The Authority in Mission Work

The Apostle Paul, preaching in Athens

During the Pre-Association meeting of the Missionary Baptist Association of Texas, a question was raised about whether mission works which were not under the authority of a sponsoring church should be funded. The discussion was cut short, which sort of disappointed me because this is an issue that I think should be discussed, especially at a meeting where the objective is to share information and not to record votes.

If you poll 100 different ABA pastors, you will likely find 100 different philosophies and understandings about the proper way to carry out mission work. So, in the spirit of the diversity of opinions, here's mine:

In Acts 13, you have the church in Antioch that is ministering to the Lord. In verse 2, the Holy Spirit tells the church to "Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them."

Two things stand out for me in this verse. (1) The Holy Spirit spoke to the church and (2) The Spirit called Barnabas and Saul.

The Holy Spirit called Barnabas and Saul to go out as missionaries. Scripture records how the Lord had placed this call on Saul (Paul) during his conversion on the Damascus road.

After the Spirit had called Barnabas and Paul to the mission work, He moved within the church to send them out.

In my opinion, this is the scriptural way mission work should be done. The Spirit calls men to a mission field, and the Spirit leads the church to send those men out. Those men are sent out with the full authority to do the work the Spirit has called them to do. If all those factors are present, I believe that we have a legitimate, and scriptural mission work.

So whether the missionary goes out and establishes a "mission," or whether he plants a "church" is really of no consequence to me. What I look at is whether He is called by the Holy Spirit, and whether His sponsoring church sent Him out.

For this reason, I have never been comfortable with "ministries" that seek to direct the overall direction of our associational missions (and by associational missions, I mean missionaries sent out by churches in our association). For this same reason, I have been leery of associational rules that establish rigid boundaries for missionary qualifications and rigid guidelines for how they do their work. And I have never been comfortable with a board calling, sending, and overseeing missionaries.

So, if you are looking for the authority in mission work, you need to look no further than the Holy Spirit. He calls missionaries, He leads missionaries, and He holds missionaries accountable, and you can find instances of all three of those in scripture.

As for the sending churches, they sent the men out, they sent them out with authority, and they support them. I believe that, just as Paul and Barnabas returned to Antioch and gave an account for themselves, so ought missionaries today give an account of themselves to their sponsoring churches.

And that, my friend, is the authority in mission work.