Determined to Go: The Call of the Independent Missionary (eBook)

A Practical Guide for Those Called to Missions

Mitch Martinez (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2025 | 1. Auflage
100 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
979-8-3178-1642-1 (ISBN)

Infos

'Determined to Go: The Call of the Independent Missionary: A Practical Guide for Those Called to Missions' is written to encourage those who feel God is calling them to serve overseas in world missions. It is useful for comparing the advantages and disadvantages of going independently, or of following instead the more traditional or denominational route. It challenges traditional roadblocks to missionary service and encourages a creative alternative for fulfilling the call to missions through its focus on independent missions. This short book is a must read for those who feel a call to foreign missions and are not sure how to proceed.

Mitch Martinez and his wife, Deborah, have been missionaries overseas since 1992. Before that, they planted and pastored the Spanish-speaking church, Fuente De Vida, in Columbia, South Carolina. Mitch has been serving as a minister since 1985. As a missionary, he and his wife have been instrumental in planting 6 churches in the Dominican Republic (DR). They have trained pastors and Chistian workers in various Bible Institutes throughout the DR, and have been involved in the construction of over forty churches and schools in this country. Currently they are providing an education for over a thousand children through the 17 Haitian schools they oversee with TeachFeedLove.Org, their non-profit. In addition to this, they are the founders and directors of La Vega Christian School/Colegio Cristiano de La Vega, a Dominican private Christian school with 350 students. Mitch and Deborah each hold a Bachelor of Arts in Missions and Bible from Southeastern University of the Assemblies of God in Lakeland, Florida. Additionally, they studied linguistics for two semesters at the Summer Institute of Linguistics in Dallas, Texas. This also included graduate courses in cross-cultural studies accredited through the University of Texas at Arlington. Mitch received his Master of Arts in Biblical Studies at Columbia International University (CIU), Columbia, South Carolina. And Deborah received her Master of Arts in Education also at CIU. Later, Mitch continued with Doctoral studies in Missions at the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary on the campus of Evangel University, Springfield, Missouri. In addition, he has an AAS in print and broadcast journalism from Brookdale Community College, Lincroft, New Jersey. Currently, they both continue to serve full-time as missionaries in La Vega , Dominican Republic.

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If God is calling you to serve him as a missionary, "e;Determined to Go: The Call of the Independent Missionary: A Practical Guide for Those Called to Missions"e; will help you to move forward with His plan. It provides information on what foreign mission work can entail by comparing two prevailing paths to the mission field -the "e;independent"e; path and the "e;traditional or denominational"e; mission. "e;Independent"e; missions represents a fast-growing and effective evangelistic arm of the church. Independent missions is a vastly uncounted, understated, and underestimated phenomenon impacting our world today. It is for individuals on a fast track to the mission field. It is for those being sent out by a home church to do missions. It is for retirees who want to finance their ministry themselves and are not content to stay at home. It is for bi-vocational Christians working overseas who feel a call to make an impact in their host nation. It is for those turned down by traditional or denominational mission boards, yet find that they cannot get away from the sense of urgency to proceed to the mission field. Traditional and denominational mission groups are still carrying the bulk of the missionary enterprise. These fine groups have many important and positive attributes for service that need to be considered when making the long career decision a missionary must make. The author tries to give an unbiased account on the advantages and benefits of working with traditional missions; this with a view to helping the reader decide if God is asking him to follow this path. Space in the text is also given to present the disadvantages of independent missions and of traditional/denominational missions for the reader. Inside you will explore many practical insights that will help you make an educated decision about how to move forward with your call to serving Christ overseas. If you have ever been rejected by a mission organization and yet still feel the call of God this book is invaluable. With two-thirds of the world not understanding the benefits and claims of the risen Christ, there is much work pending for the Church today. That work is dependent on those called to reach out with the Good News to the many people groups and nations of our world. Will you go? The harvest is great, and the workers are few. Is he sending you? What is holding you back? Let's go!

Textauszug

Chapter 1
Are You Called to Missions?

If you have no questions in your heart about the missionary call, feel free to skip this chapter. However, I do want to encourage you to re-examine your call and preparation for the mission field.

The Missionary Call

Before we talk about what the independent missionary is, let’s look at the missionary call in general. We have assumed that you have a missionary call on your life. However, we want you to examine carefully the authenticity of this “missionary call.” Is God calling you to serve Him overseas as a missionary? For the sake of brevity, we are going to cover this topic in a simple, uncomplicated manner.

Why Do You Want to Be a Missionary?

A. We are going to look first at some wrong reasons to want to be a missionary.

1. You feel a need for a change in scenery or climate, for exotic and new experiences. You are looking for adventure, travel, and the excitement of different cultures.
2. You love languages. Where else can you truly experience language learning if not in another country?
3. You see a great humanitarian need overseas that you are willing to dedicate your life to meet.

The three reasons above have nothing to do with the primary purpose of missionary work. You can indeed move overseas for any of these reasons, but they overlook the true call of the missionary. A missionary is not just someone who leaves their country and moves overseas. He or she is an individual burdened to help others to know about the importance of Christ. Their own life has been tremendously impacted by the message of Christ and the need to share this good news. They are burdened to reach out to the most spiritually needy areas of our world. Missionary work is not about meeting a physical or social need in another culture but rather an urgent spiritual need. Humanitarian work is certainly worthy and pleasing to God, but without understanding who Christ is, the targeted individuals will still face a dark eternity. We can feed the poor, but that won’t change their eternal destiny. Are you convinced that faith in Christ is the answer for humankind’s deepest need? Only Christ in the heart can bring inner peace and fulfillment in this life and in the life to come. Jesus said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (John 3:5). “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through me” (John 14:6).

