Build Churches That Outlive You
Churches should outlive the men who plant them. In missions today that is a minority opinion. All bows to the mighty metrics of speed and numbers. Thus, the deeply rooted, the slow, and the patient, is too often eschewed for the quick and the countable.
Last year I had the great privilege of visiting the islands where one of my missionary heroes, John G. Paton, lived and served more than 150 years ago. To walk on the beach where he likely came ashore, to see the forgotten grave where his wife and son are buried (we had to clear brush off it and were told no one had visited in more than 10 years) was something I will never forget.
By far, the most impactful event was on the island of Aniwa, where we spent time with members of the church there—the direct spiritual descendants of John G. Paton. My wife and I served for 13 years in Papua New Guinea (PNG), and the national languages of PNG and Vanuatu are similar enough that conversation was possible. To hear these Christians give testimonies rooted in the work of Jesus Christ on the cross instead of their own works, and to realize that this church is now measured in generations, not in years, was a wonder to behold.
It’s true that Paul had a driving ambition to get to those places where “no foundation had been laid.” But too often today that ambition is pitted against a love for the church and to see it built up, strengthened, mature, bearing fruit. Paul would regularly visit the churches he planted, teaching, nurturing, rebuking, beating back the wolves, and striving to present them mature in Christ. He would give himself over in every way to see them full of vibrant, God-glorifying life. Death was at work in him so that life could overflow in them.
The metric of the Great Commission is a strong, mature, New Testament church. Too many people misread Matthew 28:19 and come away with the idea that the goal of missions is disciples alone. This not only neglects verse 20, but also the entire book of Acts. How did those who heard the commission from the lips of our Savior understand the task given to them? Plant churches! Yes, we share the gospel and pray for a mighty work of the Spirit. Yes, we disciple those who believe. But until those disciples are gathered into a church, they are rootless, rudderless aberrations that likely rise and fall in one generation,often much quicker than that.
When we moved in among the Yembiyembi in 2003, it took us years to master their language, develop an orthography, teach them how to read and write, translate the first passages of scripture and then teach them the grand biblical narrative from Adam to Christ. What a day it was when we finally presented the gospel and welcomed believers, for the first time in history, that spoke the Bises language! But as any parent knows, this was just the beginning. Baby churches are like baby humans. If they are not guarded, fed, nurtured, and taught…they will die. So, we stayed for eight more years to teach, disciple,translate, see elders and deacons named, and to ultimately guide this baby church onto maturity as best we could.
When it comes to missions, sending churches need to be careful that their money and members are not going towards a truncated ecclesiology. If it sounds too good to be true it almost always is. If good churches don’t take weeks to plant in Denver, why would they in Doha? Sweeping movements of the gospel in faraway lands make for great update letters, but what is still alive after five or ten years tells a more accurate story. What is true, what is lasting, what can be measured in generations takes patience and a trust that all good things come in our God’s timing. The mustard seed, fully grown, is a strong tree.
On the final page of John G. Paton’s autobiography, he sums up his missiology this way:
“Plant down your forces in the heart of one Tribe or Race, where the same Language is spoken. Work solidly from that centre, building up with the patient teaching and life-long care a Church that will endure. Rest not till every People and Language and Nation has such a Christ-centre throbbing in its midst, with the pulses of the New Life at full play… The consecrated Common-sense that builds for Eternity will receive the fullest approval of God in Time.”
With patient teaching and life-long care, may we be about the work of missions, building churches that outlast us all, till the King comes for his bride.