The Dirty Secret of the Mission Field
When I was moving to South Asia to be a missionary, I got on the airplane ready to take on the world. I couldn’t wait to save as many lost people as possible.
About 17 hours later, when we landed in South Asia, I discovered the dirty secret of the mission field:
The same guy you are when you get on the plane is the same guy you are when you get off the plane.
I guess I thought there would be some kind of miraculous transformation somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean.
Nope.
I was the same guy in South Asia as I was in America … and that was a problem. Actually, there were two problems:
1. I Had Never Made a Disciple
I arrived with dreams of living out Jesus’s command to make disciples of all nations as a big, bad missionary. But then I realized: I had never made a disciple in my life. I had studied it in seminary, done a lot of ministry, and preached a bunch of sermons, but actually making disciples? Absolutely not.
Just to be sure, I checked my math: The number of people I had personally led to faith and taught to follow Jesus so they could reproduce it with others … was zero.
Yup, I had made no disciples. Why did I think that would change when my address changed? I started to question my business cards:
Josh
Big, Bad Missionary
Maybe I would just be: Josh, Bad Missionary.
Unfortunately, never having made a disciple was the lesser of my two problems.
2. I Wasn’t a Disciple Worth Reproducing
I went to South Asia with the goal of being an amazing missionary who saved everyone. But what actually happened is that the South Asian believers taught me how to follow Jesus.
I met faithful South Asian believers who were literally risking everything for the sake of the Gospel:
People who were rejected and driven out of their villages because they put their faith in Jesus
Young, 17-year-old men who said yes to Jesus knowing it would get them kicked out of their families
Pastors who were beaten and almost killed for their faith
Women who had been raped because of their allegiance to Jesus
They were all willing to give up everything they had to buy the treasure they had discovered in the field (Matthew 13:44). Never in my life had I seen such love for and commitment to Jesus. Their love for Jesus made my love for Jesus look a whole lot more like liking Jesus rather than loving Him.
I realized I was not a disciple worth reproducing.
A hunger began to build in my soul. I wanted what they had.
And those first few years in South Asia, even though I tried to do a ton of ministry, mostly I learned from those South Asian believers what it really looks like to love and follow Jesus as a true disciple.
What About You?
Have you actually made a disciple? Or have you just studied and talked about it a lot? When was the last time you shared your faith with someone far from God? Or the last time you trained a new believer how to obey Jesus or share Him with others?
And are you a disciple worth reproducing? What if everyone in your church…
Prayed the way you pray?
Fasted the way you fast?
Shared the Gospel as often as you share the Gospel?
Served the way you serve?
Loved the way you love?
…what kind of church would you have? What if every Christian was just like you?
I realized back in 2008 that if we multiplied a bunch of Josh’s, it would have been an issue. We would have had a problem.
I realized I had been satisfied with surpassing some kind of minimal standard for following Jesus in America and that I had some growing to do.
I started praying desperate prayers, watching those who were really living it. I committed to radically following Jesus. And God changed me. And He can change you too!
Can you imagine if we became disciples worth reproducing and started making disciples who made disciples? We would see cities flipped upside down. We would shake a nation. It would be the book of Acts all over again.
That can happen. God is doing it through our ministry in South Asia. Just last year we started 8,070 churches, and 56,000 people put their faith in Jesus and made him the King of their lives.
Let’s be disciples worth reproducing and make as many more as we can.
It starts with us.
Editor’s Note: If you’d like to start being a disciple who makes disciples before you jump on a plane, reach out and get in touch! We would love to help you get started!