In "The Missionary and his Sending Church, Part 2," Pastor Albert N. Martin reviews Trinity Baptist Church's missions policy, articulated in seven categories, focusing on the relationship between missionaries and their sending/planted churches. Drawing primarily from Acts 14, 15, and 1 Timothy 3, he argues that while apostles and their representatives did not become resident elders in planted churches, modern missionaries, lacking apostolic authority, may serve as elders in newly formed churches, provided they are locally scrutinized and accepted. Martin emphasizes the necessity of indigenous leadership and the importance of missionaries identifying with existing churches of like faith in their target areas, illustrating this with the church's own practices.
Primary Texts
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Acts 14:21-23This passage is foundational for defining the major tasks of missions and the practice of ordaining elders in planted churches.
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Acts 15This chapter is used to illustrate inter-church cooperation and the principle of sending missionaries in pairs, even amidst conflict.
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Acts 9:26-27This passage is expounded to demonstrate Paul's practice of seeking to identify with existing churches when entering a new mission field.
Introduction and Review of Trinity Baptist Church's Missions Policy Series0:00
Review of Five Categories of Missions Policy7:20
The Sixth Category: Missionary Relationship to Sending and Planted Churches (Part 1)14:50
Missionary Relationship to Sending Church: Vital and Dynamic20:42
Missionary Relationship to Planted Churches: Indigenous Leadership and the Question of Missionary Elders22:09
Justification for Missionary as Elder in Planted Church27:36
Missionary Relationship to Existing Churches in the Area39:11
Conclusion and Prayer46:26
Key Quotes
“We have been going to the word of God and seeking to see in the scriptures the precepts, the precedents, and the principles. relative to the whole subject of the missionary enterprise, and by that I mean basically in non-technical terms the mandate to take the gospel aggressively into new areas with a view to making disciples and gathering them into churches and securing for them competent leadership.”
“In other words, we have not been going to the scriptures seeking to come up with a theology of missions that we are prepared to impose upon the whole Christian world and which we are prepared to pontificate for all of the churches, but believing that it is in the best interest of our stability and of the cohesiveness of our prayers and vision as a congregation that the rank and file of the members of our own congregation understand. understand our mission policy and its roots in the word of God”
“But now I want to underscore, for the sake of those visiting with us, this present policy is not the law of the Medes and the Persians. As there is a change in personnel, opportunity, providential contacts, there will be in-flight adjustments. As God gives us further light from the scriptures, there may be some negation of present policies. There may be some significant additions and amplifications.”
“Well, our conviction, rooted in our present understanding of the word of God, is that the unchanging mandate of our Lord, Matthew 28, 18 to 20, coupled with the unchanging statement of 1 Timothy 3.15, that the church is the pillar and the ground of the truth, we are convinced that our authorization and warrant for doing the work of missions is the unchanging commission of the Lord Jesus and the unchanging vehicle of accomplishing his will in the earth, namely, the church, organized and functioning as the church.”
“Our good friend, the bishop says, if this rule, he calls it a rule, had only been more obeyed and recognized, the cause of missions would be much greater advanced in our day.”
“there is much confusion in missionary endeavor today because people are either stating explicitly or assuming implicitly that missionary missionaries missionaries equals apostle and though they may not say it with a uppercase a they would say apostle lowercase a or missionary equals apostolic representative such as Timothy and Titus”
“Fundamental to the concept of eldership is local scrutiny. In the light of the standard of 1st Timothy 3 and Titus 1 and local common suffrage. That is joyful voluntary acceptance of this man as a gift of Christ to give spiritual leadership and oversight.”
“when a missionary is sent into an area where the church is planted particularly where there are churches of like faith and order in the name of the Lord it is an act of snobbery to ignore them and to act as though they do not exist”
Applications
All listeners
Understand our mission policy and its roots in the word of God for the stability and cohesiveness of our prayers and vision as a congregation.
Be open to 'in-flight adjustments' and changes in missions policy as God gives further light from the scriptures or as personnel, opportunity, and providential contacts change.
Recognize that the local church, organized and functioning as the church, is the unchanging vehicle for accomplishing Christ's will in missions, not just mission boards or agencies.
Do not send 'flunkies' or incompetent individuals to the mission field, but rather proven, well-equipped, experienced servants of Christ with sufficient gift of utterance.
