefarious desires. Why would I live on mission if I don’t know what His heart is like?
Both answers––God’s glory and God’s heart for the nations––seem lacking under further questioning.
What if the Answer is Love?
What if by routinely addressing the question of “Why Missions” with these two answers we are not motivating people and not helping people build a proper foundation for the motivation of missions? Maybe these two imperatives are not the best way to generate more of His glory or fulfill the desire of His heart. In fact, answering in this way skips over foundational truths that could be far more motivating.
What if there was another answer, one hiding in plain sight with little need for academic expository effort?
What if that answer was love?
What if I saw God as a God that so loved His creation, more deeply, more profoundly, more radically than I could ever attempt to describe or conceive of? What if God so deeply, so sacrificially, so selflessly loved that He gave his only Son? Even further, God gave that Son for His enemies, so His enemies would in turn become friends. What if God had a love so reckless, so foreign to our daily duties, that He would gladly celebrate and welcome the wild and untamed prodigal home?
What if we back up and refresh our motivation based on the way of love that Jesus lived?
What if missions is about sharing the love of the cross with those who don’t know what true love is? What if the real question is:
“Is God good enough for me to leave everything and imitate His way of love and compassion in a distant land?”
The Cross of Love
What word comes to mind when you think of the worst pain imaginable? The word excruciating comes from the root word crux, or cross. So then, what is the crux––the point of pain––that moves our hearts towards missions? The crux of missions, the reason we go and endure the many hardships of missions, is the cross of love.
When Jesus says to take up His cross and follow Him, He might as well be saying, “take up excruciating pain and follow me in the same way I love God and others.” Eugene Peterson, in his book The Jesus Way, writes:
“Jesus as the truth gets far more attention than Jesus as the way…We cannot skip the way of Jesus in our hurry to get the truth of Jesus as he is worshiped and proclaimed. The way of Jesus is the way we practice and come to understand the truth of Jesus…”
We cannot omit the discussion of why God is loving and compassionate and fast-forward to the truth that He is worthy of glory or worthy of what his heart desires, and therefore worthy of the call to missions. We must not overlook his benevolent heart in our hurried attempts to mobilize missionaries.
The Crux of Missions
I continue to wonder: if someone told me I should care about missions based on God’s glory or His heart, would I care enough to take up a cross of pain?
Or would I be more willing to take up my cross and endure the excruciating pain in the name of love––love for my Savior who loved me, and move towards people to practically show them God’s love which is why he is worth all the glory of all the hearts of all the nations?
For me, the latter is what I want to grow my motivation for missions.
The crossroads of the matter is whether we will take up excruciating pain to follow Jesus in His way of love and mobilize people to missions with a heart of love, or if we will try and mobilize using pedantic measures. Perhaps God gets more glory when love, compassion, and benevolent mercy advances on the earth. Then, and only then, producing the end result of worship and glory for Him.
Are you interested in sharing the love of Christ in Europe? Click here for more info.
About the author: Greg Salvo serves as the Relationship Manager for GEM USA, recruiting and equipping church leaders with tools they need to see their congregations effectively serve on mission. His passion is to see the church engaged with God’s mission in Europe, and Europeans transformed by Jesus. He and his wife Becca live in Illinois.