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Thoughts on Sending Out Missionaries July 11, 2016
 We Should Be Selective about the Missionaries We Support If you’ve been in church for a while, you’ve probably heard pastors rant about lazy missionaries who hardly even go soul winning while here in the United States. If a missionary won’t win souls here, he probably won’t do it somewhere else either. The first qualification for a missionary is that he be sent out and trained in a local church. The second is that he must demonstrate the ability to preach and evangelize while serving locally. We are all for supporting missionaries that we can trust to be productive on the mission field, but churches definitely need to be selective in the area of missions. “Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.” 1 Corinthians 4:2 “And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.” 2 Timothy 2:2 We Should Send Missionaries to Receptive Areas Our church prefers to concentrate more on receptive areas, which I believe is biblical: “And the word of the Lord was published throughout all the region. But the Jews stirred up the devout and honourable women, and the chief men of the city, and raised persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them out of their coasts. But they shook off the dust of their feet against them, and came unto Iconium.” Acts 13:49-51 “And whosoever will not receive you, when ye go out of that city, shake off the very dust from your feet for a testimony against them.” Luke 9:5 The Bible clearly teaches that if people aren’t interested, you move on. Instead of going to a country where your church has to be underground, you could get more people saved by going to a receptive area where it is legal to preach. In some countries missionaries practice lifestyle evangelism for months before they feel like it is even safe to bring up the gospel. I understand the value of one soul, but what about the value of many more souls? Reach Foreign Immigrants Another way to reach people in areas that don’t have much freedom, is by giving the gospel to immigrants from those countries. I can take you soul winning in areas of Phoenix, Arizona, where you’ll feel like you’re in Africa, the Middle East, or China. By reaching immigrants with the gospel, you could indirectly reach their family members overseas. Send the Best of the Best A missionary needs to be willing to speak out against the false religions in the area and also preach hard on sin. A foreign country isn’t the place to send someone who lacks boldness or does not have the aptitude to teach. Just like a pastor, a missionary, or evangelist as the Bible calls it, needs to be a very strong man of God. Our New Missionary to Botswana, Africa Click here to help support our awesome new missionary to Botswana, Brother Garrett Kirchway. Botswana is one of the more receptive areas in Africa, and Bro. Kirchway is a dynamic preacher who knows the Bible and has served in our church as a faithful soul-winner for 8 years. If you want to follow his example and be sent out as a missionary, you will need to learn the Bible, preach hard, and be a soul-winning machine. Here’s a sermon to go with this article Click here for more posts
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