Be willing to make cultural adaptations and personal sacrifices to secure acceptance and a hearing for the gospel message, avoiding being wooden and inflexible.
Obey the rule of sending missionaries forth with at least one fellow worker, as this would greatly advance the cause of missions.
Avoid explicitly or implicitly equating modern missionaries with apostles or apostolic representatives, as this leads to confusion and misapplication of biblical data.
Maintain a vital and dynamic relationship between missionaries and their sending church, involving periodic visits, reports, and reintegration.
Respect the principle of local scrutiny and voluntary acceptance for eldership in planted churches, rather than imposing leaders from the sending church.
Work towards raising up indigenous, local eldership in planted churches, allowing foreign missionaries to eventually relinquish their office and pursue further church planting.
When entering a mission area with existing churches of like faith and order, identify with them, seek their counsel, and avoid acting as though they do not exist.
Do not rely on modern missiology gurus for missions policy, but diligently seek light and grace from the Holy Word of God.
A full transcript is available on the
tab. 58 paragraphs, roughly 50 minutes.
Machine transcription
Introduction and Review of Trinity Baptist Church's Missions Policy Series
This Adult Sunday School class was held on October 15th, 1989, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now, since a number of you are coming to the class for the first time in the midst of a series of studies that has already taken up 11 class hours, I will attempt to ease you into our present study by doing two things this morning. First of all, attempting to give a succinct statement of what we've been doing in the past 11 sessions, and then to give you a brief review of the substance of the conclusions to which we have come while we have been doing what we have been doing for those 11 class hours. And so the first question, what have we been doing? The answer is that for the past 11 weeks we have been studying together the missions policy of Trinity Baptist Church. From our inception as a congregation some 22 years ago, we have sought to know and to fulfill our part in response to the unchanging mandate of the Lord Jesus, as recorded in Matthew 28, 18-20,
to make disciples of all the nations, to baptize them, and to teach them whatsoever Christ, himself, commanded. And we began immediately, even before being duly constituted as a church while we were studying the scriptures on the doctrine of the church, the doctrines of worship and leadership, eldership, diaconate, etc., we began immediately to tithe our general income and to seek to channel it to missionaries and missionary causes which embrace the doctrinal perspectives which we, we had come to embrace. And that meant that very early in our life we had partial support of several missionaries of the Grace Baptist Church in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and even to this day we continue partial support of two missionaries that are under the oversight of that assembly. Then as the years unfolded and God providentially brought missionary causes before us, both at home and abroad, we sought to go to the scriptures and to grapple with the principles that ought to guide us in the fulfillment of that missionary mandate in the light of God's distinct and particular
providential dealings with us as a congregation. And in pursuit of that practice, we had the joy long before we had a building of our own of commissioning a home missionary, sending him out to Carlisle, Pennsylvania, in a church planting endeavor. And I had the joy a few months ago of preaching at the 20th anniversary of that congregation. And then as the work here developed and as the years passed, we were driven again and again to the scriptures, seeking to extract the precepts, the principles, and the precedents that ought to shape our mission's policy. Then in February of 1987, we were able to go to the church of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and we were able to on one of our annual elders' retreats, we felt the time had come to try to distill into some structured and articulated form our present mission's policy as a local congregation. And having done that, it was the judgment of the elders in planning the teaching schedule for this adult class that as soon as Pastor Nichols completed his six-month-or-so year, he was able to complete his precepts in the Doctrine of God's Covenants that I should articulate on behalf of the eldership the mission's policy of Trinity Baptist Church.
So what we have been doing for the past 11 weeks is precisely that. We have been going to the word of God and seeking to see in the scriptures the precepts, the precedents, and the principles. relative to the whole subject of the missionary enterprise, and by that I mean basically in non-technical terms the mandate to take the gospel aggressively into new areas with a view to making disciples and gathering them into churches and securing for them competent leadership. We have been seeking to go to the scriptures to discover the precepts, the precedents, and the principles, and then to see their particular application to this particular congregation given those providential factors which make for the particular deposit of gift, the particular deposit of ability, and stewardship of money and contacts, etc. Okay.
