Instrumental Means: Missionaries, the Message, the Churches

As their sending church, Grace Fellowship Baptist Church (which I pastor), had the joy and privilege of commissioning our latest TMM missionaries to embark for the field. Travis and Laura Sawyer and their two little girls, Sarah Beth and Summer will be leaving next month for Kenya to eventually minister among the Maasai.

The service contained all the traditional elements: good music, a charge to the candidate and his family, more good music, greetings from the Kenya field, a charge to the church sending him forth, the laying on of hands ceremony, the response of the family, and 'dinner on the grounds' afterwards.

What made the service unique was the presence of Grace Bible Church of Stockbridge, GA. The whole church came! Because Grace Fellowship is a smaller congregation, Travis and Laura have been living in suburban Atlanta, where Travis operated his own business in order to help pay for his outfitting expenses. Our prayer was that they would find a church they could serve and one that would be a blessing to them during their sojourn there. God answered our prayers with Grace Bible.

Partnership in the Gospel – that what it takes to do missions effectively. Missionaries that give of their own resources and assets to answer God’s call inspire their sending and supporting churches and friends to do whatever it takes to be obedient to the Great Commission. And shared costs bring shared rewards! Sad emotions at a time of separation with the Sawyers is tempered by joy as we anticipated many hearing the good news - those who would not, where it not for a preacher being sent to them. TMM missionary Jon Johnson, representing the Kenya field, expressed two things at the commissioning service: “We need your help. We need your faithfulness – to God and your family, and to the message you are sent to proclaim.”

Without the message that transformes hearts - without the Sawyer’s response to give all – without churches and individuals that give sacrificially to send them – it simply would not happen. It matters how we respond and what we do! Yes, God is the sovereign prime mover in all this and yet we are blessed to be His instrumental means in gathering the nations. How gracious is God for allowing us to be “instrumental” in giving and praying so that others can hear and believe in Jesus!

For whoever calls upon the name of the LORD shall be saved. How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? Romans 10:13-16