Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Are we neglecting the United States in missions?

That is a question on my heart. It seems it is more glorious or spiritual to go overseas to preach and reach the lost, when people in our own neighborhoods and cities are dying without Jesus.
How much money goes out to missions overseas to the detriment of our own nation? Granted not near enough money is being given to missions as a whole, but that is another topic. I want to focus on the fact that we send people overseas and spend thousands of dollars to do it and yet here in our own cities nothing gets spent. If there is an outreach it usually involves having some sort of activity to get people. Instead of the church going out. Have we neglected Jerusalem (the U.S.) in an effort to reach the world? We have slums in our cities and yet you usually won't see anyone from the local "church" set foot in them. Just mention going overseas to the slums and you may have hands raised and a big line form. We need to redirect our priorities and help our neighbors in our inner city along with those around the world. We build wonderful "sanctuarys" to house our services and then never go out. It is ashame that we can spend millions on a building without blinking, but when it comes to helping our neighbor we fret and fight. Again unless a missionary from another country comes in and talks, then it becomes something. This is an issue from my heart and again I am not preaching against foreign missions. I just feel we need to look at both issues with utmost importance.
We will be witnesses to Jerusalem, Judea , Samaria and the outter parts of the world.
Acts 1:8

1 comment:

Like a Mustard Seed said...

Steve, you already know that I completely agree with you on this whole issue, and that we feel very convicted about the lopsided approach to missions that most in this country have.

We do have people all around us, in our own backyard, whose spirits are dead, but perhaps we think they've already heard the gospel, because we've built so many church buildings.... All they have to do is show up, right?

Daniel