Global Missions Launches Out of Local Mission
Global mission is nothing more than local mission outside your home environment, and your ministerial labor at home is the best preparer for and indicator of results overseas.
Let us not forget that Paul, the standard-bearer New Testament missionary, started out in local ministry. Did you know that, before his year-long ministry at Antioch under Barnabas’s supervision (Acts 11:25-26), Paul was not really the man we think of. What did his ministry consist of during that year? More than likely, many of the things that make up local ministry as we know it today: relationship-building, outreach, evangelism, discipleship, teaching, visitation, etc. These fundamentals of ministry were as vital to Paul’s success as they are to ours. They are equally as critical to local ministry as to global work. And, like Paul, missionaries called to global engagement will need to learn these skills within the boundaries of their home before ever moving to the other side of the world.
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This is the same concept being faithful in the simpler things before you are entrusted with the deeper realities. While we are convinced that local mission is just as critical as global mission, the latter is often a more complex situation. Moving a family thousands of miles away, investing years in language study and crossing major cultural barriers are all exceptionally risky endeavors. And there is no greater likelihood of success in global mission than success on the local front. In summary, without local mission, there is no global mission.
