Over the years, I have been asked the question by a many of churches, friends and family, “why don’t you minister here in the United States, there are plenty of needs here? You don’t need to go overseas.”
While I agree that there are needs in America, I want to make the plead that is not where the biggest need is. Let me explain.
With the ease of Internet access, churches on almost every corner, and bibles that can be even found at your local convenient store, it is very easy for a person in America to come to faith these days. Not only that but there are a lot of people in America already that are doing ministry. According to one study, there are 4.19 million full-time Christian workers and 95% are working within the Christian world (Frontier Harvest Ministries, 2007). On top of that, there are 900 churches for every one unreached people group (USCWM, Mission Frontiers, 2001)! That equates to about 78,000 Evangelical Christians for every one unreached people group!
Does this bother you? Jesus said, “go into EVERY nation” and make disciples, not just the easiest ones or the one nearest you. Yet there are millions whom have not heard.
Let me give you an illustration. You are walking down a trail one day and you saw ten people struggling to carry a huge log. There were eight people on side of the log, barely lifting a finger, and two on the other, sweating and shaking from exhaustion. You decided you should go help them since this is such a big log. Which side do you go help carry? The side with eight people because it would be easy and you wouldn’t have to break much of a sweat and get your clothes dirty or the side with two, knowing that you would be struggling right alongside them? You see friends, we are all carrying this “log” called the gospel, but I find it extremely unbalanced. Many of us opted out for the side with eight because we don’t find ourselves “skilled enough” or “spiritual enough” to help the other side.
I’ve seen churches that are looking for a new pastor and hundreds of applications get turned in, yet I see the amount of people willing to go to these unreached people groups diminish year after year. Again, its not that Americans don’t need missionaries or church planters but there are still places in the world that have NO access to the gospel. That means that they cant go to a local church or read a bible or have someone tell them about Jesus because there is NO ONE who knows Jesus. There is no one whom has gone to these places to share the good news in their language and cultural context. This is why I leave family and friends, endure many hardships, make cultural blunders and get mocked, love on murders and rapists and idolators; not because it is easy or that I am some spiritual giant but because “…everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent” (Rom. 10:13-15). The job isn’t done folks. Let us trust the Lord and go unto the world for His glory!