Pray Give Send Go

Not long ago, in a conversation, I asked someone about their involvement with missions in their local church. 

They replied, "Well, I don't know. I don't really feel called to go somewhere and be a missionary. So maybe I'm not really a missions type of Christian? I guess God hasn't really called me to be involved."

I understand the feeling. When I served in the U.S. Air Force Band program, I didn't always feel like a military type of musician. After all, people in the military fight. They fire weapons. They go to war, right? I played concerts, but unlike when I was learning music in college, now I played concerts with a very short haircut, wearing a military uniform.

Later, I learned that not everyone in the military is on the front lines with a weapon. It was one team fighting one fight. I learned three terms: Beans, Beds, and Bullets. These three terms encapsulated different types of military jobs. If any military force is going to fight and win, they need to be fed. They also need a place to rest, to plan, and to stage their attack or defense. After that, they need to be armed.

Those who worked in Beans and Beds were no less important than those who worked in Bullets.

To encourage my friend in local and global missions, I gave them four words: Pray, Give, Send, Go. These words are like the Church's version of "Beans, Beds, and Bullets."

Pray. Everyone who belongs to Christ is called to pray. We pray for our own needs, but just as importantly, we pray for the advance of the gospel. We are all called to pray for missions.

Pray for the missionaries your church supports. Pray for the mission agencies in your local area. Pray for Christ to make himself known through their work.

Give. Everyone who belongs to Christ is called to give. Jesus said, "It is more blessed to give than to receive (Acts 20:35)." The first place we are called to give is the local church. This was a pattern in the Old Testament that carried over to the New Testament as well. Similarly, the local church has always had a pattern of giving out of what it has received. In the Old Testament, priests gave a tithe of the tithe (Numbers 18:26). In the New Testament, the church distributed as anyone had need (Acts 4:34-35) and to send missionaries on their way (Romans 15:24, 1 Corinthians 16:11). 

We still give today for the same reasons. Our church is growing toward giving a tithe of the tithe to local and world missions. We still give to our local church in order to distribute to those in need and to send missionaries.

Send. You might think that this is just a second way to say "give" but it's not. To send is actually a combination of the first two words - pray and give - only applied more personally. We may pray generally. We take a moment in worship to pray for missions as a church, and so you agree in prayer, generally. You obey God's command to give. You are willing, cheerful, and you plan your giving, generally. What if it became personal to you?

When was the last time you sent someone you love on a trip far away? You did more than wave at them as they walked out the door. You hugged them. You knew their plans, and may have even helped make them. Did you purchase something helpful for them? Perhaps you funded a specific portion of the trip. Wedding registries make it easy for us to choose specific gifts for the bride and groom in order to send them into a new chapter of life. This is what it means to send.

Sending is personal prayer and giving directed toward someone whose story you know and carry with you. To send a missionary is to be vitally interested in the ministry to which Christ has called them.

Go. This is the ultimate step. Maybe God hasn't called you to go across the world. He's at least called you to go across the room. Shake a hand. Make a new friend. Share the gospel. Every Christian can go in small ways from where they are right now. 

Some go on short trips - a day serving at a local agency, a week in a country just over the border. Others go longer - three months in the summer between semesters, a year-long internship. 

Still others are called to go farther than they imagined. When did the apostle Paul realize he was called to carry the gospel to Rome or Spain? Many modern missionary callings across the world began with a vision trip. Go and see. Those who go need to be sent. To be sent, the church must give and pray.

Every Christian is a mission type of Christian. Pray. Give. Send. Go. You can do at least one of those today, and when we pray in faith, God carries us to where we need to go next.

Pray. Give. Send. Go.
You're on mission.