In other words, we have not been going to the scriptures seeking to come up with a theology of missions that we are prepared to impose upon the whole Christian world and which we are prepared to pontificate for all of the churches, but believing that it is in the best interest of our stability and of the cohesiveness of our prayers and vision as a congregation that the rank and file of the members of our own congregation understand. understand our mission policy and its roots in the word of God, I have for these past 11 weeks been seeking to guide the class into an articulation of that policy as it came to expression in February of 1987, coming to expression in terms of seven basic categories of concern relative to the missionary mandate. So that's what we've been doing for 11 weeks, and we have had a blessed time together opening up the word and the general form it has been for me to read a group of passages and then to ask the class what do those groups of passages say concerning this particular aspect of missionary endeavor, and it has been a joy to see the class come forward with those principles,
precedents, and precepts which have molded our thinking. But now I want to underscore, for the sake of those visiting with us, this present policy is not the law of the Medes and the Persians. As there is a change in personnel, opportunity, providential contacts, there will be in-flight adjustments. As God gives us further light from the scriptures, there may be some negation of present policies. There may be some significant additions and amplifications. We do not claim to have any of those. We do not claim to have any of those. We do not claim to have any of those. We do not claim to have any of those. We do not claim to have any of those. We do not claim to have any of those.
We do not claim to have any of those. We do not claim to have any of those. We do not claim to have any of those. So we have the last word on this matter. All right, so much for what we have been doing.
Review of Five Categories of Missions Policy
Now then, secondly, I want to give a brief review of what we have discovered in our study of the Word of God. Our present missions policy, as I've already indicated, has been articulated in seven categories of concern. And thus far we have covered five of those categories. We hope to complete the sixth this morning.
I believe, though it may be a bit overly ambitious, I would like to be able to at least introduce the seventh. Now, in this review, I will state the category and only give the distilled essence of our understanding of the teaching of Scripture with respect to that category. In other words, this is a review which will merely be assertion with a proof text or two without demonstration and amplification. If you want that, you may obtain the tapes from the Trinity pulpit and get the whole works, the 11 hours.
Now, the first category of concern that we addressed is what we have called the major tasks of missions. And Acts 14, 21 to 23 was our pivotal passage in which we saw that the apostolic missionary endeavor focused upon three things. The making of disciples by preaching. The making of disciples by preaching.
The making of disciples by preaching. The gathering of those disciples into visible groups of professed adherence to Jesus Christ, strengthening them by teaching, and then thirdly, securing permanent, biblically qualified resident leadership. They ordained for them elders in every city. And so the major tasks of missions are to make disciples by preaching, gather them into visible communities of disciples called churches, and secure for them permanent, resident, biblically qualified leadership.
Then the second category we addressed was the authorization and warrant for our doing the work of missions. On what basis do we as an individual congregation have the temerity to think that we can do the work of missions? Isn't that the work of the experts? Isn't that the work of the church?
Isn't that the work of mission boards, and missiologists, and mission agencies? Well, our conviction, rooted in our present understanding of the word of God, is that the unchanging mandate of our Lord, Matthew 28, 18 to 20, coupled with the unchanging statement of 1 Timothy 3.15, that the church is the pillar and the ground of the truth, we are convinced that our authorization and warrant for doing the work of missions is the unchanging commission of the Lord Jesus and the unchanging vehicle of accomplishing his will in the earth, namely, the church, organized and functioning as the church. And then thirdly, we addressed the practice and policies of inter-church cooperation in missions. And from such practices, we addressed the practice and policies of inter-church cooperation in missions.
And from such passages as Acts 15, 3 and 4, Romans 15, 18, 24 and 28, Philippians 4, 15, and a host of others, we saw from the scriptures that there was a tremendous amount of inter-church cooperation in the apostolic missionary endeavor. We saw that communication was fostered, counsel was sought, financial concerns were jointly shared. Personnel were commended from one missionary endeavor to another, and that everything was done on the basis of a voluntary commitment to those inter-church cooperative efforts in the dynamics of spirit-wrought shared vision and spirit-wrought shared convictions regarding the truth. Then we spent three weeks. Then we spent three whole class hours on category number four, so crucial to the missionary endeavor, namely, the selection and preparation of men to serve as missionaries.
By what criteria should men be recognized, commissioned, and sent forth to do the work of missions? And from such passages as Acts 13, 1 to 4, Acts 11, 24 to 26. Acts 18, 27, and again, a host of others, we concluded that the men who were set apart to do the work of missions were, number one, proven, well-equipped, experienced servants of Christ. They did not take the flunkies who couldn't make it in the home church, who had no gift of utterance, no proven gifts of rule and ministerial usefulness. And shoved them off to a mission field and hoped somehow no one would discover their incompetence and make them heroes in the process because they left all to follow Christ. We saw that again and again it was proven, well-equipped, experienced servants of Christ who alone were recognized and sent forth to the work. We saw, secondly, that they were men with sufficient gift of utterance.
