Many people consider overseas “Mission Service” as the ultimate in sacrificial witnessing.  It often is.  But it may be sacrificial without including witnessing.  Or it may be witnessing without being sacrificial.  In fact, it might even be fun!  Many of us find witnessing joyous, a true “high” that lasts and lasts.

I am concerned about sacrifice without witnessing.  Many go to distant places and live under uncomfortable conditions among people with unusual customs.  They “gladly” do this for the sake of the gospel.  On the way home, however, the question arises, “How did this trip with all of my hard work advance God’s Kingdom?”  This is a great question to ask of every activity, including our daily demands and the responsibilities we accept in God’s Kingdom.  Does this activity advance God’s Kingdom?  If it doesn’t, why am I doing it?  Why did I agree to the new involvement?  If my overseas service does no more than provide me with wonderful stories about a far off place or beautiful pictures from an exotic clime, is it “Mission Service?”

“Mission Service” must fulfill a “mission.”  Fulfill whose mission?  Ah, that’s the rub!  A trip that fulfills our desires and provides clinical care to those who do not have access to it is service.  But is it “Mission Service?”  The cutting questions are: “What is my mis-sion? Why am I a clinician?  Why do I serve the needs of others?  Why do I accept phone calls at all hours, leave my warm home, and help people who do not appreciate good health care?”  From a self-centered perspective, this service is senseless behavior!

If my life’s mission is to advance God’s Kingdom, then I must examine whether my activities advance God’s Kingdom.  What does it mean to “advance God’s Kingdom?”  To enlarge God’s dominion on Earth, to increase the number of people who submit to His sovereignty, to add to those who worship Him.  Health care is good.  Feeling warm inside about helping someone is fine.  But without direction or a central purpose,these are simply kind acts done by humanists.  Doctors Without Borders, an organization which received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1999, has no allegiance to the Kingdom of God, yet the medical staff travel the planet performing heroic humanitarian deeds.  I applaud the work of all who give of their skills to help those in need.  But still the question remains, “Do the actions advance God’s Kingdom?  Do they enlarge the domain of those who worship the King of Kings?”  Many Christians respond, “It is good PR and opens doors.”  True. But does it open doors to the Kingdom?

God did not call us to do good PR.  The apostle Paul was not concerned about PR and image.  He was quite direct, “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in?  And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard?  And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?  And how can they preach unless they are sent?  As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’” (Romans 10:14,15).  We need to send so preaching will occur.  Preaching enables people to hear.  People need to hear so they can believe. They need to believe so they can call on the name of God and be saved.  This is how the Kingdom enlarges.  As we go about our daily mission and our services for our church, we need to speak so that people will hear and believe and call on the “name of the Lord. . . [and] be saved” (Romans 10:13).

We need to know how to share the Good News, how to direct a clinical interview into spiritual matters, and how to raise questions about spiritual issues.  We need to be alert to the prompting of the Holy Spirit so we can hear His voice say, “Speak to this one.”  And speak we must as faithful ambassadors of God’s Kingdom.  We must talk about our King, describe His Kingdom, deal with people’s misconceptions of the Kingdom, and help them understand God in the light of Calvary.  When we do this, whether in our office, attending patients in the hospital, caring for the feet of elderly people in long-term-care facilities, doing extra tasks for our church, serving in some distant location (whether comfortable or uncomfortable), we advance the Kingdom of God.  We are fulfilling our mission.  Thus we perform “Mission Service.”

Check some of the links at www.GoMETS.org for opportunities to extend your mission service.  I would like to hear from you at haelder@GoMETS.org.

Professor of Medicine
School of Medicine
Loma Linda University

Contact Dr. Elder at:  helder@GoMETS.org.