By Joel Comiskey, Leadership Explosion
During William Carey’s day, some hyper-Calvinists didn’t think missions were necessary since God would do the converting. Carey, a Calvinist, realized God performed his work through human instruments. He wrote An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens, emphasizing the connection between God’s sovereignty and human action.
Missions and prayer are the oxygen of the cell church. Missions is not another program but the thrust of God’s redemptive plan for the entire world.
We must continually ask God to help us not to become inward, only focusing on our church in our city. Jesus has a plan to reach the entire world. He died for everyone.
Let’s remember that our God is a missionary God. From Genesis to Revelation, he’s constantly reaching out and establishing his church among all ethnic groups. We have a mandate to go to Jerusalem, Judea, and the uttermost parts of the earth.
We can promote missions from both the celebration and the cell. Cells often adopt a missionary, but the larger gatherings also play a vital role. For example, Celyce and I frequently do missionary work throughout the world. Before we go, our cell will pray for us, but we often speak before the larger gathering. When we return, we’ll share what God has done in the cell and celebration.
The cell church strategy is the best local church strategy for promoting and implementing missions. I recommend believers download the Operation World app, which offers daily prayer requests for each country worldwide. What else can a church do to prioritize missions?
For August. We’ll focus on missions, writing twenty blogs on this topic. Click here if you’d like to receive the daily blogs in your inbox. Here are a few suggestions:
- August 04-10: Scriptural reasons for missions. We’ll examine the biblical basis for God’s missionary heart.
- August 11-17: What can cells do to promote missions (e.g., adopt a missionary, go on a mission trip, participate in a church plant, and so forth)?
- August 18-24: Missions at the level of the whole church (celebration and cell system). How can the local church ensure that the missionary fires are burning?
- August 25 to August 31: Prayer and missions. I encourage everyone to download the Operation World app and consult it daily. What are some ways that we can pray for missions in the cell and celebration?