Acts 29 and the Missional Call to the Whole World

• Mike Gunn
• Nov 2, 2006
• Series: International

    There has been a weird dichotomy that has been created by those in the emergent or “Mis-sional” church movement that ostensibly has a nascent disdain for overseas missions. Most likely this is a reaction to Christianity’s poor record of culture crushing Christendom caused by an imperialistic state initiated idea of missions. Another reason for this reaction is the helpful correction of the western church’s “Sending” mentality that “Those people” need the gospel. Christianity in the west was assumed, and we watched the west spiritually die as we sent millions of dollars into the “Pagan” lands to “Save” the lost, while ignoring the mission in our own cities. We saw the gospel as an institution, and not as God’s living word to the entire world. This has caused a much-needed new wave of church planting in America, and a corrective to dualistic mission organizations in the west. There is also a third reason for the inattention to “the uttermost parts of the earth,” and that is the ubiquitous postmodern ethic that there are no meta-narratives. It is a common belief that every culture has their own truths and narratives explaining this world, and we simply should see their religious and philosophical views on an equal par as our own, and not be so arrogant as to preach a western religion in an otherwise beautiful culture. 

    While all of these are valid concerns and should be thought through by any mission attempting to reach another culture, it does not negate our clear command to GO into all the nations (Matthew 28:19)! It’s a command that is both comprehensive (Acts 1:8) and multi-racial/ethnic (Revelation 5:9). The biblical gospel speaks into culture and demands a newly constituted humanity. There is “None righteous, no not one.” Subsequently the “In-nocent native” does not exist, and everyone stands guilty before the judgment of a holy and righteous God. There is no culture, American or otherwise that escapes this reality. Anytime we go into any culture (Even our own) we are acting counter-culturally. We are calling peo-ple from one thing to another. Our goal as missionaries is to keep the beautiful cultural creations made in the image of God, and to allow the gospel to extricate damaging aspects of it (i.e. Practices such as Sati, cannibalism, etc.). We are to “Contextualize” the gospel so that it can be understood and begin to transform the community. The gospel always chal-lenges every culture it comes in contact with.

    Thus the gospel must be missionally brought forth on American soil and foreign soil. And I do believe that we in America have the resources and the responsibility to help our brother’s and sisters, and our brother’s and sister’s to come in other lands. I believe that we like Paul in Acts 16:9-10 are called to go and help those in need. “During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us.’ After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, con-cluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.”

    This is the situation we have before us today. Christianity (Every weird strand of it) is growing fast in many developing and third world nations. We (Acts 29i) get hundreds of e-mails with pleas such as Acts 16, and it is God’s mercy on us that should motivate us to action.  To this John Piper writes, “If you have pity for perishing people and a passion for the reputation of Christ, you must care about world missions.” It is the plan of God that the church scatters into the world as His gospel agents as a foretaste of His kingdom to come. We ought to do everything we can not to confuse the gospel with our own cultural attach-ments. We cannot impose western values on another culture, but we must preach the gos-pel to all nations, otherwise we become like the Israelites who took the light of the gospel and hid it under a bushel. There are far too many needs in this world for us, the wealthiest nation in the world, to ignore. These needs are both spiritual and physical, and we would be guilty of gross sin to ignore these needs in order to build our own kingdoms.
    
    We are in the process of forming an International section of Acts 29. Our goal is to partner with existing indigenous ministries and help resource, train, empower and encour-age those in church planting.

The Strategy
Though we are still working on the details of this strategy we intend to:
1. Cooperate with Other Missional Ministries
2. Surface Leaders
3. Train the Called
4. Plant Missional Churches
5. Resource Churches with Tools and Finances to Better Serve the Kingdom

The Opportunities
There are many opportunities for you and your church to be involved in the following:
1. Vision Trips
2. Training Trips
3. Ministry Assistance Trips
4. Coaching Opportunities
5. Church Partnerships
6. Financial Assistance

(Acts 29 churches have pledged to give 10% of their money towards church planting, and some of that ought to be allocated for international work. Acts 29 does not dictate where you give that money, as you and your elders are autonomous, but we do ask that you work your contacts and your Acts 29 giving through the Acts 29 assessment procedure (All international applications are currently running through Clay Davis; ).

The Benefits
1. Help expand the gospel to the whole world
2. Help resource starving ministries with solid theology and biblically based structures
3. Help build a missional mindset outside of your own context, avoiding an “Ingrown,” mono-cultural view of the world and the gospel (God’s mission in the world).
4. Help create “Partners” in the gospel and mission of our Lord Jesus Christ
5. Help instill vision and missional theology in our people
6. Magnify the view of the glory of the Lord in the world, avoiding a “Personal Kingdom” mentality.

    Americans are notorious for their ignorant isolation from the rest of the world. The American churches need to take the initiative to teach and train our people to see the gospel as a whole in the entire world, to appreciate the beauty of all cultures created in the “Imago Dei” and to love the people groups that God loves. It is in exposing our people to the world that will light their missional fires and begin to see the beautiful mosaic that God is creating through the church and His gospel. We will be giving constant updates as to the opportuni-ties for you to give and be part of this mission with Acts 29i. Please consider how you can be involved.

God bless!

Mike Gunn

Acts 29 International Director