when forming a missionary team how do you address the concern of including individuals especially youth who may not be truly regenerated but are involved in witnessing and evangelizing do you have a process or guidance for selecting team members yeah we we don't we don't do uh short-term mission trips like what they're known to be um so let me give you an example so um I'm in the airport in Lima and I see all these kids running around really out of order teenagers costumes then I see they all have the same shirt on and there's 40
of them and they've done a mission trip in Peru none of them speak the language none of them have read through their Bible probably from Genesis to Revelation none of them have ever read a Systematic Theology none of them are trained in any of the matters of evangelism or anything else they've taken a Youth mission trip now for them to get there I estimated just the flights would be somewhere around $80,000 which could put 10 indigenous pastors on the field preaching 24 hours a day and so there is no biblical grounds for Mission youth tro
trips no biblical grounds at all now if you have a young person who the the elders see this person is serious they're reading their Bible they're interested in missions yes something could be done an exploratory trip for someone like that but there's no grounds for all this nonsense none of it um I was out at uh Grace years ago and they called me into a conference cuz there was a a a mission group that was having some trouble it was not associated with Grace it was a mission trip that asked for their a mission group
that asked for their advice and they said brother waser could you come in and and go over this I said okay what's the problem well it's a youth it it does youth missions I go okay so what's the issue they have $60 million in the bank I was just talking with our brother here last night and desperate trying to think of how do we get missionary to the to all of Indonesia which is just overlooked really $60 million to send young people to go paint a church building let let me share with you what missions
is you need to understand this first of all the Great Commission is is primarily principally a theological Endeavor it is about the communication of God's truth to men for the transformation of the individual and the transformation of society it is theological iCal it is doctrinal another thing what is a missionary that's an interesting question is it because we use that word all the time what is a missionary I was asked to do a big mission conference one year and I all the experts were there and I I turned it down on purpose so that I
could make a statement they said why aren't you here I said you have 18 missionary experts and if you were to ask them what is a missionary you'd get 18 different definitions what is a missionary the word missionary comes from the Latin missionarios that was first used in the 16th century by the Jesuits who were sent by the Catholic Roman Catholicism to the North in order to stop the Reformation did you know that so what is a missionary the noun missionary comes from the Latin verb M which means to send every time you say someone
is a missionary congratulations you're charismatic cuz you just called them an apostle in Latin Mission Arius is the Latin translation of apostos and apost so what is a missionary you say well brother Paul are their Apostles no and yes you say what do you mean no and yes you're scaring me now all right in the New Testament we have two kinds of Apostles two kinds we have the Apostles of Christ a very limited group of men and they were extraordinary in this they were sent out by personally by the resurrected Christ okay secondly they were
and their band recipients of divine revelation that brought to us the faith that has once and for all been handed down to the church those are the Apostles of Christ but there's two places in the book of Philippians chapter 2 and also 2 Corinthians 8 where it refers to in The New American Standard The Messengers of the churches but that's not what it says it says the Apostles of the churches the apostles the sent ones of the churches now you need some historical background on this because you know I hear people say well you know
an apostle in the you know in the Greco Roman world was someone sent out with authority do you really think that Jesus is going to take a term from the Roman Greco world to set up the foundation of his church no what you need to understand is is the Sanhedrin had Apostles shalak the sent one and in the talmud the ra the rabbis would say this he who has spoken to shalak has spoken to the one who sent him does that language sound familiar Jesus basically said that about himself he who's heard me has heard
the Father Paul said that about the Apostles of Christ he who's heard us has heard Christ okay now so when Jesus when we have the term Apostle when he was speaking it was shalak and you need to know this the Sanhedrin as well as the largest synagogues had s had shalak they had Apostles and they sent them out to carry word from that authority to the smaller synagogues so now when we understand this then what is an apostle of the church well let's make a comparison the Apostles of Christ they were sent out by the
by Christ under his direct Authority and they were recipients of Revelation the Apostles of the churches are men who are Elder qualified men and they have been tested and tested and tested and they are sent out by that church with the authority of that church and he who has heard that missionary has has heard the church that sent him that is to say that missionary is carrying the doctrine and ethic and confession of that church and has authority to go out and preach it that's a missionary in the truest sense of the word now that
