There will be a special series of Missional Monday all week here at The Road Less Traveled.

We must be careful about missions. We must be careful to teach the value and importance of missions to our children through education and activity.  We must be careful to keep the work of our missionaries before the congregation. We must be careful to support our missionaries with our prayers and finances so that they may be able to stay on the fields to which they have been called. We must be careful to provide consistent opportunities for our congregation to be personally involved in missions work in our community.

What would happen if we were not so careful? What would happen if we did not  take missions and the work of our missionaries seriously? What if we chose to view the Great Commission of Matthew 28:18-20 as merely a suggestion or option to be considered? What if we chose to disregard the words of Christ when He said all that we do for the “least of these” was done unto Him? What would happen if we chose to place all our energy, time, resources, and prayer into ministries inside the walls of the church what are primarily focused on those who already know Jesus personally? What if we viewed the last few earthly words of Jesus Christ, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth”, as an earthly consideration rather than a divine imperative. What if we did not embrace the challenge of pushing back the darkness of lostness?

This week, I am going to share what could happen if we are not careful about missions. Using Jesus’ conversation with His disciples in John 4, we are better able to understand why the church today must be careful about its approach to missions. Interestingly, it was Oswald J. Smith who said, “any church that is not seriously involved in helping fulfill the Great Commission has forfeited its biblical right to exist.”