I had a T-shirt in high school that said, “Go Against the Flow,” and showed a Christian fish swimming the opposite direction of all the other fish. That shirt asserted my independence from the dominant trends in my public school and reminded me that to live for Jesus is countercultural in any age. “Do not be conformed to this world” (Romans 12:2) tells us that it takes effort to stand apart from the natural flow of a sinful world.
Motivation for missions certainly includes a desire to swim against the current. But does going against the flow get to the heart of the matter? If we really believe that God directs history, then God is leading all things toward his glory and our delight in him. Our participation in missions is not ultimately swimming against the flow; it’s actually swimming with the flow — the flow of God’s redemptive plan.
I’ve heard about fishing for salmon in Alaska on the Kenai Peninsula. For a few weeks each year, the water is high and powerful, and the salmon swim against it toward their spawning grounds. But does a fisherman who is standing waist-deep in surging water ever think about the rush of free abandon that would come with letting the current take him?
What if missions is that chance?
River of Delights
People often worry whether they are on “the right side of history.” In the twentieth century, Marxists insisted that the world was moving inexorably toward a communist utopia, and such a future would roll over those who stood in its way. Though the claims are different today, the pressure to live on the right side remains.
But if God truly has revealed himself to us in Jesus Christ, then his promise “I will build my church” (Matthew 16:18) tells us what is really happening right now. Redemption, the spread of God’s glory, the announcement of salvation — these are the real stories of the world. History is headed toward the worship of Jesus Christ. We may not see and feel it clearly right now, but that day is coming. And such a vision motivates the Christian missionary.
For example, Paul announces that Jesus and the apostles’ ministry enacts the “new covenant” (2 Corinthians 3:6). The new covenant reveals God’s glory in a way that transcends God’s revelation to Moses, so much so that “we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” (2 Corinthians 3:18). From this vision of God’s glory, Paul draws his conclusion: “Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart” (2 Corinthians 4:1).
The new covenant gave Paul confidence to do the practical, earthy work of proclaiming Jesus in the next town that he visited. “By the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God” (2 Corinthians 4:2). The glory of the new covenant takes concrete form in acts of humble proclamation with ordinary people. But these acts, these conversations, are not insignificant. Instead, they lead to glory. “This light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory” (2 Corinthians 4:17). For Paul, gospel proclamation is the primary way we participate in God’s plan.
The psalmist affirms, “You give them drink from the river of your delights” (Psalm 36:8). The plan of God for the world, the gift of the new covenant, the commission to his people to go into the world — these are all part of the river of God’s delights. When we participate in spiritual ministry of any sort, whether local evangelism, discipling believers, or forming a new church, we drink from that river. We move with that river. And ultimately, we swim in that river.
Swimming Lessons
What, then, is the missionary calling? It is learning to swim in the fast-flowing river of God’s redemptive purpose.
Of course, God teaches us to swim in all our callings. We learn patience while stuck in traffic. We learn about childlike faith from our children. We learn to love our neighbors by serving our neighbors.
But missions is a special type of swimming lesson, done in a flowing river. Cross-cultural missionaries jump into something much bigger than themselves. By choosing to engage in cross-cultural proclamation, they are forced to operate in a moving, churning, and challenging situation. God plans for us to grow in virtue, and he makes it happen through our work in proclamation.
Missionaries face the daunting task of communicating the gospel in new places and with new words, new thought-forms, and new cultural assumptions. They must choose the word for “God” in a new language, or discern appropriate images for the atonement, or explain how our family relationships change in Jesus Christ. Each task forms us into those who carry the gospel better. Every time we speak about Jesus to someone in another culture, we build up our own faith through the struggle to articulate the gospel clearly and winsomely.
As we gain skill in announcing the gospel in another culture, we learn new strokes for swimming. We also learn how to navigate and understand God’s purposes in the world. Our success in learning to swim leads us into deeper waters and greater streams.
The work of missions trains believers to swim in the flowing stream of God’s redemptive plan.
Jumping In
God calls each of us to find our greatest joy in God. And when we learn that God delights in bringing about the obedience of faith among the nations (Romans 1:5), we rejoice to participate in that task.
This is where a Christian Hedonist, in particular, has something to offer. Just as the man in Jesus’s parable sells everything he owns with joy in order to buy that field (Matthew 13:44), so also missionaries jump into the swirling river of God’s redemptive purposes with joy. They know they will face challenges, they know it will be wild, they know it may not produce immediate fruit — and yet they know God is in it.
Christian Hedonists discern a missionary calling by asking, “Does God want to increase my delight in him through a full-bodied plunge into the river of his redemptive plan for the nations?” And though we are always motivated by love for people who do not yet know salvation in Jesus, we go to participate in God’s great purpose primarily because of an overflowing joy in him.
When we stop looking at cross-cultural missions as a chance to go against the flow and start viewing it as a downstream swim along the current of God’s plan, our motive shifts. Our question becomes not so much, “How can I obey?” but “What does God have planned for his glory and my delight in him?” Participation in cross-cultural proclamation helps to put us in the center of this plan, in the center of that swiftly running river.
Desiring God