Missions Textbook 29
How do You Choose
a Mission Field?

We Never Saw It Coming: An Introduction to Christian Missions (textbook)

Choosing a mission field is a many-faceted decision. It includes determining what your priorities are, where your interests lie, where needs are, and where your gifts, talents, and education might lead.

First, decide what your goals are for mission work. Every mission agency will have one or more of these as their guiding principles. You will need to figure out what philosophy of ministry you believe in. Not everybody agrees on what missionaries should be doing on the mission field. Five different viewpoints compete for the missionary’s choice of goals and methods. Goals are why we do things, and methods are how we do them. Following is a description of the range of goals that will then dictate methods.

1. Just give people the clear, simple Gospel. Let the secular world feed them and care for other physical needs. If the house is on fire, why rearrange the furniture? Don’t waste your resources – personnel, money - on anything less important that the salvation of souls. The apostle Paul didn’t get involved running food banks, drilling for clean water, teaching people to read, or setting up a field hospital.

2. Give the people the Gospel, and then teach them that they need to do good deeds among their own people. Again, don’t waste resources doing anything less that sharing the eternal Gospel. Let them figure out – with the help of the Holy Spirit – how their faith will be worked out in their own culture.

3. Give the people the Gospel, plus set an example by doing good deeds for them, like feeding them or taking care of their physical needs or teaching them to read. Yes, secular organizations are doing these things, but you are not going to solve all the physical problems on your field. You are doing good deeds to draw attention to your ministry and message (Jesus and the Gospel) and as examples to be followed by the nationals. Your available resources – personnel, money, equipment – will determine how many and what good deeds you can do.

4. Do good deeds first, followed by giving them the Gospel. It is likely that they won’t respond positively to the Gospel if they have hungry stomachs. They won’t accept the Gospel if they don’t see your love through your good deeds first. Jesus often did good deeds for the people before He preached the Gospel.

Sometimes religions and governments use this goal to manipulate the people. Perhaps they want them to join their group or to support a religious or political agenda. It is also sometimes difficult to know if people are “coming to the Gospel” merely because of the physical benefits. This was a problem after the fall of the Iron Curtain. For example, many churches in America sponsored Russians who had made a profession of faith and wanted to emigrate. But once they were settled, they returned to their old beliefs.

5. Good deeds are the Gospel. The message is in the food and medical supplies and new water systems. You don’t need the Bible at all. You are demonstrating God’s love to them, and they will learn to love your God through the good deeds. The Gospel, however, as we have stated before, is a message, and messages need words to communicate them.

Which goal do you believe in for your own ministry on the mission field?

Second, determine your priority as to the kind of field you want to serve in. Here are four general categories:

1. Unreached Peoples: These are groups of people to whom no one has ever taken the Gospel, or at least such human missionary activity has never been recorded. This does not mean that God cannot have worked directly with a people group without human help. God doesn’t need anything to complete His mission, but it does mean that God wants to use believers in building His Church.

2. Receptive Cultures versus Non-Receptive Cultures: Receptive cultures are those in which the people are eager to accept the Gospel. This is not as rare as we might imagine. Sometimes just carrying a Bible is enough to begin a conversation about the Gospel. On the other hand, missionaries can serve for two or three generations in an unreceptive field without seeing any visible fruit. Both are viable options for you. This is also a need-based decision. There is, however, need for the Gospel message everywhere.

3. Urban Areas versus Rural Areas: Over half the world lives in major cities today. There are more people to reach in the cities, and the challenges are enormous. Believers are not so conspicuous in large cities, where there are many cultures and languages and beliefs. In rural areas, life is more traditional, and believers – and foreigners – are much more conspicuous. Still, they need the Gospel as well. Sometimes, those from rural areas study in the cities and then return to their villages.  It can be a ministry to work with those students.

4. Personal Preference: Apart from the other three options, where do you want to go? Have you been drawn to a people or language or culture, just because you are being drawn there? We were drawn to a German-speaking culture and then evaluated the need, based on how many evangelical churches there were in each of the German-speaking countries. The Holy Spirit is not bound by any of our human categories.

Have you ever been drawn to a specific ethnic group, language, or region? Maybe you already speak a second language. Any ethnic food you love eating? Any culture you watched on television that made you want to know more? Any missionary spark your interest in his field? Invite people from different ethnic groups into your home. Find different cultures in your own area and get to know some of the people. Don’t talk about going to the field or into some ministry. Just get to know people and allow the Lord to move your heart toward or away from them. The goal: to fall in love with a group of people and their culture and their language. God never intended to use a missionary in seventeen cultures, although you might experience that in a large city. The Apostle Paul was able to work in so many different language groups across Europe and the Near East because Greek was the universal language in the Roman Empire at that time. For the rest of us, learning a new language and crossing into a new culture is a lifetime process.

And after you find yourself drawn to a specific group, then begin to ask what kind of “ministry” you would be involved in to reach that group with the Gospel. The people are more important than the type of ministry. The PEOPLE are more important than the type of ministry.

Third, evaluate your gifts, talents and education, as well as any hindrances.

Are you a pilot or a nurse? Have you learned to teach English? Are you a gifted speaker, or do you prefer to study and write? Much of this has already been addressed in the article on Missionary Readiness, but this is a great part of choosing where to go. Are you strong enough to trek through the jungle, or do you prefer to sit over coffee and have a good discussion? Do you struggle with asthma, celiac disease, or other allergies? Look at all these things realistically. You want to go and serve the Lord on the mission field, not become a burden on someone.

You may want to do translation work, translating the Bible for an as-yet-unreached people group. This is, of course, a very worthwhile thing to do, as people learn best in their mother tongue – the language of their heart.

To be a bit controversial, however, consider how many people actually speak that language. In many countries, there are small people groups who speak a language unknown to anyone else. They exist within a country with an official language – perhaps French or Arab or Spanish or even English. For example: Indonesia, according to Wikipedia, boasts 700 distinct languages. The official language is Indonesian, which the people need anyway for commerce, education, and the media. Would it not be a better use of time to teach the small people group the official government language, teach them to read, and then give them a Bible in that official language? In this way, they would receive the Gospel many years sooner. Then, if they like, they can much more easily translate it into their mother tongue. The time and money and effort saved would be considerable. It would take them only a few years to learn the new, official language, while a missionary would need that many years to learn their language and then many more to translate the Bible into their language. Just thinking . . ..

Fourth, learn all you can about living on your choice for mission field.

I have a friend who decided not to go to Peru when she visited and saw all the snakes and very large bugs. Are you going to be foraging for food and cooking over an open pit? Another friend of ours did that in Vanuatu for several years, cooking for the entire staff every day. Is the water drinkable? In St Petersburg, Russia (a city of 5 million), we had to boil every drop of water we put into our mouths – including for brushing our teeth. The city water was contaminated with giardia. Most of the Russians did not boil the water, but they admitted that those who were vulnerable had long since died. What is the official viewpoint on foreigners, people from your home country, with your mother tongue, and on the Christian faith. Are you willing and able to deal with that?

Finally, get a copy of Operation World,[1] by Jason Mandryk, and read about many countries.

Each country is covered in two pages. It’s an excellent overview of every country in the world and can answer many of your questions. Pray each time you read. Ask the Lord: “Lord, are these the people you want me to fall in love with?” Don’t “worry” about God’s will. He never gives us a floodlight. He gives us a flashlight. Take the next step.

[1] Jason Mandryk, Operation World (Downers Grove: IVP Press, 2010).

We Never Saw It Coming: An Introduction to Christian Missions (textbook)

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