January 01, 1996 by

Questions and Answers to help you understand the fundamental issues in missions today

 Ask Missionary Marvin? What kind of new twist on mission mobilization is this? Who is Marvin anyway, and why would you give him a full page article in MF?

Marvin is a young member of the Serve, Work and Study program here at the U.S. Center. In fact, he was born here! (His parents, Shannon and Beth Newlin work in maintenance and off-campus housing) He has become sort of a mascot and is often in our Missiology meetings with his mom and dad. Since he's just beginning to learn his mission fundamentals, we thought he could pass on to our readers the things he's been learning. After all, it's possible that some of you aren't exactly sure of the meaning of things like people groups, closure thinking, profiles, people movements and so on. It's also very likely you have no idea what acronyms like IFMA/EFMA, ACMC, AIMS, IMI, SIM, CIM, WCA, WCF, MTD, PSP, and on and on mean. Actually sometimes we're not even sure.

Anyway, we would like to offer a column where Marvin (with a little editorial help), can answer some of the basic questions that people have about frontier mission thinking. Here we go!

Q: What is the difference between "missions" and "evangelism".

A: Most christians (and churches) don't understand our purpose because they aren't sure of the difference. Evangelism is basically the process of people being won to Christ in a culture or context where they already have access to the Gospel. There are Christians, and usually churches, that the unsaved have access to. The Bible may already exist in their "heart language," and the Gospel is being presented in a way that they can understand. Classical "missions" on the other hand is quite different. The missionary task is to create

and provide access to the Gospel. If there are no christians, no church fellowships, no Bible in a heart language, etc., how can we evangelize? We need to send church planting missionary teams to cross cultural barriers and make the Gospel understandable in the hearts and minds of the target people group. The missionary task is one of initial penetration and planting, where the task of evangelism builds on the penetration and reaps the harvest.

Understanding the difference is critical to understanding the frontier missions movement. Most churches have some sort of "mission involvement," What they don't realize, and probably never thought about, is that the fields they work in are usually beyond the initial penetration stage and are ready for more effective evangelism to take place. Is this wrong? No, but, it's not the same thing as introducing Christ into a people group for the first time. This takes us to question #2.

Q: What is all this people group stuff anyway, and why is it so important?

A: The Bible teaches us that in Heaven there will be people from every tribe, nation, people, and language (Rev. 5:9 and 7:9). The reason people group thinking is so important is because that's the way God looks at the world. To God, planet earth isn't made up of countries (geographical or political units), it's made up of peoples (language, culture, etc. units). The missionary task will be finished when all of the peoples have access to the Gospel. Jesus said He would return when the Gospel has been preached to all ethne (Matt. 24:14). Regardless of the number of individuals who get saved, or how many countries have Christians, the Bible says it's the issue of peoples that becomes the deciding factor. This takes us to our last question for this issue.

Q: Most of the missionaries my church supports work in areas like Mexico, or Haiti, or other places that already have lots of Christians and missionaries. Does that mean we should stop supporting them?

A: Probably not. God certainly wants people to continue to get saved, so that part of the task is always valid. But, with almost half of the worlds people groups still waiting for us to break through, we need to ask if what we're involved with is the most strategic thing we could be doing. About 90% of all missionaries on the field work among peoples that already have access to the Gospel. Instead of cutting missionaries, pray about: 1) encouraging your existing workers to mobilize the "mission field Christians" and give them a vision to reach into unreached people groups that may be near them, and 2) directing all new funds to frontier mission work. Jesus is an equal opportunity Savior, and desires that all peoples have access to His amazing love!

Well, has Marvin been helpful? Let us know what you think, and what kind of questions you would like to see him answer. We want to see you be fruitful in the mission work God has for you!