Why I Go Overseas?

I am often asked, “Why do you go overseas to train people? Don’t you have enough to do at your own church?” There is certainly a lot of work to be done everywhere. It was Jesus who said that “The harvest is plenty, but the workers are few.” But I believe that in that question lies a fair amount of assumptions.

First, I think it assumes that those that train overseas take away from their work at home, but this isn’t always the case. In my situation, I believe there is a synchronism that occurs as I do both. I benefit in each of these spheres from the other. My work overseas is a blessing, and ought to be a blessing to my congregation at home as I gain a wider, global understanding of the world and the gospel in the world.

Secondly, it assumes that the gospel is an either/or situation, but verses like Matthew 28:19-20 and Acts 1:8 assume that the church (All of Us) have a responsibility to bring the gospel to the whole world. As of this writing, there is still a billion people who have not heard of Jesus Christ, and there is no established witness or church in their area. Our task is not to split ministry into a here and there, it simply is missional, and we do what we are called to do and have been blessed to do. The fact is, we are blessed here in America with the money and the training, and hoarding that for our own purposes would be a bad stewarding of the blessings that God has blessed us with.

Thirdly, it assumes that the pastor traveling is solely responsible for the work of the ministry in a given church. We are all called to do the work of the ministry, and we are all called to make sure that we are gospelling one another and loving one another. There is not one person that is gifted for every role in the church, and we all need to heed the call by which we are called. While there are some of us who make our living by preaching the word, we are all called to ministry and the using of our gifts to edify (Build Up) the church.

Fourthly, and somewhat related to #3, is the fact that these type of statements assume that the given local church is the focus of the ministry and can be construed as self-centered. It is not wrong to desire a church that preaches the word for the sake of personal spiritual growth, but we must also rejoice when our people can be used to bless as many other bodies as possible.

We have men who travel to train pastors, translate scripture, teach believers to reach out to their Muslim neighbors, mentor other pastors all to extend God’s kingdom in the world. “Harambee exists to know and worship God by enjoying Him and joining Him in His mission to take His whole story, to the whole person, in the whole world, equipping those that respond to do God’s will and enjoy Him forever.” We are about Jesus and His mission in the world, not just to grow our own particular local expression individually, but we exist to train our people to reach their communities in order to start new expressions of the gospel in the world. This includes working with our brothers and sisters overseas, who have nothing, but they minister so faithfully.

My goal is always to train them to be self feeders, so that they can in turn train others for the sake of the purposes of God in the world.

God bless!

Pastor Mike Gunn