In recent years, evangelical missions has seen a renewed emphasis on international churches. These churches are typically located in major urban centers and operate in a shared language, such as English. With the rise of globalization and migration, such churches have become strategic beachheads for faithful Christian ministry.
When these international congregations embody biblical practices, they become healthy models for indigenous leaders and their churches. And as like-minded churches in America witness that happening in challenging places like the Arabian Gulf or Southeast Asia, they’re excited to join the work—or see it replicated elsewhere.
As elders of international churches in global cities, we’ve experienced the good these ministries can do. However, we believe the spread of the gospel to all peoples in all places requires more than healthy English-speaking international churches. We still need missionaries who go deep in language and culture and who plant indigenous churches among unreached peoples.
Local Language Matters
A key factor in the explosive fruitfulness of international churches in the Middle East and beyond has been the widespread use of English as a trade language. This has enabled these churches to invest in members, interns, and staff from some of the hardest-to-reach parts of the world.
We think of a brother from the North Caucasus, a volatile, Muslim-dominated region of Southern Russia. It’s an area virtually inaccessible to foreign workers. But this young man, an English speaker, went through an internship at a healthy international church and is now serving among an extremely unreached people group. We praise God for the training this brother received. But what about local church leaders who don’t speak English or who can’t access such training?
Some English-language churches are situated in places where English isn’t widely used, so they engage and serve a narrow sector of the population. And if their pastors only speak English (or another trade language), their influence among local leaders will be limited. The members won’t be able to evangelize or disciple everyone they want to reach. Strong partnerships with missionaries who speak the local language will mitigate some of these limitations, but the issue remains.
We still need missionaries who go deep in language and culture and who plant indigenous churches among unreached peoples.
When we consider the challenges of reaching minority-language groups, the need for such missionaries becomes clearer. These groups are often two languages removed from English-speaking contexts. To reach them, missionaries likely need to learn two languages—the national language and the language of the minority group. This requires a depth of integration that international churches by definition find difficult to attain.
While we rejoice in the immediate opportunities to invest in meaningful ministry that come via English-language churches in hard places, we must recognize most missionaries still need to do the grinding work of language learning and cultural acquisition if many of the peoples of the world are to be reached with the gospel.
Contextualization Matters
A vital role that good international churches often play is to model the elements of a healthy church, such as meaningful membership and expository preaching. In pioneering areas, indigenous churches tend to have no model to emulate, no pattern to follow. The believers in these churches are often all first-generation Christians. Seeing the biblical elements of church practiced by their English-speaking sister congregations can be revolutionary.
We must acknowledge, however, that even the most intentional and faithful English-speaking churches will have large cultural and linguistic gaps with surrounding churches, especially minority-language churches. Missionaries, in partnership with their national brothers and sisters, are needed to help translate faithful practices into contextualized forms. We’ve often had the chance to help national pastors discern the difference between “foreign” forms and the biblical principles behind those forms.
On one occasion, I (Eric) spoke with a pastor who rejected the “rigid and formal” practice of church membership at our English-speaking church. After I clarified how we were aiming for biblical accountability and fellowship and not “Western rigidity,” he rejoiced. In the work of modest contextualization, international churches and cross-cultural missionaries can complement one another even as they labor side by side with their national brothers and sisters.
Roles Matter
A growing trend among some supporters of international church work is the tendency to equate the roles of missionary and elder. We believe these are different, though related, roles. At the risk of oversimplifying, elders have two main tasks: shepherding the flock and preaching the Word. Missionaries, on the other hand, can advance the gospel cross-culturally in a myriad of ways.
Both should be recognized, affirmed, and held accountable by local churches (Acts 13:1–3; Eph. 4:12; Col. 1:7; 4:12; 1 Tim. 3; 3 John 5–8). Both proclaim the gospel. Both burn to see God’s name honored in local churches. Both will give an account for their labors (1 Cor. 3:10–15; Heb. 13:17). But they aren’t the same.
Missionaries typically possess a burden to preach the gospel where Christ isn’t known (Rom. 15:20). William Carey was “obligated” to take the gospel to the unreached. Andrew Fuller and others helped send him. Adoniram Judson was always a missionary and sometimes an elder. Faithful missionaries who serve among growing Christian populations of the Global South aim to eventually hand off that work, as they dialogue with national brothers and sisters about the best time. Pastors, regardless of the ethnic or linguistic makeup of their churches, aim to serve established works, usually for the long haul. They desire to see the gospel flourish among God’s (already) gathered people, then send them out.
International churches and cross-cultural missionaries can complement one another even as they labor side by side with their national brothers and sisters.
Missions requires more than just local church elders. This doesn’t mean missionaries shouldn’t be church-centered in their work or biblically qualified. They should be. But they play vital roles in starting and strengthening churches globally in ways other than pastoring. Not to mention that women make up a majority of the missionary force and serve in eternally significant ways outside pastoral ministry.
Women and men help build “gospel infrastructures” to make sure that work keeps progressing. This includes Bible translation, church planting, publishing, theological education, equipping pastors, evangelism training, student ministry, hymn-writing, and mentoring new missionaries—and, yes, some men may even serve as elders. Conflating these roles can simultaneously blunt the instincts of pioneers and undervalue the faithful, steady shepherding of God’s people.
We Need Each Other
As we’ve served overseas in various capacities, we’ve experienced the benefits of both being members of international churches and going deep in local language and culture.
International churches can give new missionaries a place to land as they begin to acquire language and culture. They can model for less established indigenous churches how faithful churches function. They can train more elders and evangelists. They can come alongside missionaries in the discipleship of English-speaking local believers and leaders.
Likewise, traditional missionaries have much to offer international churches. They may be members and serve as elders in those churches. They can help translate the culture. They can be a bridge to indigenous churches in the same city. They can continually direct the international churches’ eyes to the least engaged parts of the harvest field. They can be sent out to plant indigenous churches.
There’s no silver bullet in the work to get the gospel to the peoples and places where it’s not yet firmly established. We believe more work needs to be done both through international churches and among indigenous language groups. May God weave that work into a beautiful tapestry of his grace and glory. And may he give us all the wisdom to carry out our roles with humility.
The Gospel Coalition