To evangelize effectively and to build up young saints into a measure of maturity in Christ, Acts 14. They so spake that a multitude believed, and concerning Barnabas, he was a good man and full of the Holy Ghost, and he exhorted that infant church at Antioch that with purpose of heart they should cleave unto the Lord. And when Barnabas ran out of sermons. And felt he was in over his head, he chased off after Saul, brought him in, and for a whole year together they taught and much people was added unto the Lord.
I'm quoting, of course, from Acts chapter 11, verses 19 to 26. Then we saw, thirdly, that they were men with a willingness to make cultural adaptations and personal sacrifices. So as to secure acceptance of their presence. And a hearing for their message.
They were not so wooden and inflexible that they could not make these cultural adaptations and personal sacrifices essential to gaining an acceptance of their persons and an unprejudiced hearing of their message. First Corinthians 9 is, of course, the great watershed teaching on this principle. Then we moved to study. The fifth place, the whole question of companionship in the work of missions.
The Sixth Category: Missionary Relationship to Sending and Planted Churches (Part 1)
Should a missionary be sent forth alone? Should he be sent forth with a fellow worker or as part of a team of workers? And we discovered from the practice of our Lord is recorded in Mark 6, 7 and Luke 10, 1. And the almost universal practice of the apostles and their associates.
Acts 13, 1. And following in a host of other passages that the ordinary practice was to send forth missionaries at least with one fellow worker and frequently in a team of workers. Our Lord sent forth the twelve two by two. He sent forth the seventy two by two.
And in contrasting Acts 13, 1 through 4 with the end of Acts 15. You have a context. Of waiting upon God where the spirit is not grieved by the leadership and the Holy Ghost says, separate me, Saul and Barnabas for the work where unto I have called them at the end of Acts 15. You have a context of sharp disagreement.
There is a fallout between Paul and Barnabas about the qualifications of John Mark for another missionary foray. But it's interesting, though. The context is a grieved spirit. Because of sharp.
Disagreement. There is no disagreement that no lone ranger should go forth. And so Paul chooses Silas and is sent forth by the church. Barnabas chooses Mark.
And this text is silent as to whether or not he went forth with the blessing of the church. But one thing is clear, though Barnabas may not have shown either good judgment or good grace in that matter. He showed good sense in not becoming the lone ranger. He took a companion with him who later on proved to be worthy of the ministry.
And so in studying this matter of the companionship element in the work of missions, we came to the conclusion so beautifully articulated by Bishop Ryle in his comments on expository thoughts on the Gospel of Mark. And I commend his comments to you so that you do not regard this as a simplistic biblicism. But. Our good friend, the bishop says, if this rule, he calls it a rule, had only been more obeyed and recognized, the cause of missions would be much greater advanced in our day.
Now we come to the sixth and present area of concern in this matter of our missions policy. And that is the relationship of missionaries to the sending and planted churches. I can. Erase my squigglies.
This is the area of our concern. The missionary. Ideally missionaries are sent from their home church to engage in the primary tasks of missions to seek to make disciples by preaching to gather those disciples into visible communities called a church. And then to secure for them permanent competent residence.
Leadership and under the blessing of God. Lo and behold, a church is indeed planted. It comes to birth through their labors or possibly churches. Now, the question is this.
What relationship do the missionaries sustain to the churches that have come to birth through their labors and complicating our answer to this question? As we saw last week. Is that the majority of the record of the missionary enterprise in the book of Acts has the factor of living apostles and also living apostolic representatives such men as Timothy. And Titus.
And because we have no living apostles. And because we have no living apostles, we can't have any real live apostolic representatives. You can't go to the grave of one of the apostles. And touch a boat.