A true missionary will find it hard to stay home as he or she considers the deep spiritual needs of others in this world. He feels compelled to respond to the call of God in his life. There is a sense of urgency to deliver the good news of salvation. If he is not yet serving overseas, he should view his life experiences as building him up for fulfilling the missionary call. If you are called to missions, you have been in the process of preparation all your life for this. Even though my wife and I had both graduated with a BA in Missions, it was not until fourteen years later that we arrived on the mission field. We discovered that everything we did during the waiting years was a preparation for missionary work. In college, we worked together teaching the children of migrant workers in Florida. Later, we helped a pastor to plant a Spanish-speaking church by working with children and youth in New Jersey. Finally, we ourselves launched a new church plant among Hispanics in South Carolina. This was before we eventually moved to the Dominican Republic as missionaries. Those fourteen years were truly a preparation time for us. Every individual has his own unique journey to fulfilling God’s call in their lives. Listen to the voice of God for your unique direction.

B. Here are more reasons that are deceptively wrong.

1. As a Christian, you see yourself starting a new life or turning over a new leaf overseas. The problem is that unless the change happens inside before you go, you are still the same as you were. Moving overseas doesn’t magically change you. The change is needed inside before you venture overseas. Ask the Lord to do the work. Say, “Jesus, here I am. Please take control of my life. Take my heart and transform it. Begin preparing me now for the task ahead.”

2. You think a change in location might help your marriage or home situation. If you have problems at home, they will probably be exacerbated by the different issues you will have to face on the mission field, such as language learning, cultural issues, and adjustments in living. These will truly test your marriage relationship. Your home base needs to be strong and settled before you even consider serving overseas.

Marriages are targeted for failure by the devil. Almost every mission-sending organization has some sort of marriage evaluation done for potential missionary couples. Why? Because a weak marriage will not hold up under the pressures of the mission field. The first couple of years on the mission field, all couples will experience many frustrations and challenges. If you are struggling in your marriage, you need to focus on building a strong relationship as a couple before even considering the mission field. Get good marriage counseling if needed. Study some of the great books written with advice for couples. Go to couple’s retreats or marriage encounter events. Once your marriage feels strong, then you can launch out if you truly feel God is calling you to missions. If your relationship with your spouse is less than desirable and challenging, going overseas into a spiritual war zone as a missionary will only make you a quick target for failure.

3. You may feel you need to get away from a bad home situation. This could include a need to get away from an abusive husband or father. To leave with your child and yet serve God overseas may seem like a good solution. This could, however, pose a different type of problem. Can you legally leave with your child without the other parent’s permission? Do you have full custody of the child? Are you truly prepared to adjust to missionary life? How are your language-learning skills? Do you truly understand the message of Jesus Christ, and are you equipped to share it effectively? Are you sure this decision is God’s will for you? Have you thought about the price of leaving friends, church, and family behind, and how this will affect your child? These ties represent your emotional support system. How will you do without them? I have seen some independents in situations like this who have sacrificed everything to serve the Lord overseas only to return disappointed. Unless the Lord is truly asking this of you, don’t think the mission field is your solution. Have you checked the list in of important considerations to examine in paragraph C. below, before making the decision to go to the mission field?

4. You met someone (maybe online) in a foreign country, and you want to marry them, so this presents a new possibility of Christian service to you. This is not such an uncommon event in today’s communication era. The legal process might take some time, so you can do some mission work while you wait on your future spouse’s immigration paperwork. Legal papers for your spouse to enter the United States with residency can take one to three years, or even more, to obtain. Working for the Lord while you wait for your spouse’s permit is a positive idea. But adjusting to life overseas can be very difficult. Helping others in the name of the Lord while you wait is commendable, but it certainly is not normally how a person receives a call to missions. Perhaps you can help an ongoing ministry in this new country. If your ministry develops there, you can certainly apply some of the principles we are sharing in this manual. I know of a missionary whose wife and children were deported from the United States back to the spouse’s home country in Central America. Her U.S. husband, a pastor, went with her and worked on their legal status, and developed an amazing ministry as a missionary there. She later received her visa, and yet they have stayed to minister very effectively overseas as full-time missionaries.

5. You went on a one-week missions team visit, and now you want to go full-time. See the blog entry from our website
(https://dominicanmissions.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-difference-between-short-and-long.html) that I have copied below. It is also a good article for self-examination.

From time to time I see “full-time missionaries” come to the field who clearly were not prepared for the experience. They may have had a wonderful experience with a one – or two-week missions team visit to a needy country and so they inadvertently thought, “This is great; I want to continue this full-time.” The problem is that you cannot compare a short one or two week visit with the total commitment involved in giving a year or more of your life to mission work overseas.

For example, when you are hosted by missionaries, you are usually housed in a safe furnished environment (even when not staying in a hotel), and your meals and mealtimes are all arranged. You are transported (you are not driving) to wherever you will be ministering or serving. And you are surrounded by your wonderful friends from your local church. I know I am generalizing some, but bear with me....

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 19.10.2025
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie ► Christentum
• ISBN-13: 979-8-3178-1642-1 / 9798317816421