Why We’re Excited our Church is Partnering with RTIM

During college, I (Andrew) thought I should be a missionary. In fact, I thought everyone should be a missionary. Worldwide spiritual darkness weighed heavily upon me, and I resented the complacency of the American church. I advocated that we are all called to go to the unreached, and I put the burden of proof upon any desire to stay.

I don’t regret my compassion for the lost, my zeal for the gospel, and my aim to mobilize God’s church to fulfill her mission. But I think I, like other young radicals, bought into a guilt-ridden perspective that skewed my view of missions and ministry. That caused me to misread not only my own heart but God’s as well. As I’ve grown in my understanding of God’s desires, I’ve learned to direct my own aspirations. I’ve grown to understand that God’s heart for Christians leaves a lot more room for us as individuals to be faithful in our diverse ministries. And I’ve realized that God’s heart for the world leaves us a lot lessroom for ministry variation as the church.

Three texts summarize the kind of latitude Christians have in our personal ministries and how much constriction the church has in her corporate mission. These three texts provide the authors (Taylor Lazenby and Andrew Ballard), as pastors in the local church, a deep fountain of missional motivation and ministerial focus, which makes us thrilled that we get to partner with RTIM.

Fulfilling the Ministry

In the ESV Bible, you’ll find three places where Paul writes about fulfilling a ministry. One is in Colossians 4:17: “And say to Archippus, ‘See that you fulfill the ministry that you have received in the Lord.’” Another is 2 Timothy 4:5: “As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”

In these instances, the ministry or service (διακονία in Greek) is clearly personalized. Archippus and Timothy are exhorted to fulfill responsibilities that they specifically and individually have from God. Whether those were revealed through some subjective prophecy, or through their office, or through their circumstantial calling is not made clear.

What about the third use? It appears in Romans 15:19b–21:

. . . from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ; and thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else’s foundation, but as it is written,

      “Those who have never been told of him will see,

      and those who have never heard will understand.”

Paul does not use the word ministry in Romans 15 in reference to his personal calling. In fact, in the Greek, he does not use the word ministry at all! He literally says that he “has fulfilled the gospel of Jesus Christ.” Ministry is supplied by the translators.

What should we make of this difference between the fulfillment of a ministry and the fulfillment of the gospel? We suggest two inferences: one narrow, one broad.

Narrow Ministry: Demanded by the Gospel

When Paul speaks of fulfilling the gospel, it seems to suggest he views his work of gospel proclamation and church planting as proper gospel ministry. It is the work, the labor, that is demandedby the natureof the gospel. There may be other servicesand ministries that Christian individuals and even churches should do. But there is only one type of work that Paul considers a fulfillment of the gospel: making disciples so as to establish healthy churches that spread the good news where Christ was not named.

Broad Ministry: Allowed for the Individual

While Paul may narrow our understanding of missions, he does not constrict every believer’s calling to the mission field. He has a broad vision of Christians fulfilling their own ministries, their own specific spheres of service.

What was Archippus’s ministry? We don’t know. But he did. Perhaps that is significant. Archippus had a unique, personal ministry which was known to him and to Paul. And Paul was eager, not for Archippus to join him on the frontier, but for Archippus to be faithful in Colossae.

Tying it Together with Timothy

Timothy completes our paradigm for mission and ministry. We know more about his work than Archippus’s. Paul wrote to him so he “may know how one ought to behave in the household of God” (1 Tim 3:15a). Timothy was to teach, exhort, and set an example for the flock. He was to guard the good deposit by following the pattern of sound or healthy (ὑγιαινόντων in Greek) words he had heard from Paul (2 Tim 1:13).

What was Timothy’s service, his ministry to fulfill? He was to follow Paul’s healthy pattern of providing a doctrinal diet to a healthy church. Paul and Timothy had distinct callings. Paul was a pioneer, taking the gospel where Christ was unknown, similar to some of our church’s ministry partners. Timothy was a lot more like us local pastors: he remained in Ephesus, strengthening the local church, and raising up elders. Yet their work intersected in Paul’s strategy and the church’s mission. Through the collaboration and faithfulness of these two workers and those like them, the gospel spread both deep andwide “from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum” (Rom 15:19b). The breadth of Christian ministry complemented and supported Christian mission rather than undercut it. Through such partnerships, we have the opportunity to spread the good news deep and wide today.

That is why we are excited to partner with Reaching & Teaching International Ministries. As pastors in a local American church, we have clarity and confidence in the personal ministries the Lord has given us. God has not given us the privilege of being missionaries at this time, but we are still responsible for the mission. There’s work that the gospel demands. Pioneering work. Church-planting work. Strengthening work. Equipping work. Work where the gospel has not spread, and work where the gospel has not dug deep roots. This is exactly the work to which RTIM is committed.

By God’s grace, the church we lead is generally healthy. There is always room for growth and improvement; that is our calling as pastors. Yet we are also aware of the need for more healthy churches, especially internationally. Many countries with highly populated cities have few, if any, biblically healthy churches.

As an organization, RTIM seeks to change this reality. RTIM exists to advance the gospel by partnering with local churches as they send qualified missionaries to make mature disciples, establish healthy churches, and train local leaders around the world. 

Many churches, like ours, do not have a large pool of resources. What we do have, we seek to steward. We want to obey the Great Commission by raising up qualified pastors and planting healthy local churches in needy places. We can’t do this on our own. We’re so thankful that RTIM makes our church more obedient to the Great Commission through our partnership.

There are many good ministries and services. No one Christian or one local church can do everything. To determine what our service (διακονια in Greek) should be, we should look at our circumstances and ask what work God has given us to do. Crisis pregnancy centers? Inner-city service? Welcoming immigrants? Caring for single mothers? Adoption ministry? Whatever tasks God has provided for us, let’s focus on doing our work well.

And yet, amid these many personal ministries that our churches may or may not formally support, we recognize only one mission. We should focus on fulfilling our mission and on fulfilling the gospel. And we shouldn’t confuse the two. We must proclaim the good news as news, announcing Christ where he has not already been named or where he has been forgotten. If we fail to do that, we are not living up to what the nature of the gospel demands.