Our Call to Missions

How do we know we're called to missions? The answer is clear. Jesus said "follow me and I'll teach you to fish for men (Matt. 4:19). He said "Go" (Mark 16:15) and proclaim "repentance and forgiveness of sins ... to all nations (Luke 24:47)." About 150,000 people die each day. The problem isn't the "harvest." It's plentiful. The laborers are few (Matt. 9:27). By God's grace, we are following, going, and laboring in Tulsa, but we hear the call and are willing to go to a least reached nation, India.

We love missionary biographies. It's like being discipled by heroes of the faith. We just finished Hudson Taylor in the Early Years: The Growth of a Soul. At age 17, the Lord saved Taylor through a Gospel Tract and placed an urgent call on his heart to go where no missionaries had gone, inland China. When he arrived, he passed out tracts, preached open air, and shared one on one. He founded the China Inland Mission. Fifty years later, the CIM had almost 1000 mission stations in China because a young man obeyed the Savior's call to "Go!"

One of Taylor's first Chinese converts, Nyi, became a blazing soul-winner. One day, Nyi asked Taylor a convicting question, a question that has moved our family to consider going to the least reached nations.

Nyi: "How long have you had the Glad Tidings in England," he asked Taylor.

Taylor: Somewhat ashamed, Taylor slowly responded, "about several hundreds of years."

Nyi: "What," exclaimed Nyi in astonishment, "several hundreds of years! Is it possible that you have known about Jesus so long and only now have come to tell us? My father sought the truth for more than twenty years," he continued sadly, "and died without finding it. Oh why did you not come sooner?!"

That question is both convicting and inspiring. In Tulsa, there's a church on every corner. The opportunities to hear the Gospel are endless. Most people with whom we share the Gospel here have heard it many times. There are places, though, where most people have not heard the Gospel once and the opportunity to hear it is rare. We must act. Let them not ask us, "why did you not come sooner." We must obey the Master while there's time. "He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf (2 Cor. 5:15)."