Missional Christian: It starts in Jerusalem
Martha Olawale
“And ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” Acts 1:8b
When we hear the word' ‘missions,’ the first picture that comes to mind is most likely a malnourished child from a village in an economically challenged part of the world. It’s not the revival crowd that once defined the word. Thank God for the missionaries He sends to remote parts of the continents and for the hope He gives people in difficult places! People willing to answer the call to leave their nations to go to other nations are heroes of our faith.
I sincerely believe that global missionaries have a special place in Heaven because of their sacrifices. And in honor of those sacrifices and those who lay down their lives daily for the cross, our comfort level as Christians should be challenged. While it’s important to be Christ's hands and feet, we must not forget the holes in those hands as He hung on the cross and why He did it. He died to save everyone and wants them to have eternal life, and it’s our responsibility to go and tell them.
We don’t get to live in the fullness of godliness without a level of grit and sacrifice, even right where we are. They say health is wealth, and that applies also to spirituality. Don’t get me wrong—God wants us to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and empower the powerless—but equating material wealth to spiritual health is deceptive. Take a short walk in your neighborhood or turn on your television, and you’ll see the dire need for Jesus where you are.
I’m a staunch advocate for God to send missionaries to the West because they’re losing the steam God wants the Church to live by. When I tell people I am a missionary living in America, they seem confused because they believe missions are tied to earthly needs and that since the country does not need people from other countries for health or welfare, I must be mistaken. But what Jesus said was that we should be witnesses (it’s about the gospel), and while we can accompany that goal with food, water, and healthcare, the core is the gospel.
Every Christian needs to ask God what He wants them to do for missions right where they are, in Jerusalem, before asking what He needs them to do in Judea. Witnessing Christ must start where we are before God can trust us to move beyond our borders for specific assignments. I did leave my home country to live in the US, and as a Christian, I must be kingdom-minded because if God brought me here, I must live here as a missionary. The narrative that it takes being poor to need Jesus is sending the wrong message and making many Christians lackadaisical in minding the spiritual wounds in their faith. It’s making us narrow the gospel and redefine Jesus’s call to be witnesses.
We must start prioritizing maximizing people’s gifts and leveraging them for local mission purposes, teaching them to live like missionaries at work, school, and neighborhoods. This Christian movement started in Jerusalem (Acts 2), the home base of the disciples, and we can’t ignore ours. If God then says to go to a foreign land, please go, and if He says to stay, don’t take that as “I need to fold my hands and relax.” There is so much to do with so little time, and the Kingdom can use you. Let the builders build, the singers sing, the writers write, and the teachers teach. Just live ‘missionally.’ Our witnessing begins where we are because if you can’t shout it in Jerusalem, you cannot echo it in Samaria.
They sure do not need Western missionaries in Lagos, where I grew up, because we already have many churches and faith banner bearers serving the Kingdom there. In fact, God has dispersed some of us to other parts of the world to rekindle the gospel fire. We had at least five churches on my street alone, and my home Church had four services each Sunday in an auditorium that seats fifty thousand people and more people sitting in overflows.
A fifteen-year-old born-again Christian in Nigeria can pray for hours at a night vigil, while an adult American Christian won’t want to miss her beauty sleep for that. If anything, I miss the vibrancy of Christianity I grew up with, the boldness, tenacity, and faith, and I pray daily for Christians in the nation I live in now to encounter God the same way I did. I dare you to spend a month with a devoted Christian family in Africa and pray when they pray, go to Church when they go to Church, read your Bible when they pick theirs, and see if your spirit won’t be energized.
While Christians in underdeveloped nations would welcome the hands of love from afar, more than anything else, they need us to be strong in our faith, holding the fort in this part of the world. We can encourage through our intentionality by not masking our need to raise our children to walk with God, pray, and read the Bible more with economics. As Christians, the mission field is anywhere people need to hear about Christ Jesus, and every school, street, and workplace needs it. If you see the same thing I’m looking at when you walk the streets, you can’t deny that the need is much, even in our immediate neighborhoods. If we place all our hands on the strongholds and push against the walls of darkness together, the light will rush in, dissipating it.
Yes, Jesus did say to go to the uttermost part of the earth, but before that, He said to start in Jerusalem and Judea, and our Jerusalem is here, where we are. We are leaving too many margins that can cause weariness for the coming generation to continue to fight the good fight of faith. No matter how well-dressed your neighbor or coworker is, if they don’t know Jesus, they are poorer than a penniless Christ follower living in a mud hut in a third-world country.
True witnesses of the cross live on missions daily, everywhere they go. We are all called to serve and be a light to our families, friends, neighbors, citizens, and the people we interact with daily. Tell them what Jesus is doing in your life, about eternity, and the need for them to accept His call to salvation. How we live matters, and so does how we serve. We can’t ignore the darkness because whether people are rich or poor, live in Europe or Asia, the same rules apply to all; every dying soul needs Jesus.
Until we understand God’s purpose and calling and live consciously by them, we’ll miss out on daily opportunities to be witnesses. While some are privileged to go on or are called to global missions, many Christians will never travel beyond the shores of their nations, but that doesn’t mean they hang their witness hat. So, use your gifts where you are as long as they point people to Jesus. We are all called to minister to the people around us. Our fulfillment in life lies in knowing what role God wants us to play on the world’s stage and actively living it to witness Jesus.
