Tell all the world

Heathrow airport on a Wednesday afternoon. You buy a tray full of overpriced coffees and carry them carefully over to a group of people sitting round a small table. A teary-eyed missionary saying goodbye to sad family and friends!

It’s a strange mix of excitement and sadness. After handshakes and hugs all round you watch as your missionary joins the queue through security and into the departure lounge. A final wave and he is gone! The thought suddenly comes into your mind, ‘Now what?!’

Trinity Baptist Church, Gloucester, is 81 years old and I’m their first long-term missionary! This process was new to them and to me and we haven’t got everything right. Mistakes have been made. Here are six things that I’ve appreciated about my church from personal experience.

1. The whole process

Church’s involvement started 25 years before I became a missionary. I was faithfully taught the truth of God’s word both at home and in church. Part of that teaching was the need for the gospel, both here and everywhere. I remember vividly seeing the pictures and hearing the stories as missionaries spoke at our prayer meetings. I started helping at a church children’s club. The first week my job was stacking chairs, but gradually I got more involved and was soon speaking and helping to lead the meeting. With a growing conviction for full-time Christian work, I left school and found a job so I could save up for a short-term trip abroad. I met with the elders and they were supportive of my plans. The elders kept the church fully involved in all the decisions as my call developed and, when I left, it was as their missionary in the truest sense.

2. The money and the prayers

The leadership made it clear from the beginning in all the meetings of the church: ‘If we send him then we have to support him, both prayerfully and financially’. I was their responsibility! Many of the members committed to giving a monthly sum through direct debit and lots of those were older people who gave a little each month. They were with me from the beginning and after seven years they still are. Once a month, a group gets together and prays for me and the work in the Philippines. When I come home I’m amazed by the number of names and situations they remember and have taken to heart to pray for. I’m often told that I’m prayed for regularly in the Sunday services and at the mid week prayer meeting.

3. The general support of the many

Picture the scene: a missionary family a long way from home, working hard and often feeling discouraged and lonely. After two years they return home and the church arranges a meeting for them to report back. And very few of the members are there to hear them. One word: crushing.

Now picture this: a missionary family a long way from home, working hard and often feeling discouraged and lonely. After two years they return home and the church arranges a meeting for them to report back. Nearly all of the members make a real effort to be there. One word: uplifting! Just your presence has the power to do that.

For most of the seven years I’ve been sending prayer letters once a fortnight and it’s encouraging to know many people have been receiving them. I’ve tried to adopt a ‘tell it as it really is’ policy and people often encourage me by telling me that doing that makes it easier to pray.

4. The specific support of the few

One of the most significant decisions was for the church to put a small team consisting of two elders and one deacon in charge of me. That had enormous benefits. It made it easier to meet together and each person had clearly assigned roles that they were gifted at. It meant I knew who I needed to go to if there were problems and the church knew who was responsible for me. The team meets with the GBM officers regularly and we all meet together when I’m in the UK. Both I and the team have really benefitted from the friendship and close working relationship with the GBM officers.

5. The trust and freedom

My church trusts me! I haven’t been surrounded by red tape stopping me from being able to get involved in the things I felt called to do. In some ways I went with a blank sheet of paper as the plan was to work with a local church in the Philippines in evangelism outside a church building.

I love the fact that my church has been ‘kingdom minded’, with a desire to see me in gospel work. Not seeking to plant mini churches identical to them or pressuring me to wave the flag for a particular style or denomination. They have supported me when I’ve had the privilege of working with a number of very different churches. They have been gracious and generous in their support of people I’m working with.

6. The wisdom and gracious oversight

I’ve made enormous mistakes over the last seven years, things I look back on with shame and deep regret. I never meant them, but here’s the problem. Take one young man with a sinful heart and all sorts of selfish motives. Place him a long way from home in a country very different from his own. Surround him with various pressures, a different language and culture, and sprinkle on a generous amount of illness, difficulties in ministry and problems in the church. It doesn’t take long for there to be tensions and stresses caused both by others and by the missionary.

Proverbs tells us ‘in an abundance of counsellors there is safety.’ (Proverbs 11.14, ESV). The team knows some of my weaknesses. They know my situation. Big decisions about current and future ministry are always discussed. Regular correspondence with the team and with GBM has been encouraging and face-to-face meetings have been times of real blessing. I can be completely honest and I fully trust these men in helping me think through the many issues. They have been gracious enough to pick me up when I’ve got in a mess and with a mixture of challenge and encouragement have helped me to go again.

I’ve enjoyed working closely with GBM too, and the friendship and fellowship with the people there has been such a blessing to my life, as has the connection with many other churches. But I love the fact that I’ve been sent by a local church and am working in partnership with and under the oversight of that church. Missionaries need a church that cares enough and is strong enough to challenge and question when necessary.

So — Heathrow airport on a Wednesday afternoon — it’s a strange mix of excitement and sadness. But one of the many things I’m confident of is this: my church has been with me, is with me and will be with me as we face this big challenge together. And that is something I have been and still am enormously thankful to God for. A good sending church can and should make all the difference to their missionary. Just the way God planned it.

Matt works with Sovereign Grace Christian Church, San Pedro in the Philippines.

This article is an abridged version of the final chapter of Tell all the world: church-based mission for the 21st century, edited by Don Crisp and Jim Sayers, published by Grace Publications, price £7.99. Copies are available post free from Grace Baptist Mission, 12 Abbey Close, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, OX14 3JD (tel. 01235 520147).

Matt Gamston talks bout the missionary and the sending church

1. The whole process

2. The money and the prayers

3. The general support of the many

4. The specific support of the few

5. The trust and freedom

6. The wisdom and gracious oversight

Matt Gamston

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