“Missions exists because worship doesn’t,” begins John Piper in his book Let the Nations Be Glad.  Missions was not an afterthought in God’s plan; it was the plan from the beginning. 

The theme for this year’s World Missions Week is “The Greatness of the Great Commission”.  Throughout the next eight days, our normal activities at New Life – worship, fellowship meals, small groups – will incorporate a missions emphasis. We will hear from missionaries ministering in four continents, with ministries ranging from Church planting, theological training, discipleship of believers, Bible translation, medical missions, and the meeting of physical needs.

By focusing on world missions for one week out of the year, we remind ourselves that the church is greater than what we observe here in La Mesa, San Diego County, and even the United States of America. We remind ourselves that there are other “nations” and “peoples” with a strong, emerging church, and others with no church and no hope without His intervention. These nations are reached usually through the preaching of the Word through missionaries. When we set aside time to focus on these missionaries we pray for and provide funds for, we are reminded of God’s faithfulness in completing the task.

But without a great message, we have nothing compelling to say to those living and dying without Christ. Without a great God, we have no hope that the message will be heard, understood and believed. Without a sovereign God we have no hope that this mission will ultimately succeed and that our prayers toward that end will ultimately bear fruit. To the contrary, it is precisely because of our Reformed view of God that we can have such confidence in missions, and through this confidence, be bold in prayer, planning and execution of plans for world evangelization.

In spite of this, Calvinists still retain bad reputation for missions largely attributed to the hyper-Calvinist movement of the 17th and 18th centuries. In this view, evangelism was deemed unnecessary because God Himself saves sinners without the need for human agents. This led to the famous rebuke of the father of the modern missionary movement, William Carey, who, during a Particular Baptist meeting, described his desire to begin a missionary society. He was told by Dr. John C. Ryland, “Sit down, young man; when God pleases to convert the heathen He will do it without your aid or mine.”

Just six years after Dr. Ryland rebuked Carey, he heard Carey preach a message from Isa. 54:2,3, to which he reversed himself completely. So forcefully did Mr. Carey preach on the need for us to go as missionaries, Dr. Ryland stated that Carey did “prove the criminality of our supineness (spinelessness) in the cause of God.”  In that message from Carey were two main points, which became the famous motto: “Expect great things from God: attempt great things for God.”