Multiplication & Division

When we had our first Zambia meeting back in the beginning of June, I left feeling disheartened, and I wasn’t really sure why. I should have left feeling excited and fired-up. A few days later, I figured out why.

My church is extremely missions-driven, to the point where everyone is challenged to go on a missions trip within three years of calling Eleven22 home. To make that possible, they offer lots of trips all year round; in 2014, they put together 18 different trips. Each trip is typically maxed out at 30 people, meaning there were approximately 540 open spots, which sounds like a lot, but is actually a paltry sum compared to the number of attendees in the church. So if everyone took Pastor’s challenge seriously, and more importantly, the Great Commission, every trip should be full and have a waiting list.

I knew my trip wasn’t completely full. (The first to fill up are always the cheapest ones and the ones that Pastor Joby is leading). But the meeting taught me that only 12 people had signed up (including the two leaders) and four of those had dropped out. (And by the way, all 8 of us are women). Beyond that, I learned that a few trips (I believe it’s up to five now) had been cancelled because there weren’t enough people, and our trip almost made 6. (Thank you, Carrie Williams!)

There’s a Christian song that has a line like “break my heart for what breaks Yours.” My heart smashed into a million pieces.

God has got to be crushed by that. Because when you put the pieces together, it shows that we Christians don’t really take the Bible seriously, and are unbelievable cowards. There’s a reason why the least expensive trips fill up first. There’s a reason why the most expensive trip of the year got cancelled. There’s a reason why a trip with the same cost as ours got cancelled. There’s a reason why our trip (tied for second most expensive) almost got cancelled. We’re greedy cowards with our money, and we don’t really trust God to provide for us. If you’ve surrendered your life to Christ, but have not fully surrendered your finances to Him, then you’re not surrendered at all. PERIOD.

Our trip also happens to be the most challenging trip due to the weather and the fact we’ll be camping in the bush with zero, shall we say, amenities. The full trips usually stay in hotels (some in hostels). 

And we really don’t take the Bible seriously. Because if we did, every single one of us would be working as hard as we can to fulfill the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20) and Acts 1:8 and Matthew 24:14. 

That realization made me angry. Really angry. How can you call yourself a Christian if you’re not following Jesus’s simple command? But I had an even worse discovery the other day. Christians don’t go on mission because churches don’t give them the opportunity.

I was googling churches in my area (the reason isn’t important…no I’m not looking for a new church….I’m insanely in love with mine), and of the websites I looked at (which was around a dozen), they gave all sorts of details of the different classes and groups and programs they offered, but only two said anything about global missions. Seriously?! And then I thought back to the churches I’ve attended, only one other did missions trips. The others, not only didn’t offer trips, but never even mentioned missions. My heart smashed into a billion pieces. THE LEADERS in our churches aren’t even doing missions. We are seriously messed up. I’m so sorry, Father. If we don’t do something and get on the right track, pretty soon, somebody’s gonna create a version of the Bible that omits Matthew 28:19. “What Great Commission?”

All of this just makes this trip all the more important to me. Hopefully through it, I can find a way to make an impact, to get more people, more churches to go on mission. Because the tiny percentage of us that go on mission, whether short term or long term, can’t do it alone. We’re way too outnumbered by the unreached. And we’re not supposed to do it alone. Because we’re ALL called to it. The Great Commission contains no exceptions. It’s for all of us. It’s for you.