You can't go to the grave of one of the apostles. and say I've been sent to my Ephesus by Paul because I touched his bone no the factors of the unique place of Timothy and Titus and of the Apostles complicates our use of the biblical data and we underscored that problem in our initial introductory study and at this point I felt it necessary to highlight it because in trying to go to the scriptures with the conviction that they are the sufficient as well as the only rule of faith in practice we do not want to be guilty of resting the scriptures if not to our own destruction certainly to our own confusion and there is much confusion in missionary endeavor today because people are either stating explicitly or assuming implicitly that missionary missionaries missionaries equals apostle and though they may not say it with a uppercase a they would say apostle lowercase a or missionary equals apostolic representative such as Timothy and Titus and perhaps we could bring such men as Epaphroditus and others into that category well what we saw in wrestling with this question was that the first strand is relatively
Missionary Relationship to Sending Church: Vital and Dynamic
easy to answer what is the relationship of the sent ones to their home church and we saw in such passages as the end of Acts chapter 14 that the relationship of the missionary to his sending church is to be a vital relationship one that involved periodic visits reports and a real live ministry to the home church that there might be reintegration to the church semłość that there might be a quite intense made word the newly added members of that church and it was at that point that I asked how many of you have never seen Steve and carol Hoffmeyer face to face and about a third of the hands in this place went up those who God is added to our numbers in Stephen Carol were last with us and so their time among us will not only be one of re acquaintance with those who of us who have known them for years but initial acquaintance and integration into the church in its present complexion there is a dynamic relationship with the church not a static one because the state of the church is dynamic and not static at least it ought not to be static it's only corpses that are fully static and so a living church will have the dynamics of growth
Missionary Relationship to Planted Churches: Indigenous Leadership and the Question of Missionary Elders
and development and change and it's vital both for the ones sent out and those who send them to have this periodic time of reintegration and acquaintance then we considered the second category of our question the relationship of the missionaries to the church or churches planted under their labors and at this point our time ran out in the class we saw from acts 1423 titus 1 5 first timothy 5 22 first timothy 3 1 and following that the missionaries themselves acts 14 or the apostolic representatives guided the churches planted under their labors to the recognition of an indigenous leadership they themselves did not become the elders of the church or the deacons within those congregations but as paul said to titus i left you in crete that you should set in order the things that are lacking and ordain elders in every city as i gave the charge or acts 1423 when they had ordained for them elders in every place they commended them
to god laid hands upon them prayed with fasting and then they went on their way so we saw that the practice in terms of apostles and apostolic representatives was one in which they did not become the resident permanent spiritual overseers in the churches which they planted and then i left you with the question if that is the universal practice how can we justify if we can or do we need to make a mid-course instruction the fact that steve comes to us today not only as a man sent from trinidad and flora and flora but also as a man sent from trinidad and flora and flora to the church community church in a church planting endeavor in the suburbs of manila the moonwalk division near the airport but he comes to us as an elder a pastor an overseer a shepherd of the moonwalk community bible church now did any of you wrestle with that through the week and come up with an answer that was your homework assignment i'm going to an agricultural adaptation
gain a hearing with people that they don't know about the church and i'm going to go to a church so as before they're not really a stranger in the strange that they're ministering in so i don't think you have to look upon these missionaries that we send out as men filipinos all right if i if i can reduce what you're saying into a principle you tell me if i'm capturing it correctly cliff you are saying that the factor of a diverse cultural setting and even a diverse linguistic setting mandates a longer period of stay by the missionary in our situation that it did in the apostolic situation in which we had what factors culturally and linguistically
all right universal language which was whenever the wonderful of that were true you guys in the academy would have all those headaches pastor nichols wouldn't be having his mustache turned gray trying to teach you greek that's right all right we had a universal language and we had in many ways we had universal culture you had both hebrew culture in these pockets of the jews who would have their life centered around synagogue gatherings and the instruction there and then also the greco-roman culture so those are a couple of factors which mean that the situation is radically different when we send someone into a situation where there is little if any cultural affinity little with lived in a linguistic affinity and the other justification for our practice and maybe you've come to strong convictions the practice is wrong and you're ready to give your reasons will take the witness stand and speak all right jolly
