Not Needed . . . But Called, Sent and Invited

It was early on in our “missionary career.” We were about to complete our formal two years of Arabic language studies, which according to the then vice president of Global Ministries, Wally Albrecht, was the “eternal” language. He then explained it was “eternal” not because it would be the language spoken in Heaven ¹, but because, as he put it, “It will take you an eternity to learn it!” 

After two years of slogging through this, we knew by the time we finished our formal language studies, we would only be at a Grade 6 level of Arabic. While I had a relative degree of speaking fluency, I knew my language was still not strong enough to preach in formal Arabic. I had been offered the opportunity once, and after attempting it, despite long hours of preparation, it was such a disaster, and so personally painful I vowed never to do it again. 

We also knew once we finished our language study in the upper Middle East, we would move to our permanent posting in the Arabian Peninsula, which at the time was home to 52 million Arab Muslims who were 99.9999 percent followers of the religion of the Prophet. 

Based on our grasp of the language, we were beginning to understand what we possibly could and could not do. At the same time, there was a growing realization our initial dreams, thoughts, and lofty aspirations of seeing significant numbers of Gulf Arabs coming to faith and multiple faith communities emerging were not realistic. We knew even if we diligently and studiously kept working at it, we would never really learn the language well enough. Because of this, we also concluded we would never become “insiders” or fully part of the community we were attempting to reach for Jesus. As a result, we started seriously asking if there was still a place for us in the Middle East and, if so, what should our role be? Our hubris bubble had been effectively burst and was replaced by doubt and our first crisis of call. 

Contributing to this was something we heard from one of the leaders of the underground Muslim Background Believing fellowship in the Middle Eastern country where we had been undertaking our Arabic language learning. In our meeting with this gentleman, when we asked him whether he felt people like us had a place to serve in the Middle East and, if so, what this role should entail. His response was, “There are not enough of my own people faithfully and boldly loving and preaching the Gospel to the Muslims. So, if you are willing to continue doing this, we still want you here. We also need you to begin the discipleship process to ensure the seekers you are working with are not government informants trying to discover who we are so they could arrest us and shut down our movement. If you are willing to do this, and if need be, get arrested yourself or even kicked out of the country, then once you are sure the Arab Muslims you are working with are genuine believers, you need to be willing to turn them over to us and have nothing more to do with them.” 

This was humbling and not what we expected to hear. But we will admit that what this brother told us has informed our ministry and strategy for the rest of the time we have lived and served in the Middle East. 

After completing our language studies in the upper Middle East in 2001, we moved to the Arabian Peninsula to join a team recently put together for evangelism, discipleship, and church planting among the Indigenous nationals in the country and region. Our whole team quickly realized that the task was bigger than all of us, including the extended international worker community in the entire region.² Secondly, we also learned many of the previous strategies the Alliance and the other mission agencies and international workers had successfully used among different people groups and faith communities (e.g. Muslims in other parts of the world, Hindus, Buddhists, Animists, etc.), were not going to work in the heartland and birthplace of Islam. This caused us to abandon most of these strategies, experiment with new ones, and try to figure out what would work. 

The result was many “learning opportunities”³ of what worked and what didn’t. As a result, our strategies, methodologies, and metrics continued to evolve, pivoting and adjusting when necessary. God was also gracious, enabling us personally to get into strategic relationships with a national brother and sister and their extended family. We were excited because we felt this husband and wife, Jason and Nancy,⁴ were the “man and woman” of peace⁵ who could influence the extended family if they themselves came to faith in Christ. 

Over the next few years, we met with this family a minimum of once a week. Even though the context of our get-togethers was primarily social, we had numerous opportunities to discuss and present biblical truth. God opened the door for us to present the Gospel innumerable times. We often had lengthy informal Bible studies. One Christmas, we gave every family in this clan a copy of Scripture in Arabic, a JESUS video, and a few other evangelistic materials. Jim⁶, the brother of Jason and Nancy (who also became my best friend), even came with his wife and children to our international church to attend and participate in a few of our Christmas outreach services, to hear me preach, and to join our other fellowship gatherings. At least once a week, I would have coffee with Jim. We would have deep conversations during these times where I would often present Scripture stories and truth to him. We often had the opportunity to ask this extended family what they believed and, more importantly, challenge them about what they had learned as truth from their religion and holy book. 

