In order to answer that question, we should first ask ourselves this question: “What is a missionary?” If the definition is “a Christian who tells an unbeliever about Jesus,” then this article could be the shortest in this magazine because the answer to the original question is so simple and direct: “Yes!” Jesus commanded us in Mark 16:15 to “go . . . into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” That statement was made and then recorded in Scripture for each of us, regardless of our age or where we live. We can be missionaries today in our schools, our neighborhoods, our families, and even in our Sunday school classrooms. Every Christian faces making a choice every day: “Will I be obedient to share the Gospel with someone today?”
However, most people think of a missionary as defined in The Christian Student Dictionary: “someone sent by a church to a foreign country or other area to preach the Gospel.” According to that definition, few Christians are missionaries. During this missions conference, we will likely hear statistics of how few missionaries serve in Australia, on some other continent, or even in the whole world. These facts are given to help us understand the need for missions work.
When I was twenty years old as a senior airman in the United States Air Force stationed in Las Vegas, Nevada, I heard a sermon from Luke 10:2. “Therefore said he [Jesus] unto them, the harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest.” I grew up on a farm and knew the labor that was needed for a harvest of grain, but that night I realized that this harvest Jesus spoke of was not about wheat or oats. Jesus was talking about people. As a one-year-old Christian, I realized for the first time that God wants to use men, ladies, boys, and girls to tell others about Himself. Understanding that, I walked down the aisle during the invitation and told my pastor that I wanted to be a laborer in God’s harvest. I did not know on that day where I would go, what I would do, or how old my students would be. I just surrendered to Him and asked Him to use me as His “labourer” in His harvest. His first harvest field for me was a small classroom and then a bus. Later He sent me to Milford, Ohio, to preach in our junior church. As a child and teenager, I worked in my dad’s fields harvesting grain, but it was never as fulfilling, exciting, and fun as spreading the seed of the Gospel, laboring for my Heavenly Father, and watching His harvest and His children grow. I did not know that God would eventually allow me to work with Master Clubs and write curriculum that approximately thirtyfive thousand children now use every week. Master Clubs is truly a huge, world-wide harvest field. Our staff may never see most of the children whom Master Clubs touches, but one day in Heaven, we will all see the fruits of our labor in His field.
If Jesus would show you the fruits of your labor, your harvest, today, what would they be? Think about that! “But I’m just a kid!” I know—that statement is the way this article began. Surrender today to be a laborer in God’s harvest field. Don’t worry about where you will labor “someday.” Just labor where you have been planted. Today, you are planted in Milford. Determine to serve Him faithfully here today, and pray that He will use you again tomorrow!
“How does a person become a missionary?” The missionaries that you will meet during missions conference have all received training for what they do. You have an “opportunity” every week to be trained to be a better missionary, a better laborer for Him. But your training program is not called a college or university. Perhaps your training is called family devotions, Sunday school, junior church, Master Clubs, or chapel. An opportunity involves a choice. You may not have a choice of whether or not you will go to another place, but God does allow you to make a choice of whether or not you will listen. God does allow you to choose if you will obey what you are being taught.
As a boy living on a farm, I learned that when my brother, sisters, and I worked hard, obeyed Dad, and had a great harvest, my dad was very happy with his children. God’s work, God’s mission, is much the same. When we labor together with our brothers and sisters in Christ and obey our Heavenly Father, God is pleased by our labor for Him and rewards us with joy. My dad never gave us a choice to work or not, but our Heavenly Father does give us that choice every day. Will you serve Him today? Will you serve Him tomorrow? Will you labor in His fields today as a “missionary” so that others can enjoy eternity in Heaven one day? Every “kid,” regardless of age, can make that choice!
