Recently, I have been thinking about the apostolic church and the lessons we can learn from their tremendous example. What is of particular interest to me is how the entire church took an active part in taking the Gospel to the world. No, not every member actually went beyond their borders to do cross-cultural missionary work like Paul and his evangelistic team, but nonetheless they did not excuse themselves from this work. We read in Acts 13 that before Paul and Barnabas embarked upon their first missionary journey, the church fasted and prayed for them. In other words, it wasn’t just Paul’s vision or ambition to go beyond; it was the church’s united prayers that led him.

We read in Acts 4 that the believers sold houses and lands and laid the proceeds “down at the apostles feet” (Acts 4:35). The church not only prayed earnestly for its missionaries, it also supported them and other members with sacrificial love offerings. The early church was united in love, fellowship and mission. This no doubt was the reason Paul could later say the Gospel had been “preached to every creature under heaven” (Col. 1:23). This would not have been possible if the whole church had not collectively felt the burden for missionary work.

So it is today. We missionaries cannot do it alone. In order to make it to the field and succeed, we need the prayers, offerings and support of our church. My wife and I are only one AFM couple out of several who are preparing to answer God’s call overseas. We would like to launch to Thailand by September 2012. Will you, as part of God’s church, help us missionaries get to our respective fields ASAP? We cannot do it alone.

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