Along with this extended family, we also met regularly for a marriage Bible study with another local gentleman and his foreign, believing wife. In their honour and shame culture, some of these friends even prayed the prayer of salvation though we knew they only did this because they didn’t want to shame us. All these activities and engagements continued for over a decade. While we were thankful for all these God-given and orchestrated opportunities, we still did not see any of these friends make a genuine profession of faith and truly choose to follow Jesus. 

It was at the end of our third full term. We were getting ready again to return to Canada for our home assignment. At this time, both my wife and I experienced our second crisis of call. We were both exhausted from all the work we had done. We were also extremely frustrated because our friends didn’t seem any closer to the Kingdom than when we first started, no matter what we tried. While we could not deny the indicators revealing our friends had moved closer to Jesus, they were still nowhere near becoming His followers. They would make statements like, “We now believe Jesus is more than just a man and a prophet because He always answers when you pray to Him.” Because of this, they would not hesitate to ask us to pray for them, especially when faced with impossible situations. Because of what they heard us proclaim and explain from the Holy Bible, they also acknowledged our holy book was not corrupted as they had been taught and raised to believe. They even admitted that contrary to what they also believed and what their religion had taught them, they now saw “real” or genuine followers of Jesus as some of the most moral people they had met. Yet, despite all these, they were still not interested in Jesus and what He offered them. This led us to conclude that perhaps Jason and Nancy were not the persons of peace we initially thought. The other difficult fact we had to acknowledge was that it was time to focus our efforts on others. This meant that while we would maintain our relationships with these friends, we could no longer prioritize them in terms of who we invested most of our time. 

As a result, my wife and I wondered if God was finished with our service to Him in the Middle East. We both began to seriously ask God whether He was telling us to return to Canada to serve Him there full time or consider perhaps He was leading us to redeploy to another location, another people group, and/or another team. Fortunately, God revealed how He wanted us to return to continue to serve in the Middle East after our upcoming home assignment. He did this through His word, which can be summed up by one line in the chorus of the song by Bob Kauflin, “Out of the Depths,” where it says, “When the harvest time is over, and I still see no fruit, I will wait. I will wait for you.” 

During our final weekend before departing for home assignment, we sang this song at the international church service we were attending. God used this to affirm His call for us to return. But through this, He also gently but clearly reminded us that while He didn’t need us, He was still calling us, sending us, and inviting us to join Him in what He was doing. This is what convinced us not only to return but also to continue to serve Him. Through our role in Global Ministries, He also reminded us that not only had He called us but that He had also intentionally “sent” us through the Alliance. 

Through the doors He continues to open—doors for ongoing ministry, gospel conversations, demonstrations of His power through us, and opportunities to proclaim and declare Him—it also continues to be obvious He is still inviting us to join Him where He is already working, especially in the hearts and minds of people He has already been drawing to Himself (John 6:44). 

So, if God continues to call us, send us, and invite us to serve Him even when He doesn’t need us, then what has He really called us to, sent us to do, and invited us into? Also, how does this line up with what He wants us to do to accomplish what He said in Matthew 24:14, where it states, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come”? 

God used our second crisis of call to open up our hearts and minds so we could see and understand how He wanted us to serve Him and reach those with no access to Jesus where few or none have heard. God also used our good friend and long-term ministry partner Kevin, at the time the Middle East regional director of one of the largest international mission agencies in the world. While we were experiencing our second crisis of call, I got together with Kevin. At this time, he had already shared with me he was finishing his role as regional director. When I asked him what he would do after, he told me, “Every morning after I get up, I will simply ask God what He wants me to do, who He wants me to see, and what He wants me to say. After hearing from Him, I will simply obey and do what He told me to do.” I left our meeting wondering how much God would be honoured and pleased if I, too, began to live my life and do ministry like this. 

Interestingly, a few years later, while attending the Abide Bear Fruit global conference in Thailand, in a breakout session that included international mission leaders like Greg Livingstone⁷, Dr. Dudley Woodberry⁸, and Victor Hashweh⁹, each of these leaders said the same thing. One of the delegates asked these gentlemen, “When you are witnessing to a Muslim, what is your go-to verse?” Each of these gentlemen answered, “I don’t have a go-to verse. But every day, first thing in the morning, I ask God what He wants me to do, who He wants me to meet, and what He wants me to say. Then whatever God reveals to me or tells me to do and say, including who to meet, that’s what I do.” 