Justification for Missionary as Elder in Planted Church
but all you know what charlie said basically what he said he was indeed is not and apostle that last time being a democracy is a grammar Breadcrumb the SOCIAL° we talked to him he didn't make any claims to it steve have you changed your conviction since we talked no sir very good all right uh do you regard yourself as an apostolic representative no sir very good well he's he's taken his first uh debriefing well he hasn't changed his position on those two fundamental issues because during all of his time among us as a member an academy student and instructor in the years spent with us we never saw steve do the signs of an apostle we never saw him lay claim to having seen the risen lord nor having had a visit from paul or peter or anyone else commissioning him as an apostolic representative and so the point charlie is making is since he has neither of those capacities having seen a church come to birth unto his labors that you you the church has now recognized in him the marks of a standing biblical office and officer which is designated in the bible as a what charlie an elder a pastor an overseer and therefore that
particular church planted under his labors has recognized him i didn't think we're going to come so quickly to the conclusion but uh so that ends discussion as far as i'm concerned and i want to amplify that for just a moment according to first peter chapter five and if you will please turn there for a moment when the apostles ministered in various places they not only ministered in the uniqueness of their authority and gifts as apostles but notice how peter designates himself when addressing the elders the overseers in his first epistle the elders therefore among you i exhort who am a fellow elder as he exhorts the elders the ordinary standing office bearers within the church he has not relinquished his consciousness of his identity as an apostle turn back to chapter one in verse one peter an apostle of jesus christ and all of the believers were to receive his letter with all of the unique weight and authority of apostolic authorship
but notwithstanding that reality he says under that canopy of that unique office and function as an apostle i am also a fellow elder so when apostles or apostolic representatives are laboring in church planting or church entertained they do so with what capacity with the company and deal factor office of an elder do you see that sold it elders first that peer in the book of acs in the jerusalem church in chapter eleven inverse thirty rather than aware it says The gifts for the poor saints in Judea were brought and laid down there or brought unto the elders. Let me get the exact wording of Acts 11 and verse 30, which also they did, sending it to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul. Now, in the opening chapters of Acts, all we read about is the apostles. And then in chapter 6, we have the incipient, at least beginnings of a diaconate in the appointment of the seven.
But now somewhere along the way, in addition to the apostles, the standing office bearers were recognized. So that by the time you have the situation of Acts 15, where the Antioch church sends a representative up to the Jerusalem church along with Paul and Barnabas. It says they were sent unto the apostles. And the elders and the church at Jerusalem.
So that the justification for what we are doing is this. Follow closely.
When Steve was commissioned, and may I say at the time Steve was sent out, he was sent alone. Our own understanding and convictions on this matter were not as definitive as they now are. Secondly, he was not sent in the truest sense alone in that he was sent to Jerusalem. To join a church where there was an experienced missionary and to work under him and with him and at his direction for a period of time.
So there was a sense in which the two by two principle was at least in part applicable. But he was sent as a church planter. And under God, when he began to minister to the people in that area and build them up and evangelize. And God brought a church into being through his layers.
We did not impose Steve upon that church as an elder. The universal teaching of the word of God is that we as ascending church have no right to impose an elder upon a church that comes to birth under the labor of one of our sent ones. Fundamental to the concept of eldership is local scrutiny. In the light of the standard of 1st Timothy 3 and Titus 1 and local common suffrage.
That is joyful voluntary acceptance of this man as a gift of Christ to give spiritual leadership and oversight. And that is exactly what transpired there in the Moonwalk Church. When Pastor Dixon and Pastor Bob were in the Philippines. They were in the Philippines.
What was it? Two years? A year ago now, Steve. A year and a couple of months?
Two and a half years ago. One of their functions was to help guide the church to formal constitution with a defined membership. And to give explicit instruction from 1st Timothy 3 and Titus 1 that that newly constituted church might scrutinize locally Steve's 50 years of ministry. Now, we have scrutinized him here as ascending church before we ever sent him as a church planter.
