3. Go

Each of us is called to be a follower of Jesus. And many follow him to the ends of the earth. Following Jesus means making him Lord over every aspect of our lives. Those who believe in Jesus and trust him know that God is a good Father who wants only good things for his children and has planned an individual path for each of us that perfectly suits our personal gifts and gives us a healthy balance of challenge and fulfillment.

Jesus is the head of the church, building his church worldwide and saving people from darkness into light (Colossians 1:18). It is his work from beginning to end, but he invites us to participate in his glorious, life-giving work. We have experienced that the work in his mission, which we are invited to do daily in the power of the Holy Spirit, is the best life we could have wished for. You can read the story of how God first called us both to himself and then to the mission in Japan here.

Not everyone is sent by God to foreign lands to spread his good news to the people. But it is always worthwhile to go on a mission trip to another culture. Perhaps God wants to show you your path through this very experience. A short-term mission trip of two weeks to a year is ideal for this. OMF offers such mission trips in its Serve Asia program, where you can take on a wide variety of tasks and gain experience, from student work and prayer trips to caring for missionary children, medical work, and teaching English.

The work of long-term missionaries is also quite diverse. Their fields of work are not limited to evangelism, teaching, and church planting, but range from IT experts and graphic designers to medical personnel and guest house managers. A wide variety of qualifications are needed in the mission field. On the opportunities page of OMF, you can find out what is currently being sought. There are also various models for how you can work with OMF. Some of them offer opportunities to reach segments of society that are difficult for traditional missionaries to access.

A solid education is a good start to God’s mission. From our own experience, we can highly recommend the Cornerstone Bible College for Mission Training in the Netherlands. There, we enjoyed Bible-based and practical missionary training that placed a strong emphasis on intercultural communication, teamwork, and emotional health—all skills that are essential for missionaries. Cornerstone also offers single short courses to give you a taste of what it’s like.

4. Send

Sending is just as important a part of God’s mission as going yourself. In the church in Antioch (Acts 13:1-3), two of the five teachers, Barnabas and Paul, were called by God to go. The remaining three stayed behind as senders. Sending is an active ministry, and those who send see themselves as part of God’s worldwide mission. A sending church has become an international church, with one foot at home and one foot on the mission field.

The ministry of sending Christians ranges from active interest and prayer to financial support and practical help. Some send packages with food from home, which the missionaries in the field surely miss. Some visit their missionaries on the field to get a firsthand impression of their work and the mission needs in the host country. Some help distribute or translate newsletters or make the concerns of their missionaries known to a wider audience at home. And when the missionaries are home, they provide an apartment or a car, or help with moving or childcare.

To ensure smooth communication between the missionary and the sending church, it is a good idea to have a mission representative or base team. These act as contact persons and pastoral companions for the missionaries and can keep them up to date with changes in the church. On the other hand, they can “keep the flame alive” for mission awareness in the church and inform the leadership about the missionaries’ concerns.

5. Welcome

In our globalized world, it is no longer possible to strictly separate “home” and “field.” We see people from all over the world coming to Europe or America, either to study, work, or find a new home. Many of them would never have heard of Jesus in their own countries. Now they are here, some uprooted, some open to new experiences, and you don’t even have to leave your own city to meet them and let them feel God’s love in word and deed.

The most important thing for newcomers to a foreign culture is to have people around them who make them feel at home. That’s not difficult at all. Invite the people you meet to dinner or organize a game night. Take them to your home group or Bible study. People who are not yet familiar with the Bible are usually curious about what this famous book says. Even in Japan, we started a home group with international students from all over the world. We were particularly inspired by the concept of “FriendsForDinner” from OM and SMD to open our home. These student meetings often took on the character of a mutual support group, because the students shared their problems and experiences in the foreign culture with each other.

As a church, you can organize a language course or an international café. OMF has extensive experience working with people from Asia in Europe and is happy to support churches in this work. Why not invite OMF to hold a seminar on intercultural communication, for example? Contact us and we will be happy to facilitate.

6. Inspire/mobilize

Jesus instructed his followers: “Go and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19). But throughout church history, we see how this commission, and with it the awareness of mission, has repeatedly been pushed into the background. That is why it is so important to have people who remind us of this mandate and make us sensitive to a world that lies in darkness without God.

When you think about it more closely, you realize that mission is not a duty, but an attitude. God wants his creatures to know him because he loves them and knows that it is the best thing for them. The Good Samaritan helped the injured Jew not because he had to, but because he felt compassion (Luke 10:33). And so we too should not be motivated by a sense of duty or guilt to proclaim God’s good news, but by compassion and love for our neighbor. When God’s love works in us, we have a sincere desire to help others in their relationship with God, knowing at the same time that when God takes us into his mission, he has also equipped us with everything we need (Rom 8:31-32; 2Cor 9:8).

This means that a wise mobilizer does not come with pressure or try to induce guilt, but shares his love, compassion, and enthusiasm for mission with others in order to move them to action. Practical ways of mobilizing people can include regular prayer times or youth meetings on the topic of mission or unreached people groups. Invite a missionary to talk about their ministry and experiences, or take others to mission conferences. Or send people on short-term mission trips so that they can share their enthusiasm with the church afterwards and contribute to a more mission-oriented atmosphere.