God's Call To Mission example essay topic

1,728 words
1. The way that we can see God's call to mission in this chapter is the way that Moses gives us his four objections. Now the first of these four objections is when Moses asked, "Who am I that should go... ?" (Ex.

3: 11) To this question God answers by saying", I will be with you" (vs. 12) The mission was God's, and he would be with those who carried it, also implying that the mission was greater than the missionary. The second objection was when Mose's asks " Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and ask me, 'What is his name? Then what shall I tell them?" (vs. 13) All god did to reply to this question was to say "I am who I am" (vs. 14) and that was the name that he would be known forever more as. The third objection was "What if [the Israelites] do not believe me or listen to me and say, 'The Lord did not appear to you'?" (Ex.

4: 1) God's response was again simple, he said that he would work mightily through Moses to show the people and make them believe, plainly saying that he was the source and would help the missionary fulfill the mission. The fourth and last objection was that he had "never been eloquent" but was "slow of speech and tongue" (4: 10-11). God replied by saying he was the creator of mans mouth and whatever comes out will be with my power. With all of these objections we can see that it is man who chooses to make God's mission a mission of self-righteousness and self-belief and that is why God showed us that it was the mission that was greater than the missionary. 2. The author in this chapter refers to the motives for becoming a missionary; the first of these motives is the appropriate motives, which are as follows God's Love and Compassion, God's Sovereignty Over Time, and An Outpouring of Thanksgiving to God.

In order to become a good missionary and fulfill the will of God these are the fundamental gifts that one should receive. These three motives are the backbone that the whole missionary practice has or needs to have, for if they do not then their mission will be weak. The secondary motives are, The Desire to Help People Physically, The Desire for Adventure, and Building a Deeper Faith. These are the kind of motives that people are drawn to because of personal or humanitarian beliefs. Lastly there are the Defective motives that draw one to be a missionary; these are Making a Name for Oneself, Building Personal Kingdoms, Escaping from One's Own Culture or Church Situation, and Reacting to Guilt. It is my personal beliefs that these last two kinds of motives are of no use in determining whether one should become a missionary or not.

They are simply irrelevant to ones personal choice; the primary motives are what makes the person choose the path that God has provided for them. I belief that God is the only person that can choose the destiny of our lives and that is why these last motives are of no use. 3. The cycle of missionary service can be divided into seven stages: commitment to go to the mission field, general training, field selection, focused training, initial adjustment, long-term missionary service, and reentry to the home culture. In the first step, the missionary is often questioned by peers, family and co-workers about the need to go as far as they do. This can be a difficult and awkward as people who are close do not understand that it is a difficult thing to go through.

General training is the next step; it is in this step that people study classes that give the basic foundations for their chosen work that as well as written courses that help them have a better understanding of the bible. The third step is the field selection. It is in this step that the place of missionary work is to be chosen or found, this can be a difficult time for the student as there are so many places to choose from in the world. The fourth step focuses on training. Formal and informal preparations are focused on primarily. This can be hard to do as you are learning a lot of vital needed information that must be remembered for future occasions.

The fifth step is the initial adjustment, once the months of planning have finished it is time to leave your comfort zone far from friend and family and venture far off into your new place of home. The sixth step in this process is the long-term missionary service. The mission here is of course to plant new churches and fellowships among new peoples. This alone can be hard and enduring therefore we look to God for help.

The seventh and final step is reentry. When a missionary enters their new world it is as if they are like a new born child, where they have to learn everything all over again, this can be extremely difficult. 4. There are many differences between the two mission approaches but here are the main ones, identification al's think themselves as the learners then move on to the teachers whereas's think they are teachers then transition into learners in the mission field.

Identificational's teach where it is easy for the peoples to understand, but the's teach a harder way of understanding yet they think that the people understand what is being taught. Lastly identification al's are more personal when it comes to their ministries and's do not. 5. The whole idea of this starts with what is know as either the honeymoon or glamour stage, this is where the missionary thinks that the land is beautiful, the people are warm and caring.

Time passes and the missionary begins to feel the rejection stage set in. They are anxious to grow with the customs and rituals of the day-to-day life that they now live in or near. There are four possible ways to deal with this one: go home, two: withdraw yourself, three: go native (when in Rome do as the Romans do) or four: just try to adapt. 6. I think that these words have qualities pertaining to both cultures.

Monoculturism is where people don't give any other cultures a chance and think that the only way to do something is to do it their way or no way. Cross- is the total opposite where the people get out into the world in order to meet other culture and adapt to the customs of others. John 4: 9 is a great way to show Monoculturism and Acts 11: 3 is a great way for Cross-. 7. Decoding is how a message can be interpreted or translated. Encoding is where the words from the source are given to the person giving the actual message.

Noise is a simple break or disruption in the communication line. Feedback is where the person giving the message is enabled to receive encoded information. In order for someone to give a good message in front of foreign or domestic peoples it is always a good idea to keep it to a eight grade understanding level that way no one is offended by the words or phrases that are said. 8.

The Being in the way strategy formalizes the role of God in missions and evangelism there assuming that planning negates the whole divine role of life. The standard solution strategy is where one thinks that they can one situation can be used in every part of the world. The plan so far strategy looks more at the starts rather than the finishes, those that believe in this think that all they have to do it to start something then the rest will be taken care of by god. The unique solution concludes with the assumption that situations differ from cultures in a way that they each require their own special strategy. This is the one strategy that I would side with because all people are different and they all require their own specific needs and not all cultures share the same problems. 9.

Rural mentalities is where you must firstly be an evangelist, secondly develop the church by being a church grower, and lastly train new leaders and periodic catalysts, and then sit back watch the church grow as a member. Urban mentalities you must first have a passion for commodities that consume the urban conscious. Second you must give them a community in which there are people there to talk to and care for them. Third give them simple things. Lastly tell them the absolute truth. Both of these mentalities differ from each other in the way that in urban areas not everyone is close, whereas in rural areas they form tight knit family groups.

10. Reached and unreached is where the church ends up growing quickly with the help of its members. In turn the minister will either feel overwhelmed and he will resign or quit. The level of receptivity is where the ministers move from place to place as they give their sermon, all the time worrying about the numbers in the seats, or how many people will come forward during the service that day. They will think that they are leading away from the message and the message that God wants them to hear. Personal Preference is where missionaries go where they want to decide what they want to do, how they are going to do it, and why they should do it.

This is not exactly what God had in mind. My choice If I had one would be reached and Unreached simply because I think that is what God would want me to do..