Here are gentlemen who have started international missions movements, led numerous people, including Muslims, to Jesus, and started church planting movements among the people groups God called them to, sent them to, and invited them to love and serve. Yet, despite this, they all shared how they simply started with daily abiding in Jesus. For each of these “giants” and their work among Muslims, they did this for no other reason than to pursue ongoing and growing intimacy with their Lord and Saviour, knowing this brought Jesus much pleasure and glory. They also did this to seek His mind and will so they could obey Him and simply do what He is asking them to do. At the conclusion of this historic gathering¹⁰, all of the delegates signed the Abide Bear Fruit Commitment, where we all covenanted to do the following: 

ABIDE in JESUS (John 15:5, Psalm 1:1-3, 1 John 4:16, “He who abides in Me and I in Him bears much fruit. Without Me, you can do nothing.”) 

We commit to consistently giving Jesus extravagant time and to make abiding in Him our first priority and foundation of ministry. 

Be FILLED with the SPIRIT (Ephesians 5:18, Acts 2:4, 4:8, 4:31, Acts 1:8, 1 Corinthians 1:17-23, 2:1-5, John 1:1, “Be filled with the Spirit... And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit…, then Peter filled with the Holy Spirit…, …and they were filled with the Holy Spirit and they spoke the word of God with boldness.”) 

We commit to seeking to be continually filled with the Holy Spirit that we boldly proclaim Christ, the Word of God. 

PREACH the WORD (2 Timothy 4:2, Mark 4:14, Isaiah 40:8, Acts 28:31, 2 Timothy 2:2, Matthew 28:19-20, “Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all long-suffering and teaching…, the sower sows the word…, the grass withers, the flowers fade, but the word of our God stands forever…, preach and teach…, faithful men who will in turn teach others.”) 

We commit to faithfully obey, boldly preach, and widely sow the whole Word of God, making disciples among every Muslim people group by lovingly demonstrating biblical truth. 

INTERCEDE (Ephesians 6:18, Acts 1:3, Daniel 9:3, 1 Thessalonians 5:17, “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints…, As they ministered to the Lord and fasted…, make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting.”) 

We commit to regularly pray and fast with perseverance, individually and corporately, for church planting movements among every Muslim people group. 

DIE DAILY (Galatians 2:20, John 12:24, Luke 9:23, 1 Corinthians 15:31, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who lives but Christ lives in me…, …unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies it remains alone, but if it does, it produces much fruit…, if anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily…, I die daily…”) 

We commit to follow Jesus, taking up our cross daily for the effective engagement of every Muslim people group. 

CONCLUSION: “In the love of God, by His grace, and for His glory, we commit to God and each other to abide in Jesus, be filled with the Spirit, preach the Word, intercede, and die daily, believing that every Muslim people group will experience a church planting movement.” 

So, if God doesn’t need us to do anything, much less reach those without access to Jesus, what is He really calling us into, sending us to do, and inviting us into? More and more, I am convinced it is to first and foremost abide in Jesus, making this the priority and foundation of our ministry ahead of strategy, plans, and especially any of our efforts. What Jesus desires more than anything is a deepening intimacy with Him expressed through our giving and spending extravagant time with Him at the start of each day and all day. After this, He calls us, sends us, and invites us to focus on and live out the other commitments outlined in the Abide Bear Fruit Covenant: be filled with the Holy Spirit, preach the Word, faithfully intercede, and die daily to self and the world. 

After over twenty years of living and serving overseas working among one of the most resistant, most unresponsive, and most hostile religious communities with still one of the lowest numbers of believers, requiring concerted and even more significant work and workers, we have finally understood how even though God doesn’t need us, He still chooses to call us, send us, and invite us to Him—to love Him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength (Mark 12:30). He also calls us, sends us, and invites us to obey and live out the Great Commission simply as an outflow of the Greatest Commandment. 

Because of this, the first call of every international worker, or more simply, every follower of Jesus, is to love Him first with all our being. Everything else, including the needs of the lost, even those who have no access to Jesus, is secondary. This is our primary call and privilege to love the amazing God and Creator of the universe. What is truly unfathomable is how this same all-powerful, all-knowing, omnipresent God of the universe desires and allows His creatures to know and love Him. Only when we do this does He call us, send us, and invite us to serve Him, particularly to reach those without access to Jesus. 

We recently visited one of our international workers who lives and serves in Europe among one of the most resistant, least-responsive people groups on the continent. Until today, only two percent out of a total population of 47.35 million (according to the 2020 statistics¹¹) of this people group are born-again believers. 

