The lost mission field?

[bigat]

As I read through the posts in this area of CF I see a lot of people talking about going to China, Mexico, the DR ect.. as their mission field. I'm wondering how many of you consider the U.S. as their mission field?

I spent a year working in the inner-city of St. Louis. I mean - inner city - I was the only white guy for several city blocks!

I think a mission field to other countries are GREAT! I appreciate and am thankful for the work being done in those countries. But I wonder if people think that is the only place they can go to be a "missionary".

Just a thought - what's your thoughts?

God Bless -

 

[JMRE5150]

WONDERFUL POST!!!

This is indeed a overlooked mission field! I believe it is overlooked because Christianity is allowed to be freely practiced in this country, and while that BY NO MEANS excuses it as a 'less than important' mission field, alot of well intentioned christians seek more 'christian restricted' locations to do missionary work.

Our church does have a few of folks who mission to the U.S. inner cities, as well as a indian reservation in the remote tundras of Canada's Northwest region. I would like to see more folks lending missionary skills to our country as well, and for that matter, any country where christianity is 'allowed' could benefits from the wonderful missionary experience.

 

[Tangnefedd]

I spent a year working in the inner-city of St. Louis. I mean - inner city - I was the only white guy for several city blocks

Maybe I have got you wrong, but what the heck does the colour of your skin have to do with anything? Are you trying to say that people of colour need mission work done to them because of their race?

I really hoped the idea of the white person going to evangelise the black 'heathen' was an out dated concept!

 

[bigat]

I spent a year working in the inner-city of St. Louis. I mean - inner city - I was the only white guy for several city blocks

Maybe I have got you wrong, but what the heck does the colour of your skin have to do with anything? Are you trying to say that people of colour need mission work done to them because of their race?

I really hoped the idea of the white person going to evangelise the black 'heathen' was an out dated concept!

Actually - you did get it all wrong. Totally wrong. My post said nothing like that. I think it's uncalled for.

In the same way someone goes to Mexico and is surrounded by another culture - I went to the innner-city. I was surrounded by a culture totally different than mine. Does the inner-city of St. Louis need mission work? You bet it does! On a nightly basis I would hear gun shots - watch drug deals god own on corners where children play. There is nothing racial about the comment.

 

[JMRE5150]

I spent a year working in the inner-city of St. Louis. I mean - inner city - I was the only white guy for several city blocks

Maybe I have got you wrong, but what the heck does the colour of your skin have to do with anything? Are you trying to say that people of colour need mission work done to them because of their race?

I really hoped the idea of the white person going to evangelise the black 'heathen' was an out dated concept!

Wow, I didn't take it this way. I don't think Bigat meant it that way.
Yikes, I think he was just specifying differences, but not in a derrogatory way.

Lets agree that typed text can be perceived differently by different folks, so its not the same as spoken word. Lets all relax, and get back on the subject. Thanks.

 

[ElElohe]

Oh-ho! What a large can of worms you've opened. Let me dance around it, if you will.

First, some stats from a book called The Ten Modules: Equipping you to Mobilize. The 10/40 window (http://www.gmi.org/images/oht_sets/104001s.gif) contains 95% of the worlds unreached peoples and only 10% of the world's missionaries. God has clearly called us to evangelize everyone (and then the end will come. Mal 1:11, Matt 24:14, Rev 5:9) so that He has a people of every ethnicity worshipping Him --I don't usually use smileys but this idea warrants one!!!

Are the needs great in the US, you bet they are! But as the author of this book noted in a seminar talk recently, the needs are great everywhere!!!

Also from the same book,

"Since America has about 5% of the world's population, then only about 5% of the believers would really be called to stay in this country as a witness (1 in 20) while the rest of us should go into the parts of the world where there are about 0% believers."

In actuality 95% of believers will stay in the US. This analogy isn't perfect; it will take more than 5% staying in the US just to fund the missionaries going. But it gets a point across.

Further, there is a reproducing (hopefully! in some cases anyway) church and a church "on every corner" figuratively in America. The Christian witness in the US is strong in comparison to the countries where the population of believers is next to 0 or is 0. People, as the Lord leads (it is He who woos us to himself anyway, His Spirit draws us into His family) in the US can learn about the Gospel without going out of their way. People in many countries don't have this opportunity!

Some John Piper quotes relevant to this discussion are:

Missions exists because worship doesn't! (that is, worship among all people as God has called for in the verses above)

The task of missions may not be merely to win as many people as possible from the most responsive people groups but rather to win individuals from all the ethnicities of the world.

The great commission (to "disciple all nations") is not elective. We all have a part in it. Prayer is integral (but bear in mind "Where your treasure [money] is there will your heart be also), giving money sacrificially (give up cable TV, cell phone, eating out. We are not entitled to live more elaborately in correlation to our wage increases.) and going!

My observation has been that Americans (myself included, at one time) are miseducated regarding missions (if you ever get the chance, take a course--offered all over the US--called Perspectives. www.perspectives.org). And claiming the US as a mission field is most often, a cop-out.

As I read through the posts in this area of CF I see a lot of people talking about going to China, Mexico, the DR ect.. as their mission field. I'm wondering how many of you consider the U.S. as their mission field?

I spent a year working in the inner-city of St. Louis. I mean - inner city - I was the only white guy for several city blocks!

I think a mission field to other countries are GREAT! I appreciate and am thankful for the work being done in those countries. But I wonder if people think that is the only place they can go to be a "missionary".

Just a thought - what's your thoughts?

God Bless -

 

[a'miepje]

I go where God leads me


and actually he took me to US on 2 ocasions for missionwork

3 yrs ago spend 3 weeks in LA and NYC
last year spend a month in OK

but then US is at least 8 hrs flying for me lol

and altho it were amazing trips and yeah US needs God, i donno sometimes God just breaks your heart for a country/peoplegroup, in my case africa

but it doesnt mean i am not active for God in my homecountry, the netherlands in my case (working/ministring to homeless people, kids, involved in worship). wherever I am with God, i'm serving Him!