“His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.” (Matthew 25:23) What is done well? Can we hear “well done” if we did not do what the Master commanded? From the parable of the talents we learn that there were master/servant relationships, the master expected his servants to work, the master told the servants what to do — and the work could be done less than well.
If the objective is evangelism only, we will spend as little time as possible in each place to reach as many people as we can at least once. If the objective is preparing hearts through humanitarian projects, we will spend our time establishing clinics, digging wells, and constructing buildings. But there is strong evidence that what God wants us to accomplish is, through preaching and teaching everything, to establish thriving churches of believers in every language, tribe, people group, and ethnic group. (Revelation 5:9; Matthew 28:18-20; Colossians 1:28)
Is it possible that we, the Church, could be doing good things in the world and not completing the Master’s commission?
People in one third of the world’s languages have no access to the Good News at all. How can we teach people to observe “all things” that Christ commanded without knowing the language of our audiences? How can we teach truth without knowing the culture which shapes the meaning of their words? What will we teach when God’s written word does not exist in a language our audiences understand? If we never learn the language and culture of our audience, we will think we have completed our commission and never know that we have not — until we can do nothing about it.
What must be done well
- 01
Teach everything
“Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:20) Teaching “all things” is about replacing false ideas with God’s thoughts about reality — God, ourselves, other people, values, our role in the world. Foundational Bible teaching starts where God starts, in Genesis, and follows His pattern of historical revelation through to the maturity of church leadership. If we don’t have time to accomplish our mission the first time, when will we have time to do it over? Watch a team beginning this work: reachWantakia: 5 Things — “We are going to learn your language, teach you to read in your own language, teach you God’s word from beginning to end, translate the Bible into your language, so that you can take this message to the ends of the earth.”
- 02
Communicate truth
“Yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding… than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue.” (1 Corinthians 14:19) If people misunderstand the message, they remain eternally lost. A common practice today is to skip language learning and use interpreters — and the fruit of such ministry is almost always syncretism rather than an unshakeable faith rooted in the identity of Jesus Christ. It is our responsibility as messengers to ensure that what we think we have communicated is what the audience has understood. What is Heart Language? (3 min).
- 03
Learn the culture
Culture is what gives words meaning. There are things in a culture that everyone knows without speaking — and unknown culture can hinder your message. Once, waiting in Hong Kong’s airport with my right foot resting on my left knee, a man broke away from a stream of 300 arriving passengers, walked straight at me, and slapped my shoe off my knee. Then I remembered my missionary training from years before: the worst insult to a Thai person is to show them the sole of your foot. I had shown my foot to a whole aircraft load of Thai people. To accurately communicate God’s word, it is essential to know the culture that shapes what your audience will understand. What does culture have to do with it? (3 min).
- 04
Teach literacy
Literacy gives a person access to God’s written thoughts without an intermediary — the power to know for themselves what God has said rather than depend on the testimony of the teacher, and protection against false teachers, like the Bereans who searched the scriptures. (Acts 17:11; 2 Timothy 2:15) Literacy was God’s idea: He required it of Israel’s kings and expected His word to be read. Literacy Was God’s Idea.
- 05
Translate the Bible
If you can read the Bible, you have someone to thank for it — someone who cared enough about God and you, at great personal cost, to make it available in a language you understand. Tyndale said, “If God spare my life, ere many years I will cause a boy that driveth the plough shall know more of the Scripture than thou doest.” He was strangled and burned at the stake for that work in 1536, and his love for God and us continues to bear fruit. Bible translation establishes faith in God’s word rather than the word of the missionaries, protects the integrity of the message, and tells people: God speaks my language, and His word is for me, too. The Bible Translation Process.
- 06
Establish thriving churches
The objective is thriving churches of Christ-followers in every language group who can represent Christ as His ambassadors and worth-shippers. It’s all about thriving relationships: God to us, us to God, to our families, to the Church, to our neighbors, to the unreached. The W.I.L.D. framework (Word, Identity, Life, Discipleship) helps evaluate ministry against the clear teachings of Scripture. See completion in action: Yembiyembi and Ee-Taow: The Mouk Story.
Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. — Colossians 1:28
Why we tend to skip these steps
Why do we think we will be more effective in ministry overseas when the things we do there are not effective in our own country, where we already know the language and the culture? Our view of fruitfulness might be skewed by our expectations; our definitions may predetermine our measures of success. Jesus told His followers to examine the fruit: “Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.” (Matthew 7:20) The commitment to establishing thriving churches has driven many missionary teams to evaluate past work and, in quite a few places, to go back to the beginning — to start over with teaching in the heart language using foundational Bible teaching.
Go deeper
- Building on Firm Foundations, Vol. 1 — free download; the biblical principles behind foundational teaching. Read the sample.
- The Establish Series — foundational teaching adapted for North American audiences.
- Bible Translation Questions & Definitions — Ethnos360.
- Language and Linguistics — 22 free lessons from AccessTruth.
- reachWantakia: Just Getting Started — ten minutes inside a church plant among an unwritten language.
- Is Ministry Missions? — the distinction that shapes everything on this page.
If mission is God’s idea, then to be in alignment with what He is doing we need to know His Person, His Purpose, His Plan, His People, and His Process. Continue to Equip: Empowering Others.