The message of Christ is for ‘all the nations’. Every Christian celebrates this little Biblical phrase because without it we wouldn’t have heard the gospel.
Of course over time many involved in missions have found it more manageable to focus on one particular region or people group. There’s some good sense in that, but I’m far less happy when I hear missionaries saying things like I heard again the other day: ‘The Lord has only sent us among (name of people group)’.
Overly focused
It’s not that I don’t understand the importance of specificity and focus, it’s just that I think many Christians, especially Westerners, overdo it. We love having a single focus. Our cultures often display a pronounced preference for efficient prioritisation over against more organic mess and flow. It shouldn’t hurt us to notice these cultural and personal traits mixed in amongst the highly charged atmosphere of a sense of ‘calling’.
