From Restoration Church member Brandi G.
“Preach the Gospel and if necessary use words.” St Francis of Assisi said this but who gets the benefit from that? God is not glorified in it and people are cheated out of hearing an explanation of grace, wrath, repentance and true joy. The Gospel without words is a candy coated Gospel and let’s just be real, not the Gospel at all. Sure, the Gospel can be shown through actions but just like it reads in Romans 10:14-15:
14 How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 15 And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!
I recently came back from my second mission trip to Haiti. This is one of many mission trips I have been on since my high school days. However, out of all those trips, I can count on a single hand the ones that included a verbal proclamation of the Gospel. Now, that’s a true mission trip! All the other trips were not useless but did they fulfill a Gospel centered purpose by simply building something or putting food on someone’s plate?
Everyone has tangible needs but even more is a spiritual need to know the Creator who formed them in His own image and gave His only begotten Son for them. God’s mission does include serving others but we don’t serve them well enough if we don’t give them the spoken Gospel. If you want to have beautiful feet and be on mission with God, you must proclaim the good news of a bloody cross and an empty tomb.
Our mission in Haiti was twofold: train local pastors and leaders in the church; proclaim the Gospel to the men and women of Haiti. It is a beautiful thing to go overseas and take with you the knowledge of the gospel and teach it to others. God has blessed us with many resources to learn about his Word that the Haitians simply don’t have. We had the privilege of taking those resources in the form of a theology manual and another book in the Creole language and gave it to the Haitians. These two books helped us equip the Haitians and proclaim the Gospel.
It’s a joy to go, equip and proclaim because God in His kindness has given us the tools to do so. It’s also a joy to watch the Haitians reap the benefits of that so that they might proclaim the Gospel to one another. That’s missions. Sure, we can build them a church building, paint their houses and give them a lot of rice to fill their stomachs. There’s nothing wrong with doing those things. But if that is all we do on a “mission trip” then we are missing God’s mission and only fulfilling our own.
Don’t give them a church building but instead, teach them how to “be the church”. Don’t just paint their house, but ask them if God is the foundation of their lives. Don’t just give them food for their stomach, but tell them about the One who can satisfy their every hunger and thirst. If we don’t give them the Gospel, we are not truly loving them. The people of Haiti have many tangible needs but their greatest need, and ours, is the spoken truth of the Gospel.