Chapter
4
New Question
Among the many changes at the International Mission
Board, none is more significant than a simple new
question that is echoing throughout the organization.
The question is, What's it going to take to get
the job done? Though it seems innocent enough, this
question has prompted a fundamental shift in the
ministry of every missionary who asks it and a major
advance in the Great-Commission prospects of our
entire organization. To appreciate its significance
you need first to realize the role and importance
of its predecessor, the beginning question. Every
missionary traces his career back to a common beginning
question. Its phrasing may vary, but its essence
is always the same: Lord, how can you use me to
reach a lost world for Jesus Christ?
For
missionaries serving around the world, this beginning
question represented a common point of departure
for a life of service on foreign fields far from
their homelands. On their knees in church sanctuaries,
on sawdust floors of tent-revivals, in crowded youth
camps or at inquirers' tables at world missions
fairs, each of these future missionaries surrendered
their lives to Jesus Christ with a simple, yet profound,
question and commitment: Lord, can you use me? If
so, I give myself to you. On this foundation, every
missionary career has been built. Such foundational
questions don't go away. If they ever did, they
would take the whole missionary movement with them.
So
why are we now asking this new question? Does this
new question replace the old? By no means! If it
did, we'd be talking about more than a shift of
direction, we'd be looking at a revolution! The
new question builds upon the old but takes it further
and expands our vision in the process. Some missionaries
have shortened the question from Lord, what's it
going to take to get the job done to the single
phrase What's it gonna take?
The
question may seem harmless enough, but don't be
fooled. This question is explosive! Let's take a
closer look. What's it gonna take? addresses the
task at hand. In our case, that task is to launch
a church-planting movement among all peoples. Thus
the full question when applied to this task is What's
it gonna take to bring about church-planting movements
among all peoples?
As
a true paradigm changer, this strategic new question
alters our perceptions. It does so by shifting attention
from the petitioner (i.e. the missionary) to the
task at hand (a church-planting movement among a
people) even as it transfers the solution from the
petitioner (the missionary) to the Lord of the Harvest.
Let's unpack this question further to see how it
propels us into a new realm of possibilities.
The
What's it gonna take? question leads us through
three stages. First, it drives home our personal
inadequacy--a frustrating experience. This frustration
leads to a second stage, turning to God for His
answers. From this new vantage point we enter the
third stage, a breakthrough into the abundance of
God's resources.
What's
it gonna take? expands the playing field. The beginning
question--How can you use me?--may result in a personal
commitment that still falls short of the larger
issues posed by the What's it gonna take? question.
A missionary addressing the beginning question may
legitimately answer it by yielding his talents and
abilities to doing something meaningful for God
without ever grasping the full scope of what God
has in mind to reach an entire people for Jesus
Christ.
Once
the new question is asked, the missionary finds
himself woefully inadequate to meet these demands.
Honestly facing the question What's it going to
take? demands far more than any one of us has to
offer. For this reason, the question is initially
maddening in that it leads to a frustrating sense
of inadequacy and a humble recognition that we lack
the personal reserves to accomplish the vision that
God has set before us. However, rather than being
the end of the road, this initial frustration sets
the stage for a whole new range of possibilities.
The
missionary is now ready to look to God for the answers
to this personally overwhelming question. The missionary
now understands that a church-planting movement
that will reach millions of people with the gospel
will require far more than he has to offer. Indeed
for an entire people group to be reached with the
gospel, it may require thousands of faithful prayer
warriors, a team of full-time professional Bible
translators, a multi-staffed Jesus-film production
crew, scores of cross-cultural evangelists, dozens
of church planters and many others. Fortunately,
all of these resources are at God's disposal. After
all, He is the Lord of the Harvest!
In
contrast to our personal limitations, God has far
more resources than we can ever imagine. He who
has called us to this great work will also do it!
Thus, the missionary who has faced the strategic
question--What's it gonna take?--is compelled to
look to God for the answer to a question that only
God can answer and to draw from God a vast array
of resources that only He can provide. Out of the
new question, missionaries have come to see their
need for a broader community of evangelical colleagues.
Realizing that they can't possibly meet all the
demands required for a church-planting movement,
they have summoned the resources of thousands of
prayer supporters, elicited the aid of a host of
evangelical co-laborers in fields as diverse as
relief ministries, literacy missions, radio broadcasting
and campus ministries, and they have summoned harvesters
from every corner of the globe to reap the fields
that stretch out before them.
If
the question What's it gonna take? is so earth shattering,
can it be avoided? Well, yes, it can. We can close
our eyes to it and return to the comfort zone of
simply relying on our own gifts to do whatever we
can personally accomplish wherever we happen to
find ourselves. But ignoring this strategic question
means missing out on the tremendous possibilities
that stand before us. As Peter Wagner recently observed,
"This generation of believers is the first
in history that can actually see light at the end
of the Great Commission tunnel." Only by asking
the question What's it gonna take? can we chart
our course to the end of that tunnel!
Once
you've asked the Lord and yourself the What's it
gonna take? question, you're never quite the same
again. It creates a discomfort that can never be
resolved short of an all-out assault on lostness.
This new question, What's it gonna take? evokes
a new response of Whatever it takes, Lord, with
whomever You send, to do whatever You want.
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