Two thousand years ago our Lord gave His churches a clear and definite command. He said, “Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” Matthew 28:19-20

After the persecution began in Jerusalem the followers of our Lord give clear evidence as to what they understood the Lord to mean in His commission. “Therefore they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word.  Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ unto them.” Acts 8:4-5  “Philip was found at Azotus; and passing through he preached in all the cities, til he came to Caesarea.” Acts 8:40 Philip understood what was expected of him as a messenger of the Great Commission.

“And it came to pass, as Peter passed throughout all quarters, he came down also to the saints which dwelt at Lydda.” Acts 4:38  From Lydda it is recorded he went to Saron and from Saron to Joppa and from Joppa to Caesarea to preach to Cornelius. Peter understood what was expected of him as a messenger of the Great Commission.

“The Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.  So they being sent forth by the Holy Ghost departed …” This was their first missionary journey and they preached the Gospel in Selucia, Salamis, Paphos, Perga, Antioch in Pisidia, Iconium, Lystra, Derbe, and then back through some of them again to build up the converts and establish the churches which were planted as a result of their evangelism.  And Paul made a second and a third missionary journey using the same strategies.  Paul and his team members understood what was expected of them as messengers of the Great Commission. So did the church that sent them and those that supported them.

These passages reveal to us solid Bible evidences for the principles and practices of missions.  These strategies worked for them.  They will work for us today.  They can and must!  The world population now exceeds 7 billion people.  Statistics on modern missions and evangelism show we are simply not getting the job done by using our modern 21st century mission practices.

The modern missionary techniques which are widely used today around the world reveal something to us.  Either they in the 1st century did not understand what the Lord meant in the commission or we in the 21st century do not understand.  Which could it be?  Look at Paul’s words in Colossians 1:23.  “…Be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven whereof, I paul am made a minister.” Some interesting evidence is revealed in this scripture.  At the time of the writing of this letter Paul could say by the Holy Spirit inspiration, “the gospel … was preached to every creature which is under heaven.” The mission strategies, practices and principles which allowed them to be obedient to the Great Commission, even with their limitations of travel, equipment, resources and conveniences, reveal they accomplished an amazing task.  Yet today, we with all these advantages don’t come anywhere near their accomplishments.  We simply and plainly are not getting the job of world evangelism done.  We are not keeping up with the population.  If something is not done, many of the 7 billion souls living on the planet now will never hear the Gospel and have an opportunity to trust in Jesus Christ as their Savior.

What must be done?  We MUST have a return to the principles, patterns and strategies of the 1st century missionaries.  We must give up our modern, traditional, siege mentality of missions that has a missionary go to a town and put down his roots to contextualize for years and years before he can expect to effectively reach anyone with the Gospel.  We must do better than the type of missions where a missionary with just his family forms a church and then goes into their new community and environment to invite them to come in to their “church”. We must go out into their arena with the powerful Gospel message to evangelize first.  We must get back to the strategy in which churches are the natural outgrowth of evangelism, instead of the other way around.  That is where we are failing in missions.  That is why so many missionaries never move on to the next towns or the regions beyond. They are so busy trying to build up a big church crowd, that they never evangelize – they don’t properly evangelize so there is no one for them to use to build the church.  What a tragic and unfruitful cycle the devil has many running in today and all the while millions of precious souls die without ever hearing the Gospel.  So sad and eternally tragic.  Please let us read the book of Acts again!  I promise it is the very best text-book on missions ever written.  This is a call for us all to examine the evidence and then return to the principles, patterns and strategies of the New Testament missionaries.  If we do not we can not be obedient to our Savior’s Great Commission.

Baptist Evangelism is the name of the Maggard’s mission ministry.  It tells who they are and what they do.  Pray for them as they “go into the next towns” preaching the Gospel, planting churches and training leaders.  See more about this ministry  at www.baptistevangelism.org