The Mission Field?

I get away to a prayer chapel once a month to be alone with God. In this prayer chapel there are two massive posters of a gentleman and a young boy who are from different countries than the United States. These posters are to motivate us to pray for the mission field.

My first thought is, why isn’t there also a picture of people from my hometown, Fargo/Moorhead? Maybe because the majority of the people from the town I live in don’t have dark colored skin?

As we travel and speak, sometimes in the churches I visit there are various countries' flags in view from around the world. I assume the flags represent missionaries supported by the church and the peoples to whom they have been sent.

When there is a United States flag in a church, it is usually in reference to the government of this country, not to the people here who also need Jesus.

Do you often hear about people in churches, or get a support letter from someone you know, about a mission trip they have gone on or are planning to go on in the near future? I hear they are going to, or went to, Mexico, to Haiti, to Japan, to Bosnia, even to Israel, to walk where Jesus walked. These short-term missionaries usually travel to someplace that is outside the borders of the United States and is a plane ticket away.

These baffle me when I consider Acts 1:8. In this passage, the first place we are to share the “Good News” is in our own backyard. God is implying that where we live is a mission field! It is kind of unique that God’s plan would have us consider where we live as our first place to spread the gospel message.

If you are a missionary at “home,” you already know the language. You won’t have to raise support to leave. You won’t have to get cultural training (although we do need to understand unsaved postmodern people a little better). You will have time to disciple those you lead to Christ rather then get decisions and then have to leave the country. You won’t need to get a passport or work visa. You might already be employed.

Why is it so easy for us to dream about and envision taking the gospel across the ocean,

but more difficult to take it across the street (or across the eight-lane freeway, as the case may be)?






Why haven’t I won my neighbors to Christ? Why is it easier for us to send a check overseas, than to send ourselves to the person who needs the love of Jesus in our hometown? Why do most Bible Colleges teach about the mission field in terms of a foreign country, and not in terms of right here at home?

A "mission field"? What do you think, is there one at home and abroad? How can we overcome acedia in terms of recognizing and evangelizing the people who live right next door? Is Bismarck/Mandan, ND, a mission field? How about a mission trip to Bismarck/Mandan, ND?