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Bryan: It's hard to overstate how epic the vision of the Great Commission is. Every tribe, every tongue, to the ends of the earth. It's magnificent and worthy of devotion. But when we contemplate its scope as finite creatures, it can seem overwhelming. Thankfully, this kind of thinking isn't strange to the God who told us to go. In Zechariah 4:10, we're told that these days of small things are nothing to scoff at. In fact, it's in these small things where the great things William Carey urged us to expect of God begin. Our question for Pastor Chad Vegas today gets at this sentiment. Listener Jin sends this question. "I've been serving for a year as the youth pastor, so my platform is still small. What practical steps would you suggest to help our leadership team and congregation embrace a clear and biblical vision of global missions?"
Chad: Jin, as a former youth pastor, I so appreciate questions like this. I love to hear youth pastors wrestling with these kinds of questions because for me, missions as really a passion began while I was serving as a youth pastor. In fact, it was while I was serving as a youth pastor that I met Brad Buser. Brad and I started Radius International together along with a team of other men, and Brad really was the impetus for that in all those men's lives. Brad had just returned from his church planting work among an unreached language group known as the Iteri in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea, and I was blown away when I heard his story and the story of so many language groups who have never heard the name of Christ. In fact, he brought letters from them. So I hope you will permit me to give you some really personalized advice from my own experience. Here are some suggestions to you as a youth pastor from a former youth pastor.
First, use your time as a youth pastor to learn how to preach the Bible in such a way that you demonstrate God's heart for the nations in all of Scripture. That really shouldn't be hard, because it is the story of the God who created the earth and all that's in it, and of the people who rebelled against Him, and of the God who promised to save those people in the seed of the woman. And those people were separated on the basis of language at Babel into separate peoples, nations, and tribes. And so we see the Bible tell the unfolding story of the coming of the Messiah to save us. Thus, you should be able to preach every part of Scripture as a demonstration of God's heart for the nations.
Second, use your time as a youth pastor to learn how to lead prayer for unreached language groups. Praying for the Lord of the harvest to raise up workers for the harvest field. Praying for these language groups themselves. In fact, Missionary is now putting out a prayer booklet that is just beginning to list some of those groups and give you information about them. Get a hold of that prayer guide and begin to pray through it and lead others in praying through it.
Third, use your time as a youth pastor to speak with your youth about what they will give their lives to. Why not give their lives to making Christ known among the nations? Listen, young people want to be challenged to do great things with their lives, so raise the bar high and call them to it.
Fourth, use your time as a youth pastor to bring missionaries around to speak with your youth, to read missionary biographies with your youth—To the Golden Shore, the story of Adoniram Judson, or The Autobiography of John G. Paton, or Beauty for Ashes, the story of Amy Carmichael. Watch missionary docuseries with your youth, the one that we've put out at missionary.com, that series of biographies. Watch them with your youth and talk about them. Even bring your youth to serve, for example, in Mexico for a week at a program Radius International has called Radius Serve.
Fifth, encourage your young men and your young women as they graduate to consider participating in something like the Radius Gap Year program. It would be a great idea for them to get their hearts and minds set on the main things at a really young age. They may be going off to college, or perhaps that's nowhere on the horizon, but encourage them to think about it.
Sixth, use your time as a youth pastor to attempt to engage the other pastors you serve with, or elders and church members, in some of these activities. See if people will come along, if they'll help you, if they'll assist you, if they'll put on an event at their home where they host these missionaries who come in.
Seventh, pray for your church members and your church leaders that the Lord would begin to give them a greater and greater heart for the nations themselves, so that Christ would be known in all the earth.
And eighth, finally, find out if you can join your church's missions committee. Get to know the folks on that committee. Pray with them, serve with them, learn with them. Obviously, as a new member to that committee, be quiet, listen, pray, and learn. And as you grow and understand the situation, begin to speak into it.
Now, I know as a youth pastor that you may not have too much influence in your church at this present time. You may not be an elder. Perhaps you haven't gone to seminary and aren't even ordained yet. I really don't know. But what I do know is that you have a tremendous opportunity. It was while I was a youth pastor that God began to sharpen my understanding of missions and began to work in my heart as to how I would work that out in His church. It was while I was a youth pastor that the Lord began to work in young people who later helped me plant a church that understood missions well, and some of those youth went out as missionaries. It was while I was a youth pastor that we began discussing the formation of Radius International. And now hundreds of young adults have been trained to go out to the unreached languages. So don't underestimate what the Lord can do in you and through you now. Enjoy this season. Enjoy it, brother, and use every opportunity for God's glory.
Bryan: If you're eager for your church to grow into a sending church, visit us at missionary.com/partner to learn more about our Church Partnership Program. Missionary partner churches receive access to films, books, prayer guides, and more—all created to help you in creating a sending culture in your church. And if you or someone in your church has a question you'd like answered on the show, get in touch with us on social media, our website, or in the comments. And don't forget to subscribe and stream our next episode when it airs next week. Thanks for listening.