By Linda Haist

I AM NOT a missiologist.  

I’m just an ordinary person from the pews, who was drawn to serve on a mission’s board – through one of those ‘God moments’ that is difficult to explain.  

Three years later, in another God moment, I stepped off that mission’s board, and into the role of interim director of their Canadian office for one year. I will mark my seventh year as Canadian director next April.

So, what have I learned after serving a mission agency for almost 10 years?

I have discovered that there is an underwhelming interest in overseas missions in Canada’s evangelical churches. Rare is the church that holds a mission conference; and rarer still is the church that can attract the majority of its congregation to a conference.

I have to wonder if the disinterest in missions is related to a basic misunderstanding about the Bible. It may be that there is a lack of awareness that this book is indeed the revelation of God’s mission to redeem the lost, to save people from – dare I say it – hell.  

A few years ago, I participated in an Alpha course.  During the last session, a young man – who described himself as a Christian –  spoke up during the discussion period. He said he believed there were many paths to God, and that Christianity was just one of them.

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I was stunned – not by what he said, but by the silence  that greeted his comment.  Finally, I spoke up, asking: “If that’s true, then why did Jesus die on the cross?”

Christians have good news to share – with a world that is in dire need of good news. Sadly, our news – that Jesus came to save people from their sins – has been scooped by an old lie: that “Everyone, including the folks across the street and those living across the seas (both the good and the bad), is going to heaven.”

But they aren’t.

It’s a horrible thought, isn’t it? I believe most of us – including the fellow at the Alpha course – don’t want to think about it. If we don’t think about it, we don’t have to act on what we know.

You and I need to be encouraged by the words of Paul: “Every one who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. But how are men to call upon Him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in Him, of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without a preacher? And how can men preach unless they are sent?  As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach good news!’

God has given us the way to share His good news by the example of Jesus. And as the Father sent Him, Jesus sends His disciples – not just across the street, but to the ends of the earth.

Linda Haist is director of Middle East Christian Outreach

January 2011