God’s word to God’s world is the Crosslinks strapline. It is the rallying cry that you will see attached to pretty much everything that we produce from magazines and websites through to banners and promotional pens. Five words to describe what we do and why.
God’s world speaks to the sovereignty of God, and therefore the worship that is due from all who have been created by him. And God’s word, the Word who became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14), was the means by which God wonderfully planned, from the beginning, to reconcile his sinful people to himself. God’s word came to God’s world.
However, if these five words speak of that gracious initiative of our sovereign God, they also remind us of the part we now play as followers of the Lord Jesus. His command is to ‘…make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.’ (Matthew 28:19-20) And it is up to us, the church in this generation, to continue the work of those before us to take God’s word to God’s world.
In practice, Crosslinks fulfils that through our two priorities: firstly, proclaiming the gospel of the Lord Jesus and, secondly, equipping and enabling those whom the Lord has called to proclaim the gospel. And as you browse through this edition of People and Places, you will see that is how Crosslinks mission partners serve across the world. (It’s worth noting that there are more people serving with Crosslinks than you’ll read about here, but some serve in locations that require us to be more discreet about their ministries.)
It is surprising how many times we are asked if there is still a need to send mission workers to other parts of the word. After all, ‘this is a new era’, ‘the world is coming to us now’ and ‘isn’t it cheaper to support local ministers rather than sending missionaries?’ And those statements are all true, so it is important that churches are well informed to send men and women, who are both willing and able to serve, where they are really needed. But make no mistake, there is still a need.
There are places across the world right now where the church is yet to be fully established and it doesn’t yet have the people and resources to start new churches where there is little or no gospel witness. Partnership with the local church in those places looks like establishing new churches and being committed to raising up local Christians to lead them. It can also look like supporting students in their witness to the Lord Jesus to other students by working with the national Christian student movement. In other places, some of the locations we don’t talk about publicly, it might mean teaching English or taking another role in order to live in that country, but going with the intentionality of making disciples of Jesus.
There are also parts of the world where the church has already been established, and they are reaching out to us and others for support in strategic ways. For many years that has meant supporting national churches by enabling churches here to send theological educators to serve in universities and bible colleges. Other national churches have asked us for ministers to serve in local churches or in senior positions. Sometimes we support the church by sending teams of ministers to run short courses over a number of years. But supporting the church isn’t only about lecturers and ministers – churches also ask for experienced Christians, who are not ordained, to support their work for a season, and that has been a real blessing to those ministries.
There is still a clear and compelling need to take God’s word to God’s world, and until the Lord returns that is likely to remain so. Let us pray then, that the church will raise up men and women to fulfil the Lord’s charge to us in this generation and the next.