Believing that God had given him both gifts and graces essential for that work but that scrutiny here could not be transferred automatically let alone imposed upon those people. And since he is not an apostle or an apostolic representative. There is only one way that he could carry on. one way that he could carry on ongoing spiritual leadership once that church was formed and that was either to help them recognize some whom God had already given as elders and then go on and plant another church or have that church put him under biblical scrutiny and express its mind and will with reference to seeing him as a gift of Christ and voluntarily submitting to him to function no longer as a church planter primarily but as a resident overseer and by a unanimous vote the Moonwalk Community Bible Fellowship recognized Steve as such a gift of Christ and in that capacity he now functions now I checked this out with Steve early this morning to make sure that my thinking was correct all of these facts are according to what really happened is that true Steve now the long term vision and goal is as God would raise up out of this church
indigenous, local, Filipino eldership, qualified and competent then our brother Steve would relinquish his office as an elder and and here's where we're wrestling with the scriptures what relationship would he sustain to this church now as the church that would commission and send him out to start another church while still sustaining some kind of relationship to us that's going to be a tacky thing and we realize we're going to have to wrestle with that but we don't fear that because every other issue we faced when we've come with the quote simplistic mentality that the answers are here somewhere lo and behold God's helped us and given us light Proverbs 3, 5 and 6 are true trust in the Lord with all your heart lean not upon your own understanding in all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your paths and it is as Steve confirmed to me at 8.05 this morning his long term vision and commitment to continue in that work of church planting and we pray that the day will come when that moonwalk fellowship a duly constituted church will have sufficient indigenous pastoral oversight that our brother will be able to go forth into the church to additional church planting endeavors and so our quote justification
for this that does not fit the ordinary pattern is that we see no other present avenue open in the providence of God to respect what is clearly biblical namely that a church should not be left vulnerable without shepherds they have enough problems with shepherds so I Paul had to say to the elders at Ephesus take heed to yourselves and to all of the flock there are predators wolves without perverse men from within God have mercy on a fledgling church that has no true shepherd to protect from wolves and perverse men and to lead the sheep into the green pastures of God's truth to nurture them to love them to care for them to go after the sick and the wandering and the lame and the homeless and the maim as well as to continue to make the healthy ones fat in their relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ so that is the biblical rationale for our present construction of relationship but now then there is another wrinkle in this whole matter of the question and we're all here now under companionship relationship of missionaries to the sending and planting churches there's a third point a third strand that we did not put into our official policy but the more I reflected on it
Missionary Relationship to Existing Churches in the Area
I said we should have and so this is just me talking now and the elders are hearing this for the first time they're not wrestling with it for the first time but they're hearing it for the first time and that is what is the relationship of the missionaries if they are sent into an area where churches are already planted do they come into that area saying I have a commission from such and such a church I have a commission from such and such a church and totally ignore the existing churches well I think there is at least a principle in Paul's actions as recorded in Acts chapter 9 and I want us to turn there for a moment and we've got just about 8 minutes left and I think we'll be able to address this and wind up category number 6 in our study you remember that the apostle Paul was converted in unusual circumstances commissioned by the very voice of Christ speaking to him and yet we read in Acts 9.26 that when he was come to Jerusalem that is this great apostle what's the first thing he attempted to do he assayed an old word for he attempted
to join himself to the disciples in Paul's concern to preach the gospel to do the work of an evangelist and a missionary to do the work of an evangelist and a missionary when he came into an area namely Jerusalem where the church already existed he did not say I've got a commission from heaven I've heard the voice of Christ I can ignore any existing church I can be the Lord's lone ranger and if anybody questions me I'll say have not I seen Jesus Christ our Lord did he not speak to me that wasn't his attitude he tried first to to identify himself with the church that was already planted in the providence of God but he had a problem verse 27 the end of verse 26 and they were all afraid of him not believing he was a disciple they said you're a clever fake you're trying to worm your way in you're a fifth columnist you want to get on the inside get a list of all our names and then you'll be able to carry out your work of persecuting the people of God with great efficiency you ain't getting in this church Paul isn't it very interesting they had such standards of membership that even a man who claimed to have heard a voice from heaven and seen the risen Christ wasn't automatically let in
that's pretty interesting isn't it if ever a church could be accused of having unrealistic standards it would be the Jerusalem church but there's no indication God frowned on their holy skepticism so what happened well the Lord very kindly brought along someone who knew he was not a fifth columnist he was not a good fake he was the real thing but Barnabas took him in took him I'm sorry and brought him to the apostles and declared unto them how he had seen the Lord in the way and that he had spoken to him there's his individual testimony but now here's his external validation and how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus and perhaps they even told the story of why he was down there at Jerusalem namely if you read verses 23 to 25 he was almost martyred for the sake of his confessing Christ and it's not a very noble way to leave the city verse 25 his disciples took him by night and led him down through the basket through the wall lowering him in a basket and it's very interesting when Paul is giving to these super apostles and the church at Corinth that had come under their influence some of the marks of his apostleship with a stroke of iron he puts as the last mark of his apostleship and I was let down the wall in a basket that's the way he went out of town not with the town key and the mayor shaking his hand