missionary concept which I believe is is is is biblical it's not a model it's the model now who's to comprise this this this group of Apostles from the churches who comprises it first of all there are three top men when you talk about the Apostles of the churches there are three top men when you go to Ephesians 4: 11-12 it's the most most overlooked passage in the Bible he says that he has given we've you know we've already dealt with a Apostles and Prophets so we have evangelists pastors and teachers for what for the building
up of the church does he give you any other place in scripture where it says this is for the building up of the church no evangelists pastors and teachers so wherever in the world that the church is non-existent or the church is weak it's because the Evangelist pastor and teacher is not there or they're there and they're ill equipped or unqualified and so when we talk about world mission misss what are we supposed to be doing the churches and the Elders of those churches are to be training Men 2 Timothy 2:2 that's not about the
multiplication of disciples there even though we should do that that's about the training of leaders in the church the three top men the spearhead of world missions are Proclaimers not kids not Mercy Ministries not healers they're Proclaimers evangelists pastors and teachers and all these men must be Elder qualified and within teacher is not only teachers within the church but men who would be more involved in the academics teaching Greek also Bible translators they all have to do with the proclamation of the word now here's another thing that just rubs me I mean makes me fighting
mad when you no longer have the power of God on your life you're not bearing fruit then you've got to get on a soap box don't you and and do something you've got to do something to validate your life if you go out into the mission world you're going to find missionaries who are worth their weight and gold but you're going to you're also going to see this little esoteric Club of missionaries that you know we have this kind of esoteric missionary knowledge and you Bible thumping pastors of a local church don't have a clue
about what missions is about that is the most damnable lie out there how do you plant a church in the most remote and exotic place on the planet the same way you plant a church in New York City now yes there are language things there are cultural things and everything else but what you need to understand is that we we do the Great Commission the same way that a man here in this church everything that the man who's if if this is a healthy church and I've heard by everyone it's a good church a healthy
Church everything that the pastors are doing here is the same thing you do to fulfill the Great Commission in the most exotic remote place on Earth it's all about training evangelis pastors and teachers that they be Elder qualified and that they go out under the authority of that church taking the same Doctrine the same ethic The Same Spirit of that church and planting that church somewhere else now you say well can anyone else be a missionary yes and this is what's so beautiful about the idea of a sentan we all know that um that the
eldership ship and what we would say evangelist pastor and teacher that that is the work of the men in the church what about women can they be Apostles of the churches can they be sent ones yes but how and this is what would instill dignity in in in women who feel the call to go overseas my dear friend Matt glass okay he's over in Indonesia with his family and let's say that they're have all these kids and really struggling and and and Amanda says I really need some help for a while and the church that
sent them goes well we know some of the women who was were just very close to Amanda and uh they make like in 2 Corinthians chapter 8 they make a public call is there a woman here who would like to go and assist Amanda for a month and a half and to help her and remember what happened Paul made the public call God put it on titus's heart a subjective real calling and Titus said I'll go so that woman a woman comes to the elders and says I will go I've talked to my husband he's
in agreement I will go the Elders know that woman and you guess what they send her not with the authority to act as an evangelist pastor and teacher but with the authority to take care of this specific task and so it's the same way so you have it it it must every Ministry on the mission field must have its focus in the planting of churches but while that happens there may be this open door for a school and so what do you do now we're talking about the fellow laborers of these evangelist pastors and teachers
and we say we've got a guy here who would make a excellent Headmaster he will go and start that church in cooperation with the Elder qualified men that we have there do you see what I'm saying it's all focused around that now I know that in the reformed Community because of Calvin and a few others people believe there's no such thing as evangelists but Charles hodj Charles Spurgeon and others would disagree and so would I and maybe that's what's wrong with our reform movement today is you don't have anybody preaching on the streets let let
me hit that for a minute for you pastors I want you to think about something um the work of a pastor recently I've been looking at certain really famous pastors and I've been asking myself I don't think they're pastors and people go why well cuz they're traveling like 25 weeks out of the year I'm sorry I don't care how great of an Expositor they are there's a problem because those of you who who are pastors you know one thing if you're a faithful Pastor it's 247 365 days a year I mean it's difficult now imagine
