Dear friends,
October is considered as Mission Month. This is in relation to the Reformation Sunday that churches celebrate to commemorate the protests of Martin Luther.
In Numbers 13 we can learn a few things about mission work.
First, leaders must always be at the forefront of mission work.
God commanded Moses to choose 12 leaders from 12 tribes to become spies. They were sent to Canaan to explore the land.
This tells us that God is calling out the leaders of our churches to lead in doing mission. This is a great responsibility for the leaders. But it must be done.
Second, we must know how to ask the right questions in order for our mission work to continue.
We have an inside joke in the CPU College of Theology before that says “Jesus is the answer but what is the question.” We have to know how to ask the right questions.
Moses taught the 12 leaders to ask questions like “What kind of land do they live in? Is it good or bad? What kind of towns do they live in? Are they unwalled or fortified? How is the soil? Is it fertile or poor? Are there trees in it or not?”
If we do not know how to ask the right questions, then there is a possibility that we cannot continue with the mission work because we do not know the situation we are going into, and what are the needs of the people.
Third, we must explore the possibilities of doing missions.
Moses instructed the leaders to explore the land of Canaan from the mountainside, to the hills and plains, and down to the sea. This was a thorough exploration in 40 days.
This tells us that there are many ways of doing mission. Some do it by preaching in big groups, some are doing discipleship in small groups, and some are having a medical and dental mission coupled with sharing the Gospel. The possibilities are endless.
One area that we can all do mission is through social media. 71 percent of Filipinos are in social media. That means 76 million Filipinos out of 107 million are online daily using Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. On average, we spend 4 hours and 12 minutes a day on social media. This is the potential population that we can reach through a single post. We must use our social media presence as a good influence on people out there. Your post might be the post that can point a person in the right direction.
Sincerely,
Rev. Francis Neil G. Jalando-on