saying it's been lovely to have you but Lord in a basket so perhaps even that was brought in he's for real he's been willing to expose his very life for the sake of Christ then what happened and it says he was with them going in and going out at Jerusalem preaching boldly in the name of the Lord he identified himself with the church that already existed and then from that base he exercised his ministry now again we have the factor of an apostle so we can't make one to one equations but certainly there seems to be a principle and the principle is this that when a missionary is sent into an area where the church is planted particularly where there are churches of like faith and order in the name of the Lord it is an act of snobbery to ignore them and to act as though they do not exist so in all of our missionary endeavors we have attempted to be sensitive to this principle for example when pastor blaise had been with us only about a year back in the mid seventies and we used to meet on Fridays to pray together he began to bear his heart to me that he had an increasing pressure upon his spirit that there was a group of people back in east London as sheep without a shepherd and to make a long story short as that burden intensified
and was shared with the entire eldership and discussed and prayed over the first thing we did was to send him I can't recall whether it was two or three weeks it was at least two and possibly three weeks to go into that general area of London and meet with every evangelical pastor and particularly any of the strict Baptist pastors Calvinistic Baptist pastors who were anywhere in that area and to sit down with them and to share his concern and burden and to ask them whether or not they believed that another church was needed in that area there was consultation with the churches in that area before there was any thought of commissioning him and sending him likewise with our brother Steve there was a summer spent in the Philippines under the oversight and laboring along with Brian Ellis who at that time had been a missionary for some I believe 17, 16 years and then when Steve was sent he was sent to become part of the Cabajo church there in Manila and to have his initial endeavors carried on under the oversight the joint oversight of this assembly and that assembly until such time as God was pleased to bring a church to birth and so in this whole matter then of the relationship of the missionary to his home church
Conclusion and Prayer
the church that comes to birth under his labors and any existing churches in the area of his labors we have got to seek to juggle all of these biblical balls at once and demonstrate that we are not indifferent to any biblical principle that enters into the picture that God is painting in his sovereign name in his own providence well our time is gone and I trust as we have wrestled with this matter that we have come to joint conclusions as a congregation those of you who are visiting with us if nothing else I hope you have been challenged with this one thing you don't need to go to Ralph Winter and the so-called gurus of modern missiology to come up with a working framework of missionary policy it's in this book and may God help us to seek light to know his mind and grace to do it let's pray together our father we do indeed thank you for your holy word which is a lamp unto our feet and a light to our pathway we thank you for the special joy of having Steve and Carol and the family back home with us
to be able to speak of these things in their very presence with a good conscience to be able to speak of them not as lovely theoretical concepts but as indeed the working principles by which we have had the joy of seeing you answer our prayers in sending forth a laborer into the harvest and of bringing a church to birth that even earlier this day met in your name and brought praises to you as part of the work of God the fruit of the sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ oh Lord bless your servant Bob Carr in his ongoing labors there in Steve's absence bless our brother Jonathan in his period of apprenticeship and further proving for the work there in Moorestown and oh God we pray that the day will soon come when that work in Moonwalk will be so well established with indigenous oversight that our brother Steve will be able to go forth in another church planting endeavor our God we thank you for your goodness to us where we are walking in any way contrary to the word Lord show us that we may repent and amend our ways where we need fresh light oh God give us light and then give us grace never never to turn in an irresponsible itch
for a quick fix to the so called earths but oh that we may patiently wait upon you until you give us light hear our prayer and receive our thanks for your presence with us in this hour we ask in Jesus name Amen
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Passages Expounded
Acts 14:21-23
This passage is foundational for defining the major tasks of missions and the practice of ordaining elders in planted churches.
Acts 15
This chapter is used to illustrate inter-church cooperation and the principle of sending missionaries in pairs, even amidst conflict.
Acts 9:26-27
This passage is expounded to demonstrate Paul's practice of seeking to identify with existing churches when entering a new mission field.
Texts Expounded
auto_stories
Presented as the pivotal passage for understanding the major tasks of missions: making disciples, gathering them into churches, and securing leadership.
auto_stories
Used to illustrate the principle of sending missionaries in pairs, even amidst disagreement.
auto_stories
Used to show that missionaries guided churches to recognize indigenous leadership rather than becoming resident elders themselves.
auto_stories
Used to show that apostolic representatives were to set things in order and ordain elders, not become resident elders.
auto_stories
Used to show Peter's self-designation as a 'fellow elder' alongside his apostolic authority.
auto_stories
Used to illustrate Paul's attempt to identify with existing churches upon entering a new area, even with his unique commission.