Jenna - Update 5: Missions & the Bible

Journal prompt: What role does the Bible play in missions?

In missions, the Bible plays (and should play) a huge role. When I first heard the prompt, I was a little stumped because I didn’t know where to start, it felt so broad. At first I thought, “If you’re doing it right, you can’t do missions without it!” And that’s true, but when I thought about it more, I realized I can answer much deeper than that.

In missions, I believe the role the Bible plans is education. It sounds simple, but it’s so true. Over the course of this trip, my mind and how I’ve approached missions has changed so much (for the better) and I see how important the Word really is - it’s far more than just quoting the Great Commission in Matthew and then going out and simply painting a building “in the name of God” without developing any relationships with those you’re serving. The Bible is used to educate both us as the servers and those we are serving. We can’t properly serve others without a knowledge of God’s Word.

As we’ve been on this trip, I have learned so much about recognizing who I am in Christ where I’m at (physically and spiritually) and Jesus’ model for his service. Not only is the way I’ve done service here drastically different from any other service I’ve done, but I’ve changed the way I serve. Community building and practical service were always dichotomized in my brain. There were times to focus on deep relationship building and the cultivating of a community and then the times where “real work” needed to get done. But this whole trip, the “real work” is not just physical work, and while we have worked our physical bodies to serve (like working in the garden and building rocket stoves), the “real work” that almost everything thinks is the visible outer difference you make (like weeding or painting) has been the people, the relationships, and that’s a model that comes from the Word.

At the forefront of everything, the people’s best interest has been in mind and developing them into who God has created them to be, young and old, because when we develop them as people, everything else falls into place, and that’s because you develop people with the Bible and learning the Bible transforms everything. I see why Bible studies and the precursor for everything we do because it has prepared me for everything we’ve done, and I know it’s all something that will translate into the rest of my life, not just for this trip.

Then the Bible’s role is to teach those we serve. The Great Commission commands us to “make disciples,” and most people think that means to go and evangelize and convert people. Which that’s not bad, it’s just not all that commandment means. “Disciple” means “student” - Jesus’ disciples were his students. He spent intentional time with them and taught them. If we just convert people and then move on, were does that leave them? We have to teach them and help them develop into who the Lord has created them to be and the only way to do that is by teaching them the Word and helping them apply it to their lives, and as you teach them, your relationship with them grows, and it’s beautiful and what the Lord desires for His kids.

So to me, the Bible is more than an evangelical tool, but it’s the educational piece by which people learn why they are, whose they are, that they have a purpose, that God loves them and sees them, and that’s beneficial and transformative for every community.