Ask TEAM: What is the Most Important Thing in Christian Mission Work?

TEAM – The Evangelical Alliance Mission • Sep 04, 2020

With each generation, the Church learns (and forgets) vital factors of success in missions. We want to lead ministries that are authentic, culturally sensitive, holistic in care, empowering to local believers, effective in planting churches — the list goes on and on.

All of these are important things, worthy of deep, rich discussion.

But what is the most important thing in Christian mission work?

The answer is simple: Jesus.

As cliché as it sounds, Jesus really is the most important part of mission work. He’s at the center of it all, He’s the reason for it all, and He’s the one who enables us to do it all. Without Him, the rest of it is impossible to achieve.

We’ll break this down into three points.

1. Jesus is the most important part because He is the message the missionaries are sharing.

Christian mission work may involve humanitarian efforts in medicine , education and other forms of community development. But a missionary’s ultimate goal isn’t simply to elevate people out of poverty. Their work is to share the Gospel with people around the world so they can be transformed by the love of Christ.

The Gospel is the story of God’s redemptive plan throughout history, and Jesus is the central figure of this plan. He’s first mentioned in Genesis 3:15 , and then the rest of the Bible continues to point to Him. Jesus is central to the Gospel, and, therefore, He is central to missionary work.

A ministry that doesn’t keep Jesus at its center may produce good works, but it will fall short of its ultimate goal . Good works cannot compare to Christ’s message of eternal hope, redemption and union with Him.

2. Jesus is the One who makes missionary work possible at all.

The thing all missionaries have in common is their humanity. They all experience exhaustion and are prone to burnout. The thing about God is that He tends to give us humans tasks that are impossible for humans to do, but force us to rely on Him.

Missionary work is one of those tasks.

We can go to the mission field with all the charisma and persuasive speaking skills in the world, but without love, we’re like a clanging symbol ( 1 Cor. 13:1 ). And love — our ability to love — comes from God (1 John 4:7). Not only that, but Christ served on this earth as our example of how to love ( John 15:12 ).

We can declare all of God’s commandments, but if we don’t live them ourselves, our message will ring hollow ( Rom. 2:21–24 ). And the Bible says that it is the Lord who continually transforms us into His image ( 2 Cor. 3:18 , 2 Cor. 5:17 ), giving us the ability to obey His commands. To live by faith, it must not be us who live, but Christ who lives within us (Gal. 2:20).

Finally, we can deliver the best evangelistic message, but it is God who changes hearts ( Jer. 24:7 , Eze. 36:26 ). In fact, Jesus warns that people will come to heaven’s gates believing there are saved, only to be told, “I never knew you” ( Matt. 7:21–23 ). Therefore, it is vital that we depend on the Holy Spirit to lead people to Christ, and on Christ to intercede on their behalf ( Heb. 7:25 ).

There is much more we could touch on here, but hopefully it’s clear that true success in missions is impossible on our own. That’s why Jesus is the most important part of the work. Through Him people can do the impossible, including missionary work.

3. Jesus is the reason to do missionary work in the first place.

In Matthew 28:19–20 , Jesus gives His followers the charge to go and make disciples of all nations. This is known as the Great Commission, and it’s an important part of what it means to follow Jesus. Jesus tells us that if we love Him, we will keep His commandments ( John 14:15 ).

But also, as believers, we should want to share the Gospel. Who Jesus is and what He did is should be so important to us that we have to let everyone know ! And that’s what missionaries do as their vocation. So, of course, Jesus is central to their work.

TEAM puts a lot of value and work into training and preparing missionaries. We do everything we can to ensure missionaries have everything they need to succeed on the mission field. And at the center of all of it is Jesus, because we know that without Him, nothing we do would be possible.