While there, our teammates, Paul and Silvia,¹² asked us to join them to visit their neighbours Jess and Mary.¹³ Jess and Mary had invited Paul and Silvia to come and see a diorama of a nativity scene Jess annually puts together. This specific nativity scene was an exact miniature replica of the small village Jess was born and raised in. What surprised us was when Jess told us to make sure this diorama accurately reflected all the important stories connected to the birth of Jesus, he went and studied the Bible. 

This reminded us how even in a country where the majority of people have rejected their Christian-background Roman Catholic roots, where even the mention of the name of Jesus causes people to walk away and refuse to have any relationship with the person speaking of Jesus, and where it has taken many international workers years just to get invited into the home of their neighbours and friends, God was so obviously speaking and drawing this couple to Himself. He was revealing Himself to Jess and Mary through His Word even though in their religion, the priests did not encourage nor teach their adherents how to read the Scriptures. But even as God was drawing Jess and Mary to Himself, He called, sent, and invited our teammates, Paul and Silvia, to live beside Jess and Mary so they could be His instruments to humanly demonstrate to Jess and Mary His deep love and mercy and to tell them about the Good News of His Gospel.

The other clear evidence is that it really is God who orchestrates all these divine encounters, creates these opportunities, and opens up the necessary doors so we could walk through them for Him, as seen in how Paul and Silvia just moved into this neighbourhood, renting the house directly beside Jess and Mary, barely a year ago. 

In this country and among this people group, to be invited into this couple’s home within one year of meeting their neighbours is unheard of and next to impossible according to most long-term workers. But then again, we do serve the God of the impossible! 

All this powerfully reminded us God truly doesn’t need any of us. Still, He does call us, send us, and invite us, first to love Him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and second, to invite those who have no access to Him to know Him and receive His offer of grace, mercy, forgiveness, love, and eternal life. He doesn’t need us, but He chooses to demonstrate His love for us by calling us, sending us, and inviting us! Thank you, Jesus!!

This is an excerpt from the book, On Mission Volume 5. Download your free copy today.

1. I am still personally convinced that this would be Mandarin through the sheer volume of Chinese believers.
2. In the early 2000s, despite over fifty years of modern mission work among the Gulf Arabs, it was estimated that there were most likely still only about 200 individuals from all the different mission agencies and organizations scattered across the seven countries comprising the Arabian Peninsula (Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, and Yemen) reaching the 52 million Gulf Arabs. 
3. The original team leader of the Arabian Peninsula Team told us, “It is only failure if we don’t learn from our mistakes. So, when we try new things, which we need to do, whatever the results are all learning opportunities.” 
4. For security purposes and to preserve this couple’s identity, these are the names we use to refer to them.  
5. This is the same strategy that Jesus asked His disciples to pursue when He sent out the twelve (Matthew 10:5-15; Luke 10:4-12). It is anchored in Jesus’ instructions in Luke 10:5-6 when He told His disciples, “When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ If someone who promotes peace is there, your peace will rest on them; if not, it will return to you.” This person then who is welcoming of God’s servants and willing to hear and receive their message is what is generally referred to as the “man or woman” of peace. On account of this, the centurion in Acts 10:1-48 is also generally regarded as a “person of peace” resulting in salvation coming into his whole household as recounted in this story.  
6. In all of our communication, written or spoken, Jim is the name we use when referring to Jason and Nancy’s brother. This is also for security just like with Jason and Nancy.
7. Greg Livingstone was influential in the founding of Frontiers, a completely Muslim-focused international mission agency.  
8. Dudley Woodberry was raised in Saudi Arabia where he later returned to pastor an expatriate congregation. He is also the author of many books on how to reach Muslims including “On the Road to Emmaus.”  
9. Victor Hashweh was also the Arabic voice of Jesus in the JESUS film. Because of his gift of evangelism and public speaking, in the Middle East, he was generally regarded as the Arabic Billy Graham. 
10. There were over 1,000 delegates that were at this gathering. Most who came were the practitioners and mission leaders of all the Muslim-focused mission agencies and organizations. Twenty-five percent of the participants were also Muslim Background Believers representing almost every single Muslim people group in the world.
11. From datacommons.org 
12. This is not the real of name of these international workers. To protect their identity, we have changed their names to Paul and Silvia.
13. In the interest of confidentiality and to preserve the identity of Paul and Silvia’s neighbours, we changed their names to Jess and Mary.