this so we have this idea we have Elders okay and they're kind of all Pastor teachers but most of the pastors that I talk to because they're surrounded by Sodom because their members are so affected most of the pastors that I Know Who I Really respect other than doing their sermons they are pastoring and and they're wore out and then I talk to them and most of them will go something you know I used to go out and witness on the streets I used to do all these things and but the Sheep my burden is
for them and I can't even keep up with their needs what if we looked at this differently that in the elders what would happen and and I'm going to make it very very I'm going to oversimplify what if we had a a man who he he loved he loved to feed his people in the pulpit and for him counseling was just expository preaching to one person and he just ate slept thought dreamt of pastoring but but he knows there's these other things there's evangelism that ought to be done what if another Elder instead of thinking
of an evangelist as this itinerant that runs all over the place which there is room for that what if one of the elders full-time Elder was the Evangelist every guest who came into that church he went after them I me it was his not not he does it and we agree with it no it's official this this guy is an evangelist Elder Elder qualified man he is an elder he does have something of a pastor's heart but he is an evangelist it's his gift every guest that comes in that church he goes after them every
parent he's talking to how are your children how is this can I come over can I do this he takes the other young men are starting to come to the church and they have that Evangelistic Zeal he's taking them out into the streets he's witnessing with them now sometimes in these bigger church I'll come I'll ask somebody so what do you do I'm I'm the pastor of administration I go no you're not yes I am no you're not you're a deacon you're a deacon what if we had now just humor me for a moment because
it may not have to be this way what if there was a full time Deacon on staff I mean and I'm not talking about someone who got called a deacon I'm talking about a man who's been trained three or four years in the art of what it means to be a Biblical Deacon what if you had a man who literally slept dreamt ate drank service and then he was able to find all the other men and women in the church not saying women being deacons but find all those that have the gift of service and
he organized them and he was passionate about making sure all this happened at the administration you know most pastors can't do the work of pastoring even though they're sincere because they're doing the work of a deacon that's what I'm saying we're all about these platitudes of all this you know big language and all this stuff and I'm going hey let's just look at a few of these things you know don't mow the lawn if the house is on fire just what would that be like so that now this pastor who loves the Sheep but he's
really doesn't have the gift of evangelism now he's not walking around condemned all the time that I'm not able to Soul win and do this or that and there's so many balls being dropped because there's a man who that is his gift these are some of the things that I wish that we would think about instead of just keep beating the same drum over and over and so when we talk about missions another thing about missions it is an ex would I let those youth run the church for two weeks take the pulpit do everything
do the counseling I'm certainly not going to send them to the mission field why would I send a lesser man to the mission field if I wouldn't allow him to be an elder in my church you should should not be sending him anywhere and on the mission field we we need the Elder qualified men who are Proclaimers we need guess what we need one of heart cry's biggest needs right now are Deacon qualified men that means men who can deal with the banking the legal all the accounting to send money to 70 different countries and
hopefully we don't get arrested do you see there's all these gifts gifts that God has given people and we totally ignore it why because we got charismatic Prosperity preachers talking about gifts so we run completely the other direction and no one in our church even knows what their gift is and Elders aren't helping them how do you practically get do you realize that the Evangelist pastor and teacher are given for the equipping of the Saints equipping them how in their giftings how much time have you spent helping each M discern their gifting because that's a
talent and on the day of judgment they're going to be held accountable for it and you're not doing anything because you just want to preach like a Puritan these are things that need to be considered and they're extraordinarily important how much burden does the church carry not because women are ungodly in the church but because women have not been instructed in Womanhood and the Art of the house oh say well we had a conference you three-day conference that means nothing to me what about three or four years of women being instructed and helped what about
fathers we don't have a youth group yeah and you don't have fathers either who are training the young people because you're not teaching them will you throw a book at them do you see what I'm saying there's a lot of holes in what we're doing and I think I need to be quiet now because I'm probably making a lot of people mad but it's true it's true another question