Bridging Dissonance: Finding Connection in Music and the Gospel

By Emily Sheddan • 18 Jul, 2024
TEAM worker Luke Standridge and his fellow musicians use music to build connections to faith in Japan. In music terms, dissonance creates movement or even suspense in a song. It invites tension. That tension is what helps grab our ear’s attention and the interchanging of these notes with pleasant melodious parts is what makes music such a delight. In a similar way, God is using music to grab people’s attention and catalyze Gospel impact in the largely unreached nation of Japan. TEAM Global Worker, Luke Standridge moved to Japan in 2019 with no clear direction on how he was going to use his passion for composing music while doing ministry. However, after Luke got involved with a local church and began developing deep friendships, the Lord opened unimaginable doors for Luke that in time, coordinating his creative skills with sharing the Word. “People Need to Come to Japan!” Growing up as one of ten kids in a family that was heavily involved in ministry and missions, Luke never considered that it would one day be a part of his own journey. In 2016, via a Japanese language learning class in Indiana, Luke and his brother had the opportunity to travel to Japan. Hearing, learning, and using the language in the context of Japanese culture was the goal. While it was Luke’s first international trip – even his first trip on a plane - it was also his first time hearing about the spiritual condition of the Japanese people. “And just through that, God did a huge 180 change on my heart,” says Luke. “More people should come here as global workers. People need to come to Japan!” The call God was laying on Luke’s heart is echoed when looking at the spiritual landscape of Japan. The nation is home to the second largest unreached people group in the world. It is one of the most difficult places for the Gospel to take hold and grow. Japan is also home to a deep and rich culture that prizes creative arts from pottery to ink to music to anime – a fact that would help Luke find his niche in life and ministry. God’s Guiding Hand In the short three-month timespan of that first trip, Luke found that opportunities came naturally to share about life, and people’s curiosity for Christianity grew. “I left Japan knowing I just had to come back,” Luke shares. “Even if I didn’t get back to the same area, I knew Japan was where God wanted me to be.” The Lord is good all the time and all the time the Lord is good. His plans do not fail. Luke returned to Japan in 2019, and less than a week after arriving, he was put in touch with a renowned composer in Japan. The composer saw some of Luke’s music and invited him to help write the music for a beloved in-country animated show. But God wasn’t finished yet! Fast forward a year, and more connections and opportunities allowed Luke to help with music for Pokémon - a franchise that has brand recognition around the world and was being developed into a TV series in Japan. Luke recalls how the Lord began using these connections in the production world to open doors for Gospel conversations. One night while having dinner in downtown Tokyo with famous artists and composers from all around the country, Luke was asked about his ministry-focused visa. This was a rare opportunity in a setting with people otherwise uninterested in Christianity. Luke shares, “The whole time I could see God’s hand in guiding the entire thing.”

Connecting in a New Kind of “Neighborhood”

By Lorena de la Rosa and Suzanne Pearson • 13 Jun, 2024
Through creative arts and other forms of innovative outreach, “The Neighborhood” is creating connections to the Gospel and the love of Jesus. CONNECTION. It’s a common word with powerful implications. Dictionary.com defines connection as a joining or linking together; a relationship between people or objects that unites or binds them together. God has created each of us with a deep need for connection with Him as well as connection with others. Hebrews 10:24-25 speaks to this, as the writer exhorts, “Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” This God-given need for connection lies at the heart of a creative and innovative ministry in Japan known as “The Neighborhood.” TEAM Japan global worker, Kelly and her family created The Neighborhood as a place where connections are formed through creative arts, educational opportunities, and simply just providing a space for people to be together. A Family Calling The journey to the creation of The Neighborhood began over 5,000 miles away from Tokyo, in California where Kelly, her husband Jeff, and their five children were living. The kids were the first to sense God’s calling to missions, and asked why their family wasn’t serving in this way. How Kelly and her family came to TEAM is a God-story in and of itself. “God placed a TEAM Japan worker at our lunch table the same week that the kids posed that question to us,” Kelly recalls. “We had never heard of TEAM and so we thought, ‘let’s check this out.’ After that, God just kept confirming that we were supposed to be here.” After a period of fundraising and with much excitement, the family of seven moved to Japan in 2014. For the first five years, Kelly and Jeff served as a part of other TEAM ministry initiatives, but they began to sense a stirring for something new. Creating The Neighborhood Kelly and her family truly have a deep gift for hospitality, and regularly opened up their home to others they met in Tokyo. They saw a great need for people to have a place to gather and connect, and they wondered what doors the Lord might be opening for them to meet that need. “About a year before we were to return the States on home assignment, we were just really thinking about our future in Japan,” Kelly says. “We saw a need for people to have a ‘third place’ – a place that’s not home and it’s not work. They didn’t have a church community or any other place where they could meet people and just connect.” Kelly goes on to explain that in Japan, the culture is such that people don’t generally invite each other into their homes, but as her family did so, people embraced that opportunity. “This idea formed in all of our hearts of a student ministry center – a place where we can create community and learning,” says Kelly. “It was born out of what we were already doing in our home, but seeing how we could expand it and have better space.” God’s Provision What happened next is a true testament to God’s provision. Kelly, Jeff, and the kids returned to the States and began sharing their vision for The Neighborhood with their supporters and churches who responded generously. Upon returning to Japan, the search was on for the right space. “We had a Christian realtor that we told our dream to, and he just went looking for it,” Kelly recalls. When the realtor found a 5-story apartment building, he said, “It’s kind of out of your budget but it has what you need and want.” The Lord provided the funds and the family moved into the space in November 2019. They now occupy all but the ground floor, with living space for their family as well as classrooms, areas to study or hang out, and guest rooms for exchange students or others who need a place to stay overnight. The first floor is occupied by a pizza shop – a welcome amenity for the many groups and students who visit The Neighborhood. “It’s very convenient!” Kelly says with a laugh. The Neighborhood began to see lots of activity right away until the pandemic hit in early 2020. During the height of the quarantine, Kelly and Jeff used the time to redecorate the space and plant gardens outside the building. Then as the restrictions eased, they invited individual students or families over for meals and fellowship. It wasn’t until March 2023 that The Neighborhood was able to fully open again as intended. Kelly shares that despite the setbacks of COVID, the Lord continued to provide the funds to pay the rent.
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