Category Archives: Calling

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June 4, 2021

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Calling, International Missions, Mission One Teams

Called As A Mission Team Lead

By Charity Julian

My first experience with missions was at a very young age. Dad was pastoring the Oak Grove General Baptist Church in Oakland City, Indiana. Once a month, our Wednesday Night children’s group participated in a program called Guild, which later was renamed Youth for Missions. We learned about all the various missionaries serving our denomination. We were taught about the countries the missionaries served and researched the differences between the numerous cultures being encountered on the mission fields. It was interesting to discover what the missionaries were accomplishing, and the variety of talents being used for the Kingdom of God. We studied nurses providing medical care to people with little exposure to healthcare. We read about educators teaching at the General Baptist Bible College in the Philippines and nurturing individuals providing a good home environment for orphans in Jamaica. I was amazed by how God equipped ordinary people with talents that could be used for his glory.

Missions continue to impact my life as an adult. I went on my first mission trip during the summer of 2011. To say the least, it was a life-changing event. While on that trip, God laid on my heart a desire to lead mission trips, so that others could encounter the same experience I had. It is amazing how your perspective is transformed through involvement with new cultures and surroundings. When you are removed from the comforts of your hometown, you are faced with language barriers and cultural differences that oftentimes leave you feeling inadequate. During those times God reveals how much we need him, not just on mission trips, but every day of our lives.

A few years ago, one of our teams chose to do a Vacation Bible School at Bethel General Baptist in Honduras. As with anything in life when you begin a new project, things do not always go as planned. First, I had never led a VBS in a cross-cultural setting. One of the major obstacles in a project like this is the language barrier. This hurdle seemed like an insurmountable task, but God placed knowledgeable people in our path and provided the tools to overcome this challenge. Next, we prepared snacks and craft material for about 60 children. All these arrangements were in keeping with our initial budget. A week before we left, we found out 100 more children would be in attendance. The team prayed about our “wonderful” problem and God provided for every need.

Honestly, there have been times I did not want to leave family and journey on another mission trip. There have been times when I feared for the health and safety of others. I have often dreaded riding on a bus due to issues with car sickness. I have even felt overwhelmed by the jobs we have signed up to do, but God has given responsibilities like these to all of us at some point in life. When all these doubts and fears enter my mind, I find peace in knowing God always provides for his laborers. He does not always call the equipped to serve, but he always equips those he calls.

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May 27, 2021

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Calling, The Summit

Being Called to Join God On Mission

By Danny Dunivan, Interim Executive Director & Moderator of the 2021 Mission and Ministry Summit

Where does mission come from? I am not asking about where we get the idea to do missions like those we undertake in other countries through International Missions or when we plant a new church in a community in the United States through National Missions. I am talking about the larger idea of mission, the very reason the church exists.

The word mission comes from the Latin word meaning “to send.” Literally, a mission is a sending. Scripture uses this idea of sending over and over. The entire life of the church is wrapped up in God’s commission sending us to go and make disciples for our Lord. However, scripture is also very clear that this sending of the church, in other words, the church’s mission does not start with the church. Before it is ever a commission to the church, the mission is God’s mission. Before the mission was ever related to the activities of the church, it was an attribute of God. God is a missionary God. In fact, the gift of the Son and the sending of the Holy Spirit are a result of the very nature of God as missionary. Mission is the movement of God toward the world, and the church is an instrument of that mission. In his classic book on missiology, David Bosch says, “There is church because there is mission, not vice versa. To participate in mission is to participate in the movement of God’s love toward people, since God is a fountain of sending love.”

Therefore, the short answer to the question about the source of the mission is that mission comes from God. God is the one who determines it. It is God’s mission before we ever think about it. We do not go under our own authority. We have nothing to do except in concert with what God is doing. We have no ministry apart from God’s ministry. We have no message apart from God’s message. The church has no reason to exist apart from what God is doing through us as he sends us into the world to fulfill his command. The mission is God’s, but thanks be to God we get to go along for the ride!

The nature of mission leads us to the undeniable truth that God never sends us where God is not already working. We never enter a place where God has not going ahead of us. Remember it is first his mission. That is what we mean by saying that we are called. We are called to join God. God is already present inviting us to come along! Like Jesus walking on the water calling Peter out of the boat to come walk on the waves, God calls us to join him in his mission in the world. He beckons to us to step out of the boat. I find it ironic that the calling of the church is also the sending of the church. They are one and the same, because the God who sends is already present and active calling us to join him in the place where he sends us on mission. Amazingly, along the way we find that the mission God invites us to join leads us to be who we were born to be! It is for his glory, but it is also for our good!

At this year’s Mission and Ministry Summit in Owensboro, Kentucky, on July 26-28, we will focus on the theme “Called.” We will be challenged to fulfill our calling to join God in what he is doing in the world in our families, in our communities, and around the world. At this event, you will be challenged to fulfill God’s call by keynote speakers and breakout sessions. This year’s Summit will also feature an important business session where we will be making decisions about God’s calling on General Baptists into the next generation.

I hope that you will begin to pray for our Summit gathering now, and you will make plans to join us in Owensboro this summer!

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May 24, 2021

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Calling, Faith Home, Honduras, International Missions

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My Calling

By Christina Massey, Mission Lead at Faith Home in Honduras

I grew up in a Christian home with loving parents and two beautiful sisters. I am so very thankful for my family and the things that they instilled in me throughout my life. They always encouraged me to be myself, while giving me advice and loving me unconditionally. My family is a huge part of my calling.

I was grounded in all the basics of church and being a Christian, and was saved at a young age. It wasn’t, however, until I was an adult that I truly understood and developed a relationship with God. From that relationship, I have embarked on an incredible journey with God. A calling to be a part of fulfilling the Great Commission, taking God’s love to the ends of the earth. A calling that drew me to Honduras.

Reflections from my journals….

September 2002: My first mission trip was to Choluteca, Honduras. I realized quickly, that I was out of my comfort zone, things don’t always go as planned and I had to totally and completely depend on God to do anything there. I thought that I went to ‘help people,’ but the things God taught me that week through the Hondurans and my teammates impacted the path of my future more than even I realized at the time. My prayer at the end of the week was “Lord, help me to not be satisfied with my comfortable life any longer. Use me to reach others for you.”

September 2003: I hadn’t intended to go back to Honduras. Through a chain of events and against many odds, I ended up going. It was during that trip, I prayed for the first time ‘Lord, show me how to best serve you. I surrender all. Here I am, send me.” (I was praying for direction in my life as to